I had Islamic History as one of the optional subjects in CSS 2012 and

I must submit that I fell in love with this subject .. Here, I intend to
share all my preparation and paper techniques regarding Islamic
History learned throughout my prep span ..

First of all let me eradicate some myths:

1- Islamic History is not a scoring subject ..
Well, remove this 'not' and you get my answer .. In fact it is highly
scoring if properly prepared and attempted .. How, we'll discuss in
this thread InshaAllah ..

2- It has a very lengthy syllabus ..
Well, to some extent it is true, but proper guidance and to the
point preparation makes this lengthy syllabus a very brief one ..
There are a few main topics which need to be studied extensively,
the remaining bulk of topics need just to be gone through and not
to be covered with much detail at all ..

3- It is a dry subject and chunks of material makes it boring ..
Again a wrong perception .. I feel no hesitation in submitting that I
fell in love with Islamic History due to its variety and spice, the
nobility of its characters, Islamic humour and the fun loving way
with which I prepared it ..

Take one example of Islamic humour extract taken from Bernard
Lewis' book 'Islam from Prophet Mohammad to the capture of
Constantinople':

A man announced that he was God. He was brought before the
Caliph Mutawakkil who said to him, "Last year there was
someone here who claimed to be a prophet. He was executed."
"That was well done," said the man, "for I had not sent him."
Kitna barra fankaar tha ..

I watched some documentaries to make my preparation joyful .. I
gained much knowledge and also some extra-ordinary quotes from
those documentaries .. Specially knowledge relating architecture
and Islamic boom in education and medicine was superbly
described in them .. Here are some that I watched:

1- Islam - Empire of faith
2- The legacy of a Prophet P.B.U.H
3- When Moors ruled in Europe

You can download all these movies easily through torrents .. If you
find any difficulty let me know and I will post the exact links .. I
would recommend all Islamic History aspirants to watch these
documentaries .. I got a lot of insight from them .. For example in
'When Moors ruled in Europe' while mentioning the difference in
advancement of Muslim physicians in Spain and those of other
European doctors, the English Historian Bettany Hughes notes
from the accounts of a Muslim doctor:

They brought me a Knight who had an abscess in his leg and a
woman suffering from consumption. I made a plaster for the
Knight and his swelling opened and improved. For the woman I
suggested a diet to regulate metabolism and cure her
consumption. But then the Frankish doctor arrived and objected.
'Bring me a strong Knight with a sharp axe' he said. The Knight
struck a powerful blow to his leg and wound burst, the Knight
died having lost much of his blood. As for the woman he
suggested that a devil must have entered her head and he cut her
head with a blade in a cross shape and rubbed salt into it. The
woman died instantly. 'I returned home, having learned much
about the medicine of the Christians'. (Waisay aaj kal ye sab
hamaray mulk mein ho raha hai) ..

Now you can note the way with which Bettany Hughes contrasts
the caliber of Muslim and other doctors at the times of Spanish
Islam. I used the above mentioned quote in my paper too.

Book Sources:

Dear friends, I'm a book lover and I do not personally believe in one
book policy. I used as much as 8 or 9 books for Islamic History
alone. But I won't recommend you to study that many books,
because that might well be a reason for my low score (God forbid)
Here are the books I suggest:

1- A short history of Islam - Mazhar ul Haq
2- History of Arabs - P.K Hitti
3- Spanish Islam - Reinhardt Dozy

Use Mazhar ul Haq's book for pet knowledge and the other two for
contrasting views and quotes .. You can add criticizing comments of
the above mentioned European writers in your answers but do not
forget to defend Islam to the fullest. You have to negate any
negative comments from them. This will show and extra in-depth
and will fetch additional marks ..

So friends, do opt for this subject if you got love for it. Prepare by
staying on the right track and it will fetch excellent marks for you
InshaAllah .. You are free to ask any questions you have .. I'll keep
posting remaining points and stuff InshaAllah ..

Best of luck ..

Regards ..

Let me now make the study of Islamic History easy for you .. We'll
discuss the topics or portions of Islamic History to be covered for a
Boom-Boom paper ..

Part one of the subject deals with the following topics:

1- World at the advent of Islam

You need a brief study of the social, political, religious and
economic aspects of the world at the time of advent of Islam .. You
need not to study this topic in much detail, rather bullet points and
understanding would do the work .. However, do add some quotes
from the renowned books .. It is a frequently asked question and
covering this means having covered 20 marks paper.

