Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West

Sword and Scimitar presents a history of conflict between Islam and the West spanning fourteen centuries. According to Muslim tradition, the clash began in the mid-seventh century when the Roman emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad's order to convert to Islam, triggering a centuries-long jihad on Christendom. The book chronicles major battles from the first significant Islamic attack on Christian lands in 636 through subsequent periods: Muslim occupation of much of Christendom, which prompted the Crusades; renewed conquests by Turks and Tatars; and European colonization of the Muslim world in the 1800s, after which Islam retreated until its recent reemergence. Raymond Ibrahim draws on original sources in Arabic and Greek to describe each battle and explain how these conflicts reflect cultural divisions between Islam and the West. Many landmark battles—including Yarmuk, Tours, Manzikert, the sieges of Constantinople and Vienna, and crusades in Syria and Spain—are now largely forgotten. Ibrahim argues this history provides context for understanding current Western-Islamic relations and positions recent developments as part of a long historical pattern.