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Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam Hardcover – July 26, 2022
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In Defenders of the West, the author of Sword and Scimitar follows up with vivid and dramatic profiles of eight extraordinary warriors—some saints, some sinners—who defended the Christian West against Islamic invasions. Discover the real Count Dracula, Spain's El Cid, England's Richard Lionheart, and many other historical figures, whose true and original claim to fame revolved around their defiant stance against jihadist aggression. With sixteen full color pages of photos and illustrations, Defenders of the West is an instructive and inspiring read. Whereas Sword and Scimitar revolved around decisive battles, this book revolves around decisive men.
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Print length352 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherBombardier Books
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Publication dateJuly 26, 2022
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Dimensions6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
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ISBN-101642938203
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ISBN-13978-1642938203
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Editorial Reviews
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"Relying primarily on contemporary sources, Raymond Ibrahim vividly tells the story of 'eight eminently violent men' who played leading roles fighting Muslims back in the era 1100-1500, when Christianity was a 'muscular religion.' By recalling those exploits, the author hopes not just to pay tribute to distant accomplishments but to inspire today's Christians again to 'stand against Islam.'" —Daniel Pipes, president, Middle East Forum
"For two decades, Raymond Ibrahim has been one of the few historians telling us the truth about Islam and its thousand-year assault on the West. With narrative force, clarity, and a command of primary sources, his new book Defenders of the West tells the story of that millennium of aggression and the heroic resistance that saved the West from its oldest enemy." —Bruce S. Thornton, Research Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, and Executive Member of the Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict
"With his trademark erudition and intellectual courage, Raymond Ibrahim chronicles the exploits of eight Western Christian Defenders against Islamic imperialism, including four—Ferdinand, Hunyadi, Skanderbeg, and Vlad Țepeș—who defended or liberated their home territories from Islam. An unapologetic, pellucid reminder for our era about the necessity of standing resolute against the unprovoked aggression of Islam's timeless institution, jihad." —Andrew Bostom, MD, MS, author of The Legacy of Jihad, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, and Sharia Versus Freedom
"This exciting and very well-researched book introduces us to the lives and heroic deeds of courageous men who, against great odds, defended their people and their culture from an implacable enemy." —Darío Fernández-Morera, Associate Professor Emeritus of Northwestern University, author of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain
"In a brilliantly written and highly dramatic book, Raymond Ibrahim brings to life eight Christian heroes who stood up against evil and injustice to fight for human dignity and the Christian faith in various theatres of war. Remarkable tales from a time of massive upheaval—not unlike our own age. While the book outwardly documents a history of fierce warfare, it also manages to invoke matters of the heart that are relatable to the average reader." —Hanne Nabintu Herland, African-born historian of religions and bestselling author in Norway
"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 former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
"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
"[S]uch a refreshing, even thrilling read. ..... Defenders of the West includes a wealth of detail ...grounded in more than 1200 endnotes, mostly from both Christian and Arabic primary sources, without ever losing narrative momentum.... As a reader with a special passion for medieval history and chivalric exploits both fictional and historical, I can attest that Raymond Ibrahim's new book is as essential and compelling, if not more so, as his previous one [Sword and Scimitar].......[F]or the West to survive its current enemies, both foreign and domestic, it needs new Defenders. Toward that end, Defenders of the West serves as much-needed edification and inspiration." — FrontPage Magazine (Mark Tapson)
Defenders of the West brings to life the daring and dynamic exploits of kings and knights... Written in an engaging style using accessible language, these remarkable, factual incidents leave the readers on the edge of their seats.... [P]erfect for anyone who is fascinated by the power of knighthood and wishes to witness how far some Christians were willing to go to secure their rights to live and worship in freedom and dignity.... [S]tirring, heartbreaking and fantastic tales [that] are not easily forgotten.—American Thinker (Lucine Kasbarian)
"Like The Lord of the Rings, there is an almost fantastical quality to Ibrahim's book. Much of what took place seems beyond belief. Yet, Defenders of the West is based almost entirely on primary sources. And the stories they tell are astounding.... [S]erves as a timely reminder that this clash of civilizations is far from over." -- Crisis Magazine (William Kilpatrick)
"You'd be hard-pressed to find the information contained in Defenders of the West in a modern academic setting or Hollywood portrayal, which is why this book is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the conflict between Islam and the West... [A]n engaging, scrupulously documented book chronicling stories of the men who defended the Christian West from the violent, sadistic Islamic invaders of their day... While Defenders of the West is an important historical work, it's not a dry textbook on the topic, thanks to Ibrahim's storytelling prowess."—PJ Media (Paula Bolyard)
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Bombardier Books (July 26, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1642938203
- ISBN-13 : 978-1642938203
- Item Weight : 1.21 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in History of Islam
- #17 in History of Christianity (Books)
- #22 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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Academic/author Raymond Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic history and doctrine, spotlights Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, France; El Cid (Roderick Diaz of Spain); King Richard the Lionheart of England; St. Ferdinand of Spain; St. Louis of France; John Hunyadi of Wallachia; Skanderbeg, the Albanian Braveheart; and Vlad III Dracula, the Lord Impaler of Romania. The valor of these Christian ironmen who met toe to toe with such warmongers defies belief.