2- Major incidents of the life of Holy Prophet P.B.U.H

This is where your in depth study should start from. Topics in this
portion are the Call (Revelation), early difficulties of Prophet
P.B.U.H, Taif visit, Oaths of Aqaba, Hijrah (Migration), Pact of
Madina, Battles like Badr, Ohad, Ahzab, Conquest of Makkah,
Khyber and Hawazin, Role of Jews .. After you have covered these
topics you'll have sufficient knowledge InshaAllah to answer
questions like:
Administration policy of the Prophet P.B.U.H, Prophet as a Judge,
Him as a Peacemaker, Political social and economic revolutions
brought by the Prophet P.B.U.H and other analytic questions.

A proper study of this portion will ensure covering another 20 or
even in some cases 40 marks paper.

3- Khulfa e Rashideen
Khulfa e Rashideen or the Rightly guided Caliphs portion includes
the lives and works of Hazrat Abu Bakr R.A, Hazrat Umar R.A,
Hazrat Usman R.A and Hazrat Ali R.A .. You'll need to study their
elections, conquests during their times, their administration policy,
difficulties they faced and problems arisen within Islamic society
during their times .. Cover these and you get another 20 marks
covered ..

4- Umayyads and Abbassids
Under these topics you need to cover some personalities like Abdul
Malik bin Marwan, Walid Bin Abdul Malik and Umar Bin Abdul
Azeez .. You need to cover their administrative policy and the
reforms they brought .. While in Abbassids you need to cover the
scientific, philosophical and educational boom of the Muslims
under Abbassids .. This is an important topic, especially the
Abbassid part, as it is interlinked with the overall revolution
brought by the Muslims. One or even two questions are always
expected from this portion of Islamic History and it may even be
asked in Paper 2 ..

5- Ottoman Empire
The documentary I mentioned above named 'Islam - The Empire of
Faith' has part two entirely focused on the Ottoman Empire .. It is
also a two-fold topic and can be asked in Part 2 as well .. I skipped
this topic during my preparation but I would suggest you to cover it
.. The exam trend has changed and selective study seems to be
strongly discouraged by the examiners ..

So folks, above is the whole Islamic History Part 1 mentioned for
you .. If you cover these topics you'll be able to answer all 7
questions in exam InshaAllah and even the objective portion .. You
can of course pick and choose the topics for a speedy coverage of
the syllabus but I would recommend you to go through all the
syllabus .. A dedicated and focused study routine will enable you
to cover Part 1 in 10 or 15 days at most ..

Paper 2 and other points to cover and attempt Islamic History well
enough will follow soon InshaAllah .. Any queries will be welcomed
..

Bro I intended to write all about Islamic History part 2 in my post
regarding that paper later .. But I feel obliged to answer your
queries first ..

There is another book of Mazhar ul Haq regarding part 2 of Islamic
History .. I think its named 'A Short History of Muslim Spain' .. If
you get hold of it, you can get much material from it .. However, as
I wrote earlier that his books are based on copy - paste material,
but they are much better than any other 'desi' books .. I personally
used 'Spanish Islam' by Dozy along with Mazhar ul Haq's book and
another bulky but awesome 2 volume set written by M.M Sharif
named 'A History of Muslim Philosophy' ..

You are right that the trend changed in the recently concluded
exams .. I do not however feel that it will be the same in coming
exams .. I am of the view that the exam should be as difficult as it
could get, but it should not be in a way that examiner asks Pak-
Affair questions in Islamic History .. So my gut feeling is that he will
abstain doing that in the future .. But to tell you the trick, even if he
does that again .. Keep in mind the exam you are appearing on that
particular date ..
For example, in the question that What was the impact of Colonial
rule on Muslim society .. I wrote their impact on African, Asian and
their rule on Spanish Muslim society after they got hold of the
country again .. So, I never went astray and never thought that it
was not an Islamic History part 2 paper .. I hope you get my point ..
You just need to relate your knowledge to that particular question
and paper basically ..

You can use the above mentioned strategy to get top marks in
Paper 2 .. I personally got a lot benefit from the documentary of
Bettany Hughes I mentioned in above post .. It gave me an insight
into Spanish Islam and Paper 2 basically .. The impact of Muslims of
Spain on Europe and the World ..

Ibn e Khaldun and Ibn e Sina were philosphers and theologians as
well .. So they are well worth asked in Islamic History .. They cover
both Part 1 and 2, as much of the philosophers came during
Abbassid period ..

So get all the knowledge from different sources and use it properly
in the exam, and you'll get top marks InshaAllah .. If you have
anymore questions feel free to ask ..