Here is a review of the Historian Huge Kendys book how the spread of islam changed the world. he is a oxford historian and the review is here in world leading econmist weekly
He says ...AN AGGRESSIVE Bedouin horde, drunk on religion, sweeps out of the Arabian peninsula%u2014on the way burning the great library of Alexandria%u2014and, through wholesale massacre and forced conversion, imposes Islam on a vast area stretching from Spain to the fringes of China. If this is your mental picture of the rise of Islam, dimly remembered from some long-ago history lesson, take note- it is in almost every respect wrong....
