In the Shadow of the Sword
The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

What a controversially exciting book for the Muslims of the world. Its an honour to get a serious scholar like Tom Holland actually researching the history of the Muslims and presenting theories that help fill out many gaps in the known Muslim history. Read on if you are slightly concerned about the......more

I've read all of Tom Holland's books to date, but this one has proved the most controversial by far. It recounts the birth of the three great Abrahamic religions in late-antiquity, but predictably, given the current intellectual climate, it's his musings on the third, Islam, that has attracted the m......more

After hearing an interview with the author, I decided to read this, not out of any particular interest in Islam, but because of my curiosity for the origins of things. In that respect, In the Shadow of the Sword did not disappoint. As best I can tell, Tom Holland deserves to be commended for his res......more

"In the Shadow of the Sword" by Tom Holland is an overview of the predecessors of Islam and Islam's first hundred years. The first 75% of the book covers the centuries immediately before Islam (up to about the year 610) and the last 25% covers Mohammed, the Quran, and the first century of Islamic ex......more

I expected much better from Tom Holland! I don't have enough background in history to comment upon the exact coloring of the text but I got the feeling that the author was not entirely objective in the historical account. I found that the author was too critical of the actions of Muslims. E.g.(view spoiler)[ the r (hide spoiler)]......more