Can anybody recommend a good book about The early Muslim conquests and the politics of the matter?

by napalmjerry
CptBuck

Sure. Robert Hoyland's In God's Path is a recent, good, concise book covering the conquests. Fred Donner's The Early Islamic Conquests is older (1981) but it's a classic for good reason.

Bardizbeh

I would add The Great Arab Conquests by Hugh Kennedy. The narrative stays close to classical Islamic sources like al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri. Too close for some historians, but I personally thought it was an entertaining and well written book from a great modern historian of medieval Islam.