Wikipedia article on Soviet Orientalist studies in Islam

[heiss93]

This is an excellent article on Soviet Orientalist studies in Islam, with a level of scholarship not usually found on wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Orientalist_studies_in_Islam

[Kléber]

Yeah it's a pretty good article. I wonder where everyone here stands? I think all of the theories have some merit, Islam and other state religions are based on the idea of a social contract between classes, so it's proven to be a very flexible religion. The arguments about Islam being founded in reaction to Byzantine, Ethiopian and Persian invasions into Arabia are most interesting. I would like to get a hold of Klimovich's earlier works, from before he was forced to recant the trade capitalism theory. It's really unfortunate how as politics became more conservative and censorship stepped up in the early 1930's, many of these theorists were slandered, harassed and made to adopt the dogmatic conception of Islam as the creation of feudal lords.