Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-40% $17.93$17.93
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$15.95$15.95
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: CpsMerchandise
Learn more
1.27 mi | ASHBURN 20147
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample Sample
Follow the author
OK
Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West Hardcover – Illustrated, August 28, 2018
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Purchase options and add-ons
The West and Islam--the sword and scimitar--have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Roman 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 decisive battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with the first major Islamic attack on Christian territory in 636, through the Muslim occupation of nearly three-quarters of Christendom, which prompted the Crusades, followed by renewed Muslim conquests by Turks and Tatars, 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 and Greek, preeminent historian Raymond Ibrahim describes each battle in vivid detail and explains how these wars and the larger historical currents of the age reflect the cultural fault lines between Islam and the West.
The majority of these landmark encounters--including the battles of Yarmuk, Tours, Manzikert, the sieges at Constantinople and Vienna, and the crusades in Syria and Spain--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.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDa Capo Press
- Publication dateAugust 28, 2018
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100306825554
- ISBN-13978-0306825552
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may ship from close to you
- Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against IslamHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New WorldPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- Chivalry: An Ideal Whose Time Has Come AgainPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy LandPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on ChristiansHardcoverFREE Shipping by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
- White Horse KingBenjamin MerklePaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
Editorial Reviews
Review
"With passion, Raymond Ibrahim offers an edgy and eye-opening introduction to a millennium of warfare between the Muslim and Christian worlds before the modern age."―Thomas Madden, Saint Louis University, and award-winning author of Istanbul, Venice, and Concise History of the Crusades
"The exhaustive scholarship is unassailable.... With almost 1,000 endnotes and 216 works cited―a wealth of primary source and arcane texts―Mr. Ibrahim, who has the unique capacity to read and study modern and classical Arabic, tells the story of these battles through the eyes of the participants in their own words and perspectives."―Washington Times; reviewed by Joseph C. Myers, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan and as a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst
"Impressively informative, Sword and Scimitar is an exceptional work of outstanding scholarship that is so well written it reads more like a deftly crafted novel than a non-fiction history."―Midwest Book Review
"[A] superbly written volume, making extensive use of primary sources from both sides, especially underutilized Arabic language sources... Enlightening for readers unfamiliar with the long history of war between these two faiths."―New York Journal of Books
"Raymond Ibrahim has the humility to take seriously the voices and opinions of history's Christians and Muslims; the result is a refreshingly honest account of Islamic expansion and Christian reaction that provides useful insights into today's problems. This is history as it should be done: allowing the past to inform and guide the present, rather than distorting the past to fit contemporary political ideologies."―Paul F. Crawford, Crusades historian, California University of Pennsylvania
"A vital contribution to our understanding of the most lethal and far-reaching geopolitical threat of our time.... In this meticulously researched work, Raymond Ibrahim shows how anti-western attitudes have been endemic in Islam throughout its history."―Melanie Phillips, best-selling British author of Londonistan and The World Turned Upside Down
"This magisterial work is a lucid, remarkably compendious, yet still richly detailed study of the 1400-year ongoing ebb and flow of Islamic jihad conquests or preparatory attacks―and the Christian West's reconquests or reprisals... A skilled Arabic linguist and student of military history, perhaps the outstanding achievement of Ibrahim's compelling narrative is how it shatters contemporary 'academia's' rigidly enforced, dogmatic Islamophilia... [S]hould be requisite reading for all serious U.S. policymakers, diplomats, and politicians."―Dr. Andrew G. Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad
"Raymond Ibrahim is a highly intelligent student of history and the civilizational warfare of Islamic jihadism."―Allen West, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
"[A] riveting military history of eight pivotal battles between the armies of Islamdom and Christendom. Ibrahim tells his story with extensive citations of primary sources which vividly bring to life the bloody fighting. Moreover, his method reveals the religious, political, and material motivations of the leading Christian and Muslim actors in this enduring conflict of visions that seem so very different from many modern western secular sensibilities."―James E. Lindsay, Professor of Middle East History, Colorado State University
"An accessible and well-researched examination of extremely important but often neglected cultural phenomena and historical events that have impacted several civilizations up to the present day."―Darío Fernández-Morera, Northwestern University, and author of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise
"Ibrahim has written a brilliant history... He reveals an enduring asymmetry between inherently aggressive Muslims and inherently defensive Christians―and shows how that pattern precisely persists to this day."―Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum
"Mr. Ibrahim [is] an established and published historian. [Sword and Scimitar] offers a valuable perspective on Islamic history ... [and is] a well-researched thesis worthy of academic inquiry and debate, not only for faculty, staff, and students of the USAWC [U.S. Army War College], but also to the general public"―Scott Perry and nine other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in a letter to the USAWC
"A riveting account of the major battles between Islam and the West... Detailed, well-researched and most welcome."― Catholic World Report; reviewed by James V. Schall, professor emeritus of political philosophy at Georgetown University
"Sword and Scimitar altered the way I understand the development of our civilization....Ibrahim tells this history vividly, clearly, and engagingly."―American Thinker
"Military historian Raymond Ibrahim is of Egyptian origin, fluent in Arabic, and an expert on the centuries-long armed conflicts between the West and Islam."―National Association of Scholars
"[P]uts to rest several important myths... Against today's wishful thinking about Islam's peaceful intentions, Sword and Scimitar documents 'what Muslims have actually done to and in the West for centuries.'"―Crisis Magazine
[More reviews added on availability.]
