ISLAM: Faith, Culture, History

With over 300 appealing photographs accompanied by Lunde's text, this glossy paperback is an adequate repository of information for those who know nothing about Islam. One standout feature is the nation-by-nation profiles of 38 majority-Muslim countries, where readers glean staggering statistics—we learn, for example, that in Gambia there is only one doctor for every 20,000 people. These profiles alone make the book a valuable primer on the Islamic world. However, as a cross between a coffee-table book and an encyclopedic reference, its overview is too fast-paced and brief. Working knowledge of the realities of Islamic life is lacking; American and European Muslims are hardly discussed; the review of modern Islamic history omits numerous CIA interventions to topple popular Islamic leaders and downplays the long-term effects of colonization. Discussions of the treatment of women and the concept of jihad offer inaccurate or partial information (for example, in the section on jihad, Lunde provides the oversimplified statement that "the duty of the believer is to spread the faith"). The text is at its best when Lunde reveals a few refreshing gems and insights on Islam, noting, for example, that "under Islamic law a woman's possessions were unalienably her own (unlike in the Christian West)." The entire book, rather than a few passages, should have had such candor. As with most DK offerings, however, the editorial content is only half of the equation here, and the gorgeous full-color layout does its usual magic in compensating for textual superficialities. (June)