A competent account of the massive expansion of the Islamic state in the century after Mohammed's death. Glubb was the commander of Jordan's Arab legion and had the resources to turn out this English language book on a relatively obscure topic. I enjoyed it as a one volume look by an informed authority. ( )

Obsolete. The conventional narrative: Persia and Byzantium were greatly weakened by decades of warfare, especially the final campaigns of Heraclius. This supposedly made these two empires extremely vulnerable to conquest. I believe there is evidence of plague and climate change in the Mediterranean basin. Alot of new knowledge has made this book of dubious relevance. Early Islam did not spread by conquest. Wish I new of a better book on the rise of Islam and the Arab Conquests ( )

Whether this still stacks up as history I can't tell you, but in my eyes it's one of those histories that survive an amount of outdatedness. He has an amazing tale to tell and writes it grippingly, for a historian... but then he was a soldier-scholar, spent his service years with Jordan's Arab Legion 1930-56.

For me, he explains the conquests, as near as. At uni we were set an essay on why these great and sudden conquests happened, and after the texts that must have been the fashion I answered with economic and climatic factors. What nonsense -- I'm ashamed now.

Glubb, who fought with and led Arab troops -- around much of this geography -- doesn't tell you there was a drought at the right time. He explains how the tribes might be unified and how important a banner can be. In short, mental factors, and he doesn't squeeze out religious enthusiasm, as I was taught in uni. At the major battles he tells you the advantages nomad troops had and knew they had and used -- such as a night fight. Think of a people who live in tents against a people who live in towns: who's going to win at the dead of night?

This was a heroic age, if ever there was one in historical times, short-lived -- ruined of course by success. He lets you feel the spirit of the times. He picks out anecdotes that convey that spirit, and he uses them as evidence, evidence of behaviour: towards an acknowledgement of how unusual this brief age was, and how driven by human factors. He doesn't, with hindsight, forget that these conquests were impossible (except for the fact they happened) -- he doesn't assume the opposition was ripe and rotten, just because they lost.

Early in life I found this highly romantic; read it again later in life and found it valuable history. It's not that I've read much since on the Arab conquests, and I've no idea what experts think of Glubb; but it's a classic in my library. ( )