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Da Capo Press; Illustrated edition (August 28, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0306825554
- ISBN-13 : 978-0306825552
- Item Weight : 1.28 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #36,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in History of Islam
- #102 in History of Christianity (Books)
- #136 in Christian Church History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
RAYMOND IBRAHIM is a widely published author and public speaker specializing in the Middle East and Islam.
His books include Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood against Islam (Bombardier, 2022); Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (Da Capo, 2018); Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, 2013); and The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007).
Ibrahim’s writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times Syndicate, CNN, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Hoover Institution’s Strategika, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites, including American Thinker, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Christian Post, Daily Caller, FrontPage Magazine, NewsMax, National Review Online, PJ Media, and World Magazine. He has contributed chapters to several anthologies, written forewords to books, and been translated into dozens of languages.
Among other media, he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, and NPR; he has done hundreds of radio interviews and some of his YouTube videos (here and here for example) have received over a million views each.
Ibrahim guest lectures at universities, including the U.S. Army War College and the National Defense Intelligence College; has briefed governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency; provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits; and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam and the worsening plight of Christian minorities throughout the Islamic world. He also regularly speaks at general venues, such as CPAC, and before international audiences, most recently, Germany’s Bundestag.
Ibrahim’s dual-background—born and raised in the U.S. by Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former. His interest in Islamic civilization was first piqued when he began visiting the Middle East as a child in the 1970s. Interacting and conversing with the locals throughout the decades has provided him with an intimate appreciation for that part of the world, complementing his academic training.
After a brief athletic career—which included playing football and winning the 1993 NPC Los Angeles Bodybuilding Championship teenage division—Raymond went on to receive his B.A. and M.A. (both in History, focusing on the ancient and medieval Near East, with dual-minors in Philosophy and English) from California State University, Fresno. There he studied closely with noted military-historian Victor Davis Hanson. He also took graduate courses at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies—including classes on the history, politics, and economics of the Arab world—and studied Medieval Islam and Semitic languages at Catholic University of America. His M.A. thesis examined an early military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on arcane Arabic and Greek texts.
Ibrahim’s resume includes serving as an Arabic language and regional specialist at the Near East Section of the Library of Congress, where he was often contacted by and provided information to defense and intelligence personnel involved in the fields of counterterrorism and area studies, as well as the Congressional Research Service; and serving as Associate Director of the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia think tank.
He also often functions as a journalist and has been a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution and news analyst for a variety of media, for example, CBN News. His knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with Middle Eastern sources have enabled him to offer breaking news. Days before the Obama administration blamed an anti-Islamic movie for Muslim uprisings against a U.S. consul and an embassy in Libya and Egypt respectively, Ibrahim showed that the demonstrations were pre-planned and unrelated to the movie. Similarly, he was first to expose an Arabic-language Saudi fatwa that called for the destruction of any Christian church found on the Arabian Peninsula.
For over a decade since July, 2011, Ibrahim has been producing a monthly report, “Muslim Persecution of Christians,” dedicated to chronicling the abuses and slaughters Christians experience throughout the Islamic world. In certain respects, these monthly reports — there are nearly 140 of them, each averaging between 3,000-4,000 words — are the “live,” ongoing continuation of his 2013 book, Crucified Again.
Raymond Ibrahim is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the content deeply researched and eye-opening. They also describe the book as very readable, clear, and easy to read. Readers find the plot riveting and enthralling. They say the book offers the true history of Islam with excellent documentation and scholarship. However, some find the book depressing to read about over 1400 years of conflict.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the content eye-opening, deeply researched, and a warning to modern readers in the West. They also say it provides a great explanation of the historic conflict between Islam and Christianity. Readers also appreciate the introductory material and the quotations of primary sources.
