Islam: Empire of Faith

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., millions of Americans found themselves grappling with the meaning and nature of a 1,400 year old religion practiced by nearly a quarter of the world's people. Producer/director Robert Gardner's Islam: Empire of Faith, narrated by actor Ben Kingsley, offers a much-needed, unbiased, historically accurate overview of the rise of Islam, a religious faith viewed with "much fear and misunderstanding" in the West. Divided into two parts, the opening tape, "The Messenger," chronicles the story of Islam's birth in the 7th century A.D., when the Prophet Muhammad was visited by an angel (believed to be Gabriel), whose central message of monotheism--identical to that of Judaism and Christianity--became the cornerstone of Muhammad's teachings within the increasingly hostile polytheistic setting of Bedouin tribal life near Mecca on the Saudi Arabian peninsula. Known as Muslims, his followers, who subscribed to the holy writings of the Koran (the transcription of the prophet's received revelations), grew so rapidly that within 200 years, members of the faith spread from Spain to China. Combining gorgeous cinematography shot on location in the Middle East with excellent commentary by a handful of Western and Eastern scholars, Islam: Empire of Faith's first part explores the religious, historical, cultural and political evolution of Islam up through the 15th century, including examinations of its fabled financial and intellectual center of Baghdad (long before Western scientists, Muslim scholars deduced that disease was airborne and created the concept of quarantine, which grew into our modern hospital); the convoluted battle over Israel, which began when a Muslim madman (so characterized by his own people) burnt Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the ground--a tragic aberration that would later give rise to the retributive massacres of the Crusades; and Islam's enfolding of its conquerors--the Mongols, and later the Ottoman Turks--into the faith. The second tape, "The Ottomans," examines in more detail the rise of the Ottoman empire during the latter 15th century and early 16th century, focusing on the political intrigues and land grabs under Suleiman the Magnificent, the emperor who nearly made a bid for the West. Detailing the tremendous social, political, and cultural achievements that Islam has bequeathed to the world, this beautifully filmed comprehensive introduction is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)