Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples

Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples
Cover of the first edition
Author V. S. Naipaul
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Publisher Random House
Publication date
 1998
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 408 pp (first edition, hardback)

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).

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.[1]

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."[2]

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".[3]

Reviewing it in The Sunday Times Patrick French wrote that "The human encounters are described minutely, superbly, picking up inconsistencies in people’s tales, catching the uncertainties and the nuances...". Later, in his authorised biography of Naipul, he adds that "Most of the converts in question changed faith somewhere between the seventh and eleventh century, yet Naipaul’s sense of the past is so intense, so profound, that he sees them as rejectors of their indigenous belief, engaged in “a dreadful mangling of history”, and suffering from resultant “neurosis”. Conversion to Islam and the ensuing emphasis on foreign holy places is for him 'the most uncompromising kind of imperialism'. He does not consider the possibility that Islam might, over the centuries, have become an indigenous religion, while his claim that, “Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert” might just as well be made about Christianity."[4]

References

  1. ↑ Beyond Belief
  2. ↑ p.247
  3. ↑ "Beyond Belief – V.S. Naipaul Interviewed by David Barsamian"
  4. ↑ French, Patrick (2009). The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul (Reprint ed.). Picador. p. 480. ISBN 978-0330440097. Retrieved 3 December 2017.


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