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The West and Islam--the sword and the scimitar--have clashed since
the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the
Byzantine 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 significant
battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with
the first major Islamic attack on Christian land in 636, through
the occupation of the Middle East that prompted the Crusades and
the far-flung conquests of the Ottoman Turks, 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, Greek, Latin, and Turkish, preeminent
historian Raymond Ibrahim describes each battle in vivid detail and
explains the effect the outcome had on larger historical currents
of the age and how the military lessons of the battle reflect the
cultural faultlines between Islam and the West. The majority of
these landmark battles 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.
The West and Islam--the sword and the scimitar--have clashed since
the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the
Byzantine 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 significant
battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with
the first major Islamic attack on Christian land in 636, through
the occupation of the Middle East that prompted the Crusades and
the far-flung conquests of the Ottoman Turks, 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, Greek, Latin, and Turkish, preeminent
historian Raymond Ibrahim describes each battle in vivid detail and
explains the effect the outcome had on larger historical currents
of the age and how the military lessons of the battle reflect the
cultural faultlines between Islam and the West. The majority of
these landmark battles 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.
Few events have dramatically altered the course of world-history as
have the dynamic Muslim conquests of the seventh century. Aside
from the seizure of a large expanse of onetime Roman lands and the
cultural Arabization of millions of people, great wars have been
waged between Islam and the West--till the present. Yet ambiguity
abounds as to how and why these conquests were first originally
realized. This study seeks to ascertain the immediate factors
behind the conquests in general by deconstructing the all-pivotal
Battle of Yarmuk in particular. This paradigmatic battle is ideal
for extrapolating the root cause(s) of the conquests; for it was
primarily at Yarmuk that the Arabs suffered notable physical and
practical disadvantages--and yet still emerged triumphant. Thus
this engagement allows one to see well beyond the usual aspects of
military history--the physical and practical--and better appreciate
the more abstract factors that have fueled the events of world
history.
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