INDIA LOVER

An awesome book by a great author. This is seminal wrt one of the most important micro civilisations of the world which gave us the biggest Hindu temple in the world, the Angkor Wat.

A very thought provoking record on the origins of Islam. The early ummayads almost dumped the personality of the prophet Muhammad and his fate would have been like just another desert cult (say Prophet Mani or Mobed Mazdak). But for the revivalist tendencies of Caliph Abdal Malik and the Abbasid caliphs, the name of Muhammed would have been lost forever. This is borne out well by Tom Holland.