One of the worst movies I've ever seen

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"Islam: Empire of Faith" is quite good. I can't really fault much of its content. However, sadly, the documentary stops in the 16th century!! This does a disservice to Islam and provides absolutely no insight into Islam today and its relations with the rest of the world. What it does cover is from the birth of the religion in the 7th century, the early days of Islam, the Crusades and the final great years of Islam during the reign of Suliman the Great. Throughout the documentary, you hear lots of experts, see lots of video from various great cities, artwork and the like all set to nice music, Ben Kingsley's lovely narration and great polish.My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the film seemed a bit too positive. In other words, instead of a critical look at the religion or Muhammad (which I would also like in a film about Christianity or Buddhism), it's mostly a glowing portrait. The only exception is that it talked about the crazy Egyptian who rules over Jerusalem and helped to spur on the Crusades (and this is the only documentary about the Crusades I've seen that talks about this). Still, it's well made and worth seeing even if a bit incomplete.

There are two big problems with this series. First, with only three episodes, this series is far too short to cover the subject properly. Secondly, the series is heavily focused around Islam's interaction with the Christian West, which distorts the history. The episodes cover the early years of Islam, the Eastern Crusades and the Ottoman conquests in the West.Nonetheless, this might still have been a decent introduction - which is clearly what it is intended to be. Unfortunately, this is very much a post 9/11 series which reacts (understandably) against the more indiscriminate rage felt by some Americans at that time (which was also understandable). The result is a very politically correct series that distorts history quite badly. For instance, the series describes Janissaries as Christian boys who were "recruited" by the Turks and "brought into the Muslim faith". In fact, the devshirme process involved kidnapping the young male children of Christians whose lands had been conquered by the Turks, forcibly converting them to Islam and turning them into slave-soldiers. These sort of mealy-mouthed attempts to obscure or excuse away the nastier parts of Muslim history are a constant in the series and totally undermine it; this is politics, not history. I'd recommend Joseph Hogarty's "Europe from its Origins" for a much better view of Islam from a Western perspective.

Having heard a few good things about this film I was looking forward to viewing it. While very pleased with the cinematography qualities of the production I was disappointed with the poor writing. It's important to realize that this is not an objective view but rather a very professional production burdened with a bias in favor of Islam. Below are a few examples of that bias.In the first half of the film, while the narrator is explaining how Islam moved through the Middle East and across North Africa, scenes of men mounted on horses or camels are shown riding through desert. And when mention of force is made it is downplayed by noting how most of those conquered saw little change in their daily routine and were happy to have new rulers. Contrast this with later discussion of the first crusade where vivid scenes of fighting and death are shown along with narration explaining how horrible it was for the unsuspecting Muslims who were attacked in their peaceful towns and villages by the evil Christian soldiers from a Europe just emerging from the dark ages.In the Ottoman Empire section they discuss the military expansion of Islam. But unlike the first half of the film where they've downplayed the military aspects and refer to it as the Islamic expansion, now the military aspects cannot be ignored and it is referred to as the "Ottoman expansion." Again contrast this with the treatment of the Crusades where it is referred to as the Christian army (not European/French/Italian) even though the majority were mercenaries and Christian only because they were born in Europe.Discussions of the advancements and additions made by Muslim are numerous. The narrator waxes admiringly about how the Muslims were using paper when Europe was still using parchment. And how there were book stores with hundreds of books in Baghdad while a Christian church in Europe would have been fortunate to have had five parchment books. The fact that the Muslims captured the technology of making paper in their imperialistic conquests is mentioned only in passing. This would be exactly like discussing the Soviet and American space programs of the 50's and 60's while dismissing the contribution of German scientists to both programs.The narrator explains how the Muslims assembled the world's greatest library in Baghdad. No mention made of the great library of Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which pre-dates Islam by some 800 years, and was plundered and ransacked by conquering Muslims. The fact is, much of what is claimed to be of Muslim discovery or creation was merely acquisition or assimilation.The film makes a glowing description of the Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.. No mention is made of the fact that Temple Rock, the site of the Dome, is THE most important Jewish religious site. This would be the same as building a synagogue over the Kaaba in Mecca. The point here is that this is a major event in Jewish/Islamic history yet no mention is made of its significance in history or the modern world.There are more but I'll stop here. The preponderance of examples demands concluding that there is a decidedly pro-Islam bias pervading this film. Had the writing taken a more objective position this could have been a documentary worthy of appreciation by generations to come. Watch it for the photography but don't take the "historical facts" too seriously.

This is a very good documentary and shows the more fair image of Islam not commonly seen in the West, of a religion that was flourished in culture, science, and art. It also shows its more violent parts in history. Nevertheless, I find that it ends all too abruptly and it fails to comment on any contemporary issues about Islam, which I guess would have made this documentary too long.If you are interested in Islam, find yourself a copy of this and watch as it is entertaining and informative.Especially at this time, it is necessary for Western audiences to learn more about Islam.