I watched this movie and really enjoyed it...especially the part where they described the life of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh)...I was really glad to see non-Muslim producers portraying a correct image of Islam, instead of the ususal not-quite-right image in a lot of other movies I have seen about this religion. I think the fact that the producer is not a Muslim increases his credibility in a way because it shows he is not making a movie with a bias (as a Muslim producer might be accused of)..The film had some wonderful photography, especially of the mosques and palaces in various cities all over South West Asia, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. There were some things that bothered me though; little mistakes that to me seem as though they would be the easiest mistakes for a producer to avoid. For example, when they had a reenaction of people praying (at the time of the prophet), the actors were not even pretending to pray correctly. The movements they were preforming were quite obviously wrong (most any practicing Muslim-especially one who prays- could easily spot the mistakes, and I felt sad that they hadn't researched the Muslim prayer rituals which are simple-yet important- enough to get them correct.
Another example (which again seems like such a silly mistake) was when they had the 'scholars' in Baghdad writing ...they were writing from left to write which is not how arabic is written..Arabic is written from right to left, and to see these actors getting that wrong was just so weird. I was thinking, that is such a simple thing, why couldn't the producer have made sure that the actors were acting correctly? There were several other things also (the Muezzin was not a real muezzin; it was pretty obvious because he wasn't doing the call to prayer correctly-again, why couldn't they have gone to the trouble of finding an Imam from any local mosque who would do the job correctly?)...
But I have to admit the movie was good, and I enjoyed it immensly; the first part more than the second though. I highly recommend this movie for anyone interested in learning a little background information about Islam, without going into the practices/teachings of the religion itself. This movie was good because it did not focus on the teachings of Islam (so it doesn't make the audience feel like the producer is trying to convert you !), rather it focuses on the history of the religion, of the great empire of faith, and how Islam had and has such an influence on the West. Islam:Empire of faith