Holy war ideas appear among Muslims during the earliest manifestations of the religion. This work locates the origin of Jihad and traces its evolution as an idea with the intellectual history of the concept of Jihad in Islam as well as how it has been misapplied by modern Islamic terrorists and suicide bombers.

Holy war ideas appear among Muslims during the earliest manifestations of the religion. This book locates the origin of Jihad and traces its evolution as an idea with the intellectual history of the concept of Jihad in Islam as well as how it has been misapplied by modern Islamic terrorists and suicide bombers. The book provides a unique and balanced coverage of the historical evolution of the concept of Jihad, and mainstream moderate Islamic views of the concept from the Qu'ran to the Twenty-first century.