Written in an engaging style using accessible language, these remarkable, factual incidents leave the readers on the edge of their seats. Raymond Ibrahim conducted an impressive amount of research from first-hand sources to not only furnish biographies, but present what was going on historically, politically, culturally and socially to give the reader a fuller understanding of what was at stake. Ibrahim devotes particular attention to the upbringing of each protagonist to provide further insight into what shaped his character. Defenders of the West brings to life the daring and dynamic exploits of kings and knights who have either been misrepresented in modern history books -- through ignoring and even contradicting what primary sources (Muslim and Christian) have said about the times -- or by eliminating these exploits from official narratives altogether.
Audiences may recognize the names El Cid, Richard the Lionheart, St. Louis and Vlad the Impaler (who was not a vampire like the fictional Count Dracula created by Bram Stoker). In the last century, these individuals have been subjected to discrediting campaigns in films, books and even protests (think St. Louis, Missouri). The rest have mostly slipped into oblivion due to a blind-eye treatment, thus making the case for why these eight giants richly deserve to be exhumed and reanimated from the dustbin of history.
What further sets the book apart is that it sets the record straight about the Crusades – widely maligned by certain interest groups and lobbies as being inspired by greed, xenophobia, racism, colonialism, and a penchant for violence, humiliation and conquest. That false assertion actually describes the mission of the Jihadists. Using copious eyewitness testimonies, Ibrahim backs the thesis that the Crusades -- which sought to restore lands that were Christian before Jihadists invaded and forcibly Islamized them -- were a defensive response and a form of resistance against Islamic attacks on Christendom.
Defenders of the West also shows a continuum of Jihadist behavior beginning in ancient times, which is sure to open the eyes of those who view and even excuse the atrocities of the 1915 Turkish Genocide of indigenous Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks as a singular event mired in the circumstances of the times. By allowing the primary sources to speak for themselves, the author gives the opportunity to readers to compare the moral values held by the Jihadists to those held by the Crusaders in order to draw their own conclusions.
Once read, these stirring, heartbreaking and fantastic tales are not easily forgotten. Rather than elaborate on the incredible and often terrifying exploits, suffice to say that these monarchs and military leaders learned from history and bitter experience that only by fighting fire with fire could they hope to establish peace and protect fellow Christians.
This book is perfect for anyone who is fascinated by the power of knighthood and wishes to witness how far some Christians were willing to go to secure their rights to live and worship in freedom and dignity.
Ibrahim concludes by evaluating what is taking place now, including the mainstream media suppression of the global war on Christians. If we ignore his cautionary words, we do so at our own peril. Today, powerful nations employ erroneous “both-siderism” in what they think will placate Jihadists while civilians are physically and spiritually devoured as peace offerings to their oppressors. A decline in morality, virtue and discipline in the 21st century means that it will be difficult to imagine the courage of these eight great heroes appearing again in the modern day.
Raymond Ibrahim was born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents who were born and raised in the Middle East. This review originally appeared in The American Thinker.
From the very beginning, Ibrahim weaves a captivating narrative that takes readers on a historical journey through the lives of Christian heroes who fearlessly defended the West against the challenges posed by Islam. The depth of research and meticulous attention to detail in each account is nothing short of commendable, making this book an invaluable resource for anyone seeking a profound understanding of the historical intersections between Christianity and Islam.
One of the standout features of this masterpiece is Ibrahim's ability to present historical facts in a compelling and engaging manner. The narrative unfolds seamlessly, making it accessible even to those not well-versed in history. Each chapter is a testament to the author's storytelling prowess, bringing to life the struggles, triumphs, and sacrifices of these unsung heroes.
Moreover, Ibrahim manages to strike a perfect balance between scholarly analysis and readability. The book is not only informative but also deeply moving, evoking a range of emotions as it explores the resilience and determination of those who stood firm in the face of adversity. It is a testament to the author's skill that he manages to make history not only relevant but also immensely gripping.
I must commend Bombardier Books for bringing this gem into the literary world. The production quality is excellent, with clear printing and a visually appealing layout that enhances the overall reading experience.
In conclusion, "Defenders of the West" is nothing short of a masterpiece that deserves every bit of its five-star rating. Raymond Ibrahim has succeeded in creating a compelling, enlightening, and inspiring work that will undoubtedly stand the test of time. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in history, religious studies, or simply a riveting tale of courage and conviction.
The individuals written about in this book are obviously quite important/impactful historical figures, I would recommend branching out to additional sources to get a better understanding of their beliefs/actions.
Top reviews from other countries
One feels a sense of dread in the modern world... particularly in the declining West. This book provides a historical basis for where we are now, and reminds us there was a time when great heroes stood to oppose the dangerous, aggressive ideology that is Islam.
This book should be required reading in every school in the world, in every university. But of course it won't be - because our educational institutions are compromised. Even so, we can teach ourselves, we can play 'outlawed tunes on outlawed pipes,' and dream of an era when there were men who stood up in spite of mind boggling suffering and death to be counted as defenders of Christendom.
And even as we dream of times gone by... perhaps... by the grace of God... we might see such heroes once again.