Philadelphia: Da Capo Press / Perseus Book Group, (2007). First edition - "From a leading expert in Arabic history, a sweeping and engaging history of the great Islamic expansion that carved out an empire from Spain to China. In just over one hundred years following the death of Mohammed in 632, the Arab followers of the Prophet had subjugated a territory with an east~west expanse greater than the Roman Empire, and they accomplished it in about half the time.. . The cultural and linguistic effects of this early Islamic expansion still reverberate today." Includes 9 maps, illustrations. Notes, bibliography, index. 421p.