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In the Shadow of the Sword : The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland (2012, Hardcover)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-100385531354
ISBN-139780385531351
eBay Product ID (ePID)109302342
Product Key Features
Book TitleIn the Shadow of the Sword : the Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire
Number of Pages544 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2012
TopicIslamic Studies, Islam / History, Middle East / General
IllustratorYes
GenreReligion, Social Science, History
AuthorTom Holland
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.7 in
Item Weight33 Oz
Item Length9.6 in
Item Width6.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2012-000207
ReviewsPraise for The Forge of Christendom "An entertaining account of the fraught last years of the Dark Ages."- The Wall Street Journal "An enjoyable and exuberantly argued book . . . Holland combines sound scholarly credentials with a gift for storytelling on a magisterial scale . . . In a tightly woven and sometimes witty narrative, [Holland demonstrates] the subtle interplay of genuine religious sentiment and cynical power politics."- The Economist "[This] is narrative history in the grand manner, written with the panache and confidence we associate with the great historians of the 18th and 19th centuries."-Allan Massie, The Daily Telegraph "A superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet." -Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Evening Standard Praise for Persian Fire "Excellent . . . Holland is a cool-headed historian who writes here no less authoritatively and engagingly on classical Greece than he did on ancient Rome in his last book, Rubicon ."-Mary Beard, The Times Literary Supplement "It is . . . a testament to Holland's superlative powers as a narrative historian that he brings this tumultuous, epoch-making period dazzlingly to life, and makes the common reader familiar again with one of the most thrilling periods in world history." -William Napier, The Independent Praise for Rubicon "Not since Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution has there been such an original and enlivening piece of Roman history. Tom Holland has the rare gift of making deep scholarship accessible and exciting. A brilliant and completely absorbing study."-A.N. Wilson "A book that really held me, in fact, obsessed me . . . Narrative history at its best." Ian McEwan, The Guardian , Books of the Year "Richly resonant. . . . Ancient history lives in this vivid chronicle."- Booklist (starred review), Praise for In the Shadow of the Sword: " This is a book of extraordinary richness. I found myself amused, diverted and enchanted by turn. For Tom Holland has an enviable gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of the past, without sacrificing factual integrity . He writes with a contagious conviction that history is not only a fascinating tale in itself but is a well-honed instrument with which we can understand our neighbours and our own times, maybe even ourselves. He is also a divertingly inventive writer with a wicked wit there''s something of both Gibbon and Tom Wolfe in his writing ... [and] he possesses a falcon eye for detail.... [A] spell-bindingly brilliant multiple portrait of the triumph of monotheism in the ancient world ."-Barnaby Rogerson, the Independent (London) "This dramatic investigation of the origins of Islam is both a thrilling narrative history and a compelling piece of detective work .... A compelling detective story of the highest order, In the Shadow of the Sword is also a dazzlingly colourful journey into the world of late antiquity . We encounter brain-eating demons; a caliph with such oral-hygiene problems that he could kill a fly with one breath; and that old favourite, St Simeon Stylites, rotting away on his pillar but still managing to miraculously cure a man with unfeasibly large testicles, "like a pair of clay jars". Every bit as thrilling a narrative history as Holland''s previous works, In the Shadow of the Sword is also a profoundly important book. It makes public and popular what scholarship has been discovering for several decades now: and those discoveries suggest a wholesale revision of where Islam came from and what it is ."-Christopher Hart, Sunday Times (London) "[ M]agnificent...and brave ....The historian and author of Rubicon and Persian Fire has now, after five years' work, come up with In the Shadow of the Sword . His story is so compellingly told that it could almost be Dan Brown, except that Holland writes brilliantly, with a simultaneously dashing, meticulous and at times ravishingly camp style, and his tale is true ."-Michael Bywater, the Week (London) Praise for The Forge of Christendom "An entertaining account of the fraught last years of the Dark Ages."- The Wall Street Journal "An enjoyable and exuberantly argued book . . . Holland combines sound scholarly credentials with a gift for storytelling on a magisterial scale . . . In a tightly woven and sometimes witty narrative, [Holland demonstrates] the subtle interplay of genuine religious sentiment and cynical power politics."- The Economist "[This] is narrative history in the grand manner, written with the panache and confidence we associate with the great historians of the 18th and 19th centuries."-Allan Massie, The Daily Telegraph "A superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet." -Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Evening Standard Praise for Persian Fire "Excellent . . . Holland is a cool-headed historian who writes here no less authoritatively and engagingly on classical Greece than he did on ancient Rome in his last book, Rubicon ."-Mary Beard, The Times Literary Supplement "It is . . . a testament to Holland's superlative powers as a narrative historian that he brings this tumultuous, epoch-making period dazzlingly to life, and makes the common reader familiar again with one of the most thrilling periods in world history." -William Napier, The Independent Praise for Rubicon "Not since Ronald Syme''s The Roman Revolution has there been such an original and enlivening piece of Roman history. Tom Holland has the rare gift of making deep scholarship accessible and exciting. A brilliant and completely absorbing study."-A.N. Wilson "A book that really held me, in fact, obsessed me . . . Narrative history at its best." Ian McEwan, The Guardian , Books of the Year "Richly resonant. . . . Ancient history lives in this vivid chronicle."- Booklist (starred review)
Dewey Edition23
Dewey Decimal956/.013
SynopsisThe acclaimed author of Rubicon and other superb works of popular history now produces a thrillingly panoramic (and incredibly timely) account of the rise of Islam. No less significant than the collapse of the Roman Republic or the Persian invasion of Greece, the evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. Just like the Romans, the Arabs came from nowhere to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion--except that they achieved their conquests not over the course of centuries as the Romans did but in a matter of decades. Just like the Greeks during the Persian wars, they overcame seemingly insuperable odds to emerge triumphant against the greatest empire of the day--not by standing on the defensive, however, but by hurling themselves against all who lay in their path.
LC Classification NumberDS36.85.H65 2012
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- 21 Jun, 2023
Important source for the layman
Important source for the layman regarding subject matter usually reserved for the “hot house flowers of academia.”Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
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