The Story of Islam

Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1959. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Octavo in pale green polished cloth-backed boards; xii, 354 pages; numerous small b&w illustrations 19 cm. Very good; tight and clean, Biding slightlky cocked. Lacks jacket. Hardcover.

A well-illustrated one-volume popular history with black-and-white photographs throughout. Mahmud apparently held the rank of Group Captain, which suggests a Pakistan Air Force officer rather than an academic historian. Writing for the general reader in the decade after Partition, he surveys Islamic history from the Prophet and the early caliphates through the great dynasties to the Muslims of South Asia and the creation of Pakistan. His other books include the condensed A Short History of Islam (1960), which went through five editions, and Ghalib: A Critical Introduction (1969), along with Urdu works on Ghalib criticism and on the literary history of the Muslims of Pakistan and India. Together they place him among the Pakistani writers of that period who explained Islamic civilization and Urdu literature to an English-reading public.Geographic: Islamic countries -- History. Pays musulmans -- Histoire. Islamic countries. Islamic countries -- History.