The First Jihad tells the story of Muhammad Ahmad, a Muslim religious leader in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and the uprising he led against British and Egyptian forces in the late nineteenth century. In 1881, Ahmad declared himself the Mahdi- the 'Expected One' - and travelled through Sudan, gathering support for his jihad. Initially, the Egyptian-Ottoman authorities did not take the rebellion seriously. However, in 1883, Ahmad's army, armed only with spears and swords, overwhelmed an Egyptian force of more than 8,000 men at El Obied, and went on to defeat an even larger relief force at Sheikan. The Mahdi's army swelled to 30,000 men, and cut off the retreating British forces at Khartoum. The British attempted to break the siege, but were eventually defeated. Charles George Gordon, the British Governor General of Sudan, was beheaded on the steps of the palace, and his head was paraded through the streets of the city. The Mahdi died shortly afterwards, yet his revolt had succeeded. The British vacated the territory for almost 15 years, and it was not until 1899 that the British returned, wishing to end the encroachment of other European powers in the region. The Mahdist forces were crushed at the Battle of Omdurman, and the great jihad was brought to an end.

The history of the Ottoman Empire spanned more than seven centuries. At the height of its power, it stretched over three continents and produced marvels of architecture, literature, science, and warfare. When it fell, its collapse redrew the map of the world and changed the course of history. Shadow of the Sultan's Realm is the story of the empire's dissolution during a tumultuous period that climaxed in the First World War. In its telling are battles and campaigns that have become the stuff of legend-Gallipoli, Kut, Beersheeba-waged by men who have become larger than life: Enver Bey, the would-be patriot who was driven more by ambition than by wisdom; T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), the enigmatic leader of an irregular war against the Turks; Aaron Aaronsohn, the Jewish botanist-turned-spy who deceived his Turkish and British allies with equal facility; David Lloyd George, the prime minister for whom power meant everything, integrity nothing; Mehmet Talaat, who gave the orders that began the Armenian massacres; Winston Churchill, who created a detailed plan for the Gallipoli campaign, which should have been the masterstroke of the Great War; Mustafa Kemal, a gifted soldier who would become a revolutionary politician and earn the name Ataturk; Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary who would promise anything to anyone; and Edmund Allenby, the general who failed in the trench warfare of the western front but fought brilliantly in Palestine. Daniel Allen Butler weaves the stories of the men and the events that propelled them into a compelling narrative of the death of an empire. Its legacy is the cauldron of the modern Middle East.