7.4 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 1998 Publisher Random House | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Originally published 1998 Genre Non-fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Pages 408 pp (first edition, hardback) Similar VS Naipaul books, Non-fiction books, Islam books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples is a non-fiction book by V. S. Naipaul published by Vintage Books in 1998. It was written as a sequel to Naipaul's Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (1979).
Contents
Summary
Naipaul draws a distinction between Arab countries and the countries of "converted peoples" where the adoption of Islam involves to some extent the adoption of Arabic culture. The book describes his five-month journey in 1995 revisiting four Muslim countries: Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia.
Naipaul takes the view that "The British period--two hundred years in some places, less than a hundred years in others--was a time of Hindu regeneration."
Reception
Beyond Belief has been criticized notably by Eqbal Ahmad, who regarded its view of Islam as erroneous. Ahmed Rashid, a personal friend of Eqbal's, appears in the book as the character "Shabaz".
The book was called, "Sceptical, enquiring, sharply observant and unfailingly stylish", by The Guardian, while The Sunday Times wrote that it was, "Peerless . . . the human encounters are described minutely, superbly, picking up inconsistencies in people’s tales, catching the uncertainties and the nuances . . . there is a candour to his writing, a constant precision at its heart."