Faith and Sword: A Short History of Christian-Muslim Conflict (Globalities) - Hardcover

Jamieson, Alan G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1861892721 ISBN 13: 9781861892720

Publisher: Reaktion Books, 2006

Synopsis

In today’s tense geopolitical climate, terrorist groups avow their allegiance to the Islamic faith in their edicts, while the president of the United States undertakes controversial wars in Islamic nations and openly refers to his Christian faith as a key component of his decision-making. With the recent surge in terrorist acts and military confrontations, as well as ever-strengthening fundamentalist ideologies on both sides, the Christian-Muslim divide is perhaps more visible than ever—but it is not new. Alan G. Jamieson explores here the long and bloody history of the Christian-Muslim conflict, revealing in his concise yet comprehensive study how deeply this ancient divide is interwoven with crucial events in world history. 

Faith and Sword opens with the tumultuous first centuries of the conflict, examining the religious precepts that framed clashes between Christians and Muslims and that ultimately fueled the legendary Crusades. Traversing the full breadth of the Arab lands and Christendom, Jamieson chronicles the turbulent saga from the Arab conquests of the seventh century to the rise of the powerful Ottoman Empire and its fall at the end of World War I. Faith and Sword then explores the complex dynamics that emerged later in the twentieth century, as Christendom was transformed into the secular West and Islamic nations overthrew European colonialism to establish governments straddling modernity and religiosity.

From the 1979 Iranian revolution to the Lebanon hostage crisis to the present-day war in Iraq, Faith and Sword reveals the essence of this enduring struggle and its consequences.

About this title

About the Author

Alan G. Jamieson is a researcher and writer based in Canada and the United Kingdom. He is the author of Lords of the Sea: A History of the Barbary Corsairs, also published by Reaktion.
 

From Publishers Weekly

Writer and researcher Jamieson offers a dense but clear abstract of the 1,400-year history of conflict between Christian and Muslim states, from the death of Muhammad to the American occupation of Iraq. For the first millennium, the story follows the expansion of Muslim caliphates at the expense of the Byzantine Empire and the emerging Christian kingdoms of Western Europe. Later, with the Christian conquest of Iberia and the Crusades, the two sides began to establish a balance of power that tipped toward the Christians in the nineteenth century. The book moves quickly to this point, discussing even major developments only long enough to establish basic facts. Jamieson slows down upon reaching the 20th century, when the West's military dominance and secularization alter the relationship between "Christian" and Muslim states. The major division now, Jamieson argues, is not between these countries but between secularists and fundamentalists within Muslim-majority nations. Though the book's brevity leaves little room for analysis, Jamieson sketches characters, incidents, and trends fluidly, producing a fine primer of this long history. 5 halftones.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1861892721
• ISBN 13: 9781861892720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256