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Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West Hardcover – Illustrated, August 28, 2018
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The West and Islam--the sword and scimitar--have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Roman emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad's order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam, unleashing a centuries-long jihad on Christendom.
Sword and Scimitar chronicles the decisive battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with the first major Islamic attack on Christian territory in 636, through the Muslim occupation of nearly three-quarters of Christendom, which prompted the Crusades, followed by renewed Muslim conquests by Turks and Tatars, to the European colonization of the Muslim world in the 1800s, when Islam largely went on the retreat--until its reemergence in recent times. Using original sources in Arabic and Greek, preeminent historian Raymond Ibrahim describes each battle in vivid detail and explains how these wars and the larger historical currents of the age reflect the cultural fault lines between Islam and the West.
The majority of these landmark encounters--including the battles of Yarmuk, Tours, Manzikert, the sieges at Constantinople and Vienna, and the crusades in Syria and Spain--are now forgotten or considered inconsequential. Yet today, as the West faces a resurgence of this enduring Islamic jihad, Sword and Scimitar provides the needed historical context to understand the current relationship between the West and the Islamic world--and why the Islamic State is merely the latest chapter of an old history.
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Print length352 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherDa Capo Press
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Publication dateAugust 28, 2018
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Dimensions6.25 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
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ISBN-100306825554
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ISBN-13978-0306825552
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"With passion, Raymond Ibrahim offers an edgy and eye-opening introduction to a millennium of warfare between the Muslim and Christian worlds before the modern age."―Thomas Madden, Saint Louis University, and award-winning author of Istanbul, Venice, and Concise History of the Crusades
"The exhaustive scholarship is unassailable.... With almost 1,000 endnotes and 216 works cited―a wealth of primary source and arcane texts―Mr. Ibrahim, who has the unique capacity to read and study modern and classical Arabic, tells the story of these battles through the eyes of the participants in their own words and perspectives."―Washington Times; reviewed by Joseph C. Myers, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan and as a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst
"Impressively informative, Sword and Scimitar is an exceptional work of outstanding scholarship that is so well written it reads more like a deftly crafted novel than a non-fiction history."―Midwest Book Review
"[A] superbly written volume, making extensive use of primary sources from both sides, especially underutilized Arabic language sources... Enlightening for readers unfamiliar with the long history of war between these two faiths."―New York Journal of Books
"Raymond Ibrahim has the humility to take seriously the voices and opinions of history's Christians and Muslims; the result is a refreshingly honest account of Islamic expansion and Christian reaction that provides useful insights into today's problems. This is history as it should be done: allowing the past to inform and guide the present, rather than distorting the past to fit contemporary political ideologies."―Paul F. Crawford, Crusades historian, California University of Pennsylvania
"A vital contribution to our understanding of the most lethal and far-reaching geopolitical threat of our time.... In this meticulously researched work, Raymond Ibrahim shows how anti-western attitudes have been endemic in Islam throughout its history."―Melanie Phillips, best-selling British author of Londonistan and The World Turned Upside Down
"This magisterial work is a lucid, remarkably compendious, yet still richly detailed study of the 1400-year ongoing ebb and flow of Islamic jihad conquests or preparatory attacks―and the Christian West's reconquests or reprisals... A skilled Arabic linguist and student of military history, perhaps the outstanding achievement of Ibrahim's compelling narrative is how it shatters contemporary 'academia's' rigidly enforced, dogmatic Islamophilia... [S]hould be requisite reading for all serious U.S. policymakers, diplomats, and politicians."―Dr. Andrew G. Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad
"Raymond Ibrahim is a highly intelligent student of history and the civilizational warfare of Islamic jihadism."―Allen West, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
"[A] riveting military history of eight pivotal battles between the armies of Islamdom and Christendom. Ibrahim tells his story with extensive citations of primary sources which vividly bring to life the bloody fighting. Moreover, his method reveals the religious, political, and material motivations of the leading Christian and Muslim actors in this enduring conflict of visions that seem so very different from many modern western secular sensibilities."―James E. Lindsay, Professor of Middle East History, Colorado State University
"An accessible and well-researched examination of extremely important but often neglected cultural phenomena and historical events that have impacted several civilizations up to the present day."―Darío Fernández-Morera, Northwestern University, and author of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise
"Ibrahim has written a brilliant history... He reveals an enduring asymmetry between inherently aggressive Muslims and inherently defensive Christians―and shows how that pattern precisely persists to this day."―Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum
"Mr. Ibrahim [is] an established and published historian. [Sword and Scimitar] offers a valuable perspective on Islamic history ... [and is] a well-researched thesis worthy of academic inquiry and debate, not only for faculty, staff, and students of the USAWC [U.S. Army War College], but also to the general public"―Scott Perry and nine other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in a letter to the USAWC
"A riveting account of the major battles between Islam and the West... Detailed, well-researched and most welcome."― Catholic World Report; reviewed by James V. Schall, professor emeritus of political philosophy at Georgetown University
"Sword and Scimitar altered the way I understand the development of our civilization....Ibrahim tells this history vividly, clearly, and engagingly."―American Thinker
"Military historian Raymond Ibrahim is of Egyptian origin, fluent in Arabic, and an expert on the centuries-long armed conflicts between the West and Islam."―National Association of Scholars
"[P]uts to rest several important myths... Against today's wishful thinking about Islam's peaceful intentions, Sword and Scimitar documents 'what Muslims have actually done to and in the West for centuries.'"―Crisis Magazine
[More reviews added on availability.]
