The Journey:
I never wanted to study any history subject. I believed that since History would/should have a lot of dates, names and other material that needs to be memorized, I could never perform well, given my bad memory and personal dislike. However, due to some subject selection issues, I was forced to pick a history subject.

Last year in May, I started reading some material about Islamic History and Culture, just to have some idea. I ended up reading 2 books in the first week (PK Hitti: The Arabs A short History, Bernard Lewis's Arabs in History). I also watched the mentioned documentaries in an earlier post (i.e. 'Life of Prophet',
'when moors ruled europe', 'Empire of Faith' and 'An Islamic History of Europe'). I knew I am going for IHC. I was already in love with the subject. I reminded myself numerous time not to get carried away and loose focus.

Next time I read IHC was in September. In another 10 days I had read Dozy's Spanish Islam and Ameer Ali's Short History of Saracens. I had decided that
I will spend another 10 days to summarize and close the subject in a grand total of 30 days.

However, I just couldn't stop studying the subject. The subject matter was so absorbing that I always wanted more. Ameer Ali's 'Spirit of Islam' was another book I studied. I kept reading. 'Moors in Spain' by Stanley Lane-poole was next. Then came a splendeid biography of Muhammad (pbuh) by Martin Lings, then 'the Preaching of Islam' by Arnold. I was completely in Love. Then I watched numerous documentaries on Ottoman Empire, Mongols (not required) and Muhammad (pbuh).

Then came the turn of 'Umar Series' by MBC that I watched 'Twice'. Indiviual accounts of numerous battles and personalities through wikipedia and Britannica Encyclopedia which in itself could amount to another couple of books. Then there were a lot of other topics which are not covered in these books for example philosophers of East and West, Tanzimat and Millet (Ottoman), KSA, Contemporary Muslim Environment etc


Book Recommendation:
Whatever your choice of books may be, I would recommend that you include 5 and 4 stars:

5 Star:
Martin Lings 'Muhammad'
Umar Series (if you have no issue with picturing Sahaba R.A.A)
Documentaries (Mentioned in this post)

4 Star:
Dozy's Spanish Islam
Philip K Hitti

3 Star: (You should read)
Ameer Ali's Spirit of Islam
Ameer Ali's A short History of Saracens

2 Star: (You may leave but dont)
Bernard Lewis's Arabs in History
Preaching of Islam by Arnold
Moors in Spain by Stanely



Time Issues:
IHC took away the time I allocated for Business Administration (did NOT study for a single day before exams), Essay (last time I wrote an Essay before exams, was good 5 months back), Islamiat (I mistakenly felt that I was also covering Islamiat course while studying IHC but I was not)

If you are time-cramped, never ever pick IHC. If you have good enough time, still, dont opt for IHC. If you have atleast a year to prepare for css then you might as well go for it while allocating no less than 50 days for IHC. I see a lot of people recommending that the syllabus isnt too much. It is too much. They say it is not low scoring, I honestly doubt that. It is not just the case of getting carried away; the subject in itself is quite demanding. One could say, I shouldn't have read all the stuff I read. True, may be i shouldn't have.
May be I shouldn't have fallen in love.

Scope:
It is a history of 3 continents for about 3000 years, if spread across the time in a hypothetical manner i.e. the second continent's history starts when the first one's ends. Compare that with Indo-Pak history. Going into exams, if you want peace of mind, you need to study that all, which is impossible.



I studied IHC the most. The subject I was most insecure about in Feb 2015 was IHC. The least marks I expect from any subject, other than IR, is IHC. The only subject I am definite about opting for, if it comes to the second attempt, is IHC.


All writers have their own type of biases, which you should be able to discern if you read extensively. Dont pick this subject. Fasla rakhain, warna pyar ho jaye ga!