Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the 欧宝娱乐 database.
Bernard Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of many critially acclaimed and bestselling books, including two number one New York Times bestsellers: What Went Wrong? and Crisis of Islam. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Internationally recognized as the greatest historian of the Middle East, he received fifteen honorary doctorates and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Its a very convoluted explanation about how the Ismaili movement started. The author gives contrasting and contradicting accounts from Sunni, Shia and Ismaili sources. There is ultimately no conclusion at the end, other than the name of a few important figures, but no clear understanding of the facts or history. Its more of a historiography than a history, explaining how the accounts of Sunni, Shia, and Ismaili were different from eachother, who borrowed from who, who took sources where, what may or may not have been fabricated, yadda yadda. Its quite academically dense as well, with Arabic vocabulary thrown in, so its definitely not intended for a normal reader.