"...Clearly written; and very readable. There are copious footnotes and references to allow for deep exploration of various subtopics...." Read more
"...The result, given his 300-page narrative, is a surprisingly detailed and comprehensive history; colorful, passionate, extraordinarily violent, and..." Read more
"The author does an excellent job of recounting events that are necessary to understanding the history of Western Civilization, but which most of us..." Read more
"Awesome. Well written. Well documented...." Read more
Customers find the book very readable and easy to follow.
"This is an excellent book. Clearly written; and very readable...." Read more
"Awesome. Well written. Well documented...." Read more
"...Ibrahim makes it very readable and easy to follow even for those of us who read a lot of history but are not scholars...." Read more
"Well researched (from both Muslim and Western sources) and easy to read. Should be required reading in US Service Academies...." Read more
Customers find the plot riveting, enthralling, and passionate. They also describe the history as colorful, rich, and disturbing.
"...is a surprisingly detailed and comprehensive history; colorful, passionate, extraordinarily violent, and always interesting...." Read more
"This is a powerful book. Well-researched and poignant, it discusses eight major battles between Islam and Christianity since 610 AD...." Read more
"Alarmingly apposite and engaging. Raymond Ibrahim hits the proverbial nail on the head with this strikingly important work...." Read more
"Interesting, rich, and disturbing history that I thought I half knew. Can not be more thankful for this book and the story it tells." Read more
Customers find the book offers the true history of Islam, with excellent documentation and scholarship.
"This book offers the true history of Islam, with excellent documentation and scholarship written by a Coptic Christian...." Read more
"...A brutal historical account of Islam and the subjugated people and lands since the 6th century !" Read more
"...an easy, exciting read and very a very comprehensive and enlightening history of Islam and a great analysis of what the future will likely be for..." Read more
"Expertly factual accounts of Islam v. Christianity. through the centuries. Intriguing text. Highly recommend. Reads better than a who-done-it novel...." Read more
Customers find the book timely and interesting. They also say it offers timely correctives.
"...no matter how fascinating are ultimately academic—this one offers timely correctives: it sets the much distorted historical record between the two..." Read more
"Can't put it down! A fast paced fascinating book concerning the Islamic conquering of about 3/4th of the Christian world...." Read more
"...Timely, and very interesting. Well written and researched. Also, a real page turner. Well done!" Read more
"Quick shipping..." Read more
Customers find the book depressing to read about over 1400 years of conflict.
"...It is not a dry academic account but reads like a novel. It is depressing though - to read of over 1400 years of conflict between Islam and the..." Read more
"...History explains so much of what we see today. Reality is grim and the conflict will never end." Read more
"This book reeks of cigarette smoke and dinginess. It’s not pleasant especially when you have it by your nightstand." Read more
"Sad and shocking..." Read more
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
This book provides an absolute necessary background to understand what is happening today across the whole world.
At first glance, it appears that the author is simply going to recount eight very important battles between Islam and the West, within the range of slightly more than one thousand years—7th to late 17th century. As military history, the examination of those battles would be fascinating, and the author does indeed look closely at those major battles, but he also offers the reader much, much more.
First, because the author has the linguistic background, he provides primary sources, in translation, from Islamic belligerents/observers. Naturally, too, the author exhibits contemporaneous Christian source material in unadulterated form. Euphemism has no place here; both sets of primary sources are often disturbing, yet they are refreshingly candid in their comments and opinions, and reflect their historical moments.
Second, he fills in the gaps of the intervening centuries between—and beyond—each of his subject battles. The result, given his 300-page narrative, is a surprisingly detailed and comprehensive history; colorful, passionate, extraordinarily violent, and always interesting.
Beware, that the author shows no mercy to the reader; he is unrelenting in his honest recounting of savagery and evil, stoked by hatred of the infidel, in Islam's long march of conquest; nor, does he shy away from the bloodletting by Christian forces during their counter-attacking, and strategically defensive, operations.
The bibliography is a collection of important sources for further inquiry into the subject(s) of this book.
It is easy to forget (if, indeed, we moderns ever knew) how profoundly the struggle with Islam affected the history of Europe. Raymond Ibrahim returns this historical truth to the light; he gives us much to reflect upon—including the demonstrated, yet all but forgotten, courage of our forebears.
History is built into the Islamic mind. Therefore, 9/11 was an excellent day for the Crusades, and retribution came, though slow. 10/7 was another great victory for the Crusades; retribution came again. Therefore, it behooves all Americans and the Catholic world to take heed. Please read this book.
May the souls of the faithful departed, slaughtered by these barbarians, rest in peace. Amen.
Top reviews from other countries
For a start all would-be feminists should read this. The Muslims are not on your side.