Muslim History book

So, we are still on a break at the moment, and there is not too much that is blogworthy about the last few days. However, last week I received a delivery of books that I had been looking forward to and since then I've been reading "A History of Muslim Civilization". (Iqra publications)
It is a typical textbook style book, with plenty of illustrations and maps, laid out into units and lessons. At the end of each lesson are some review questions, with unit reviews at the end of each unit. The book does not begin with Islam at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), rather it spends quite a while setting the scene, explaining the international context of the era, describing the political and religious forces and influences which were at play before the Islamic revelations. The account ends in 750CE with the end of the Umayyads.
The introduction states that this is the first of a three volume series which should be completely published by 2005. Oh dear! I wonder what has happened to the project?
I am impressed with this book. It is clearly written and seems to be making a conscious effort to be strictly factual, whilst openly stating a Muslim perspective. I think this approach can be understood by the statements in the forward explaining that this is a Muslim history rather than an Islamic history.
Apart from just enjoying reading this book I plan to use it with the boys as part of their Islamic Studies work. We have been going through the seerah (history of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)) recently, and these concise, clear chapters will be a great help, inshAllah. I'm also getting the boys to develop their written answers skills through Islamic history studies and the review questions in the book are just right for this. The questions often lend themselves to short essay answers on main events/themes.
I have seen this book in one UK bookshop, although I don't think it is commonly stocked. I bought my copy via mail order from Al-Farooq International , based in Leicester.