Here are some books I would strongly recommend one starts with. They all illustrate the incredible diversity from the earliest times and help you cut through the whitewashing of history.
**Destiny Disrupted** by Tamim Ansari. Great overview of the past 1400 years of islamic history. He has some issues in the specifics like he makes Ali seem like someone who really didnt care at all for leadership which is a simplified view. Also some nitty gritty on ottoman period is incorrect. However, the broad stroke picture painted is very helpful to understand the historic context.
**Misquoting Mohammad** by Dr. Jonathan Brown. This is an exact counterpart of the book above in that it goes over the theological overview of 1400 years of Islamic history. So where the first book talks about the politics and the dynasties, this one talks about how hadith was collected, how it was used (or misused as the case may be) and how it evolved over time to give us the traditional islam we have today.
**1000 Roads to Mecca**. This is a collection of historic accounts of muslims who made the pilgrimage to Mecca. This is absolutely fantastic way to really understand how Islam was perceived over the centuries of Islamic history.
**The Great Theft** by Dr. Abu El Fadl. This is very interesting because it goes over the specific circumstances of how Ibn Wahhab took power together with the Saud family and how they were opposed by muslim scholars of the time and how most of the islam today derives from the Saudi wealth pushing a very a-historic narrative which has no basis in reality.
**Losing My Religion** by Dr. Jeffrey Lang. This one is an excellent book to give to non muslims or if you are doubting Islam because of common reasons. This goes over many common objections or questions and uses Islamic sources to show that the common answers one gets from muslim scholars is more nuanced than portrayed
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