I picked up 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 by Barnaby Rogerson in an airport before a short holiday — and I found it almost impossible to put down all weekend. Written with journalistic flair, it distills nearly 2,000 years of history into an engaging narrative.

Rogerson is a British author, publisher, and television presenter who has spent over three decades writing about North Africa, early Islam, and the Muslim world. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 described 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 as “not a book to be ignored… a digestible history of the restless region.”

What stayed with me most was how Rogerson uses the Sunni–Shia divide as a framework to explain the recurring fractures and conflicts of the Middle East. It reminded me of another excellent book, 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘣𝘺𝘦 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦 by Jacob Mikanowski — an intimate history of a region that, for centuries, was a true melting pot of religions, ethnicities, and traditions.

Just as Eastern Europe once was, the Middle East is better understood as a mosaic of overlapping allegiances — ethnic, religious, tribal — rather than a single identity. And just as understanding the shifting mosaics of Eastern Europe helps explain its turbulent 20th century, delving into the sectarian and historical complexity of the Middle East helps us see beyond today’s clichés and black-and-white narratives.

What I especially appreciated was Rogerson’s balanced, empathetic reading of the religious history that still shapes Sunni and Shia mindsets. Rarely does a European writer on Islam avoid the tone of judgment or superiority — and that alone makes the book worth reading.

If you want to make better sense of the conflicts and rivalries that still boil in the Middle East, I highly recommend it.

𝗜𝗻 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀, 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆.

The map „Shades of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula” was created by The New York Times based on Dr. M. R. Izady’s map (Gulf/2000 Project at Columbia University).