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Da Capo Press; Illustrated edition (August 28, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0306825554
- ISBN-13 : 978-0306825552
- Item Weight : 1.27 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #16,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in History of Islam
- #36 in History of Christianity (Books)
- #51 in Christian Church History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
RAYMOND IBRAHIM is a widely published author and public speaker specializing in the Middle East and Islam.
His books include Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood against Islam (Bombardier, 2022); Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (Da Capo, 2018); Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, 2013); and The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007).
Ibrahim’s writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times Syndicate, CNN, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Hoover Institution’s Strategika, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites, including American Thinker, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Christian Post, Daily Caller, FrontPage Magazine, NewsMax, National Review Online, PJ Media, and World Magazine. He has contributed chapters to several anthologies, written forewords to books, and been translated into dozens of languages.
Among other media, he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, and NPR; he has done hundreds of radio interviews and some of his YouTube videos (here and here for example) have received over a million views each.
Ibrahim guest lectures at universities, including the U.S. Army War College and the National Defense Intelligence College; has briefed governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency; provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits; and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam and the worsening plight of Christian minorities throughout the Islamic world. He also regularly speaks at general venues, such as CPAC, and before international audiences, most recently, Germany’s Bundestag.
Ibrahim’s dual-background—born and raised in the U.S. by Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former. His interest in Islamic civilization was first piqued when he began visiting the Middle East as a child in the 1970s. Interacting and conversing with the locals throughout the decades has provided him with an intimate appreciation for that part of the world, complementing his academic training.
After a brief athletic career—which included playing football and winning the 1993 NPC Los Angeles Bodybuilding Championship teenage division—Raymond went on to receive his B.A. and M.A. (both in History, focusing on the ancient and medieval Near East, with dual-minors in Philosophy and English) from California State University, Fresno. There he studied closely with noted military-historian Victor Davis Hanson. He also took graduate courses at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies—including classes on the history, politics, and economics of the Arab world—and studied Medieval Islam and Semitic languages at Catholic University of America. His M.A. thesis examined an early military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on arcane Arabic and Greek texts.
Ibrahim’s resume includes serving as an Arabic language and regional specialist at the Near East Section of the Library of Congress, where he was often contacted by and provided information to defense and intelligence personnel involved in the fields of counterterrorism and area studies, as well as the Congressional Research Service; and serving as Associate Director of the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia think tank.
He also often functions as a journalist and has been a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution and news analyst for a variety of media, for example, CBN News. His knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with Middle Eastern sources have enabled him to offer breaking news. Days before the Obama administration blamed an anti-Islamic movie for Muslim uprisings against a U.S. consul and an embassy in Libya and Egypt respectively, Ibrahim showed that the demonstrations were pre-planned and unrelated to the movie. Similarly, he was first to expose an Arabic-language Saudi fatwa that called for the destruction of any Christian church found on the Arabian Peninsula.
For over a decade since July, 2011, Ibrahim has been producing a monthly report, “Muslim Persecution of Christians,” dedicated to chronicling the abuses and slaughters Christians experience throughout the Islamic world. In certain respects, these monthly reports — there are nearly 140 of them, each averaging between 3,000-4,000 words — are the “live,” ongoing continuation of his 2013 book, Crucified Again.
Raymond Ibrahim is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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This book provides an absolute necessary background to understand what is happening today across the whole world.
Wow, a must read for all!
The author starts with the Battle of Yarmuk River (sorry if my spelling is incorrect), in which Muslims came out of Arabia and into what is modern-day Israel, and attacked the Eastern Roman Empire. The Muslims won that battle decisively, and as a result of their victory, they took modern-day Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. They then moved onto Africa, taking Egypt and all of north Africa. Muslims then invaded Spain and took the entire Iberian peninsula. They attempted to take France but were stopped by Charles Martel. They continued raiding into France, so it was left to Charlemagne (Charles Martel's grandson) to clear the Muslims out of France.
I won't reveal any more of the wars that were fought, except to say that Muslims started the fight (and did horrible things to those people they conquered), and Christians fought back against Muslim aggression.
A couple of highlights: One of the reasons Christopher Columbus wanted to sail west to India was to hopefully find Christians there who could attack the Muslim empire from the East (while European Christians attacked from the west) to try to stop Muslim aggression once and for all. Also, a key reason for how Europe became a feudal society was because of Muslim pirates who attacked the European Mediteranean coast. The people living on the coast moved inland to escape Muslim attacks, and joined themselves to local nobility who had castles, so that they would have protection from Muslim attacks.
Read this book. Not only will you learn a huge amount of Western history, but you will be shocked at what you were NOT taught in school. Basically, all of the Muslim aggression that occurred from around AD 623 onward is totally omitted from our history books.
Top reviews from other countries
For a start all would-be feminists should read this. The Muslims are not on your side.