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In the Shadow of the Sword
- The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
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The evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. In this exciting and sweeping history - the third in his trilogy of books on the ancient world - Tom Holland describes how the Arabs emerged to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion in a matter of decades, overcoming seemingly insuperable odds to create an imperial civilization.
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Best history of Christianity I've read
- By JOHN F KANARY on 05-05-16
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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
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Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
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Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
- By: Bettany Hughes
- Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City", but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city but a global story.
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A daunting undertaking pulled off superlatively
- By SGS on 12-24-17
By: Bettany Hughes
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The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt
- By: Toby Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In this landmark work, one of the world's most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption into the Roman Empire - 3,000 years of wild drama, bold spectacle, and unforgettable characters. Award-winning scholar Toby Wilkinson captures not only the lavish pomp and artistic grandeur of this land of pyramids and pharaohs but for the first time reveals the constant propaganda and repression that were its foundations.
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Well Written and Detailed
- By Matthew G. on 01-26-18
By: Toby Wilkinson
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The Rise and Fall of Alexandria
- Birthplace of the Modern Mind
- By: Justin Pollard, Howard Reid
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Founded by Alexander the Great and built by self-styled Greek pharaohs, the city of Alexandria at its height dwarfed both Athens and Rome. It was the marvel of its age, legendary for its vast palaces, safe harbors, and magnificent lighthouse. But it was most famous for the astonishing intellectual efflorescence it fostered and the library it produced. If the European Renaissance was the "rebirth" of Western culture, then Alexandria, Egypt, was its birthplace.
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A good listen
- By Jeffrey on 10-02-08
By: Justin Pollard, and others
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Lost to the West
- The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
- By: Lars Brownworth
- Narrated by: Lars Brownworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization.
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Just a delight for anyone interested in history !
- By Cinders on 05-28-13
By: Lars Brownworth
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Genghis Khan and the Quest for God
- How the World's Greatest Conqueror Gave Us Religious Freedom
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history the world’s greatest conquerors have made their mark not just on the battlefield, but in the societies they have transformed. Genghis Khan conquered by arms and bravery, but he ruled by commerce and religion. He created the world’s greatest trading network and drastically lowered taxes for merchants, but he knew that if his empire was going to last, he would need something stronger and more binding than trade. He needed religion.
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Fascinating history
- By R. C. Haynes on 12-29-18
By: Jack Weatherford
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Thermopylae
- By: Paul Cartledge
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In 480 B.C., a huge Persian army, led by the inimitable King Xerxes, entered the mountain pass of Thermopylae to march on Greece, intending to conquer the land with little difficulty. But the Greeks, led by King Leonidas and a small army of Spartans, took the battle to the Persians at Thermopylae and halted their advance: almost. It is one of history's most acclaimed battles, one of civilization's greatest last stands.
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Requires full attention
- By Euryleia on 01-18-08
By: Paul Cartledge
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The Jews
- Story of a People
- By: Howard Fast
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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“There is no human being on the face of this earth exempt from the Jewish influence. For as long as there has been history, the Jew has wandered through it, shaping it at times, riding the current silently at other times, but always leaving his mark. History without the Jew? It is inconceivable.”—Howard Fast. His popular history brings the history of the Jewish people into focus, from Genesis to contemporary times.
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The Jews: Story of a People
- By SArt on 05-12-12
By: Howard Fast
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Sword and Scimitar
- Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West
- By: Raymond Ibrahim, Victor Davis Hanson - foreword
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The West and Islam - the sword and scimitar - have clashed since the 17th 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 land in 636.
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Excellent read
- By Susan Stone on 01-25-19
By: Raymond Ibrahim, and others
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The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world. Rubicon paints a vivid portrait of the Republic at the climax of its greatness: the same greatness which would herald the catastrophe of its fall.
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Get Immersed in the Roman Republic
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Rome and Persia
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The Roman empire was like no other. Stretching from the north of Britain to the Sahara, and from the Atlantic coast to the Euphrates, it imposed peace and prosperity on an unprecedented scale. Its only true rival lay in the east, where the Parthian and then Persian empires ruled over great cities and the trade routes to mysterious lands beyond. Tracing seven centuries of conflict between Rome and Persia, historian Adrian Goldsworthy shows how these two great powers evolved together
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Great book ruined by an irritating reader
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Sword and Scimitar
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The West and Islam - the sword and scimitar - have clashed since the 17th 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 land in 636.
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Excellent read
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Lost Islamic History
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Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1,400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities, and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists, and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen, and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions.
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Excellent narration
- By Jamal on 06-19-22
By: Firas Alkhateeb
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Assyria
- The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire
- By: Eckart Frahm
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At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of Assyria and its formative role in global history. Assyria’s wide-ranging conquests have long been known from the Hebrew Bible and later Greek accounts. But nearly two centuries of research now permit a rich picture of the Assyrians and their empire beyond the battlefield.
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Outstanding Historical Book
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By: Eckart Frahm
What listeners say about In the Shadow of the Sword
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Edd Huetteman
- 04-08-16
Misleading title
What disappointed you about In the Shadow of the Sword?
Two thirds of the book are a history of all of the cultural events leading up to the birth of Islam. It describes well the vacuum of power that existed in the 5th and 6th century that allowed Islam to expand, almost at will. It says nothing about how the split between Sunni and Shia occurred. It tells nothing about the conquest of Constantinople. It tells nothing of how Islam was finally stopped in eastern Europe. I was primarily interested in Islam, not the other "children of the book"
Has In the Shadow of the Sword turned you off from other books in this genre?
No. I have to be more careful reading reviews.
What does Steven Crossley bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
It was a great read.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
It was a great review of the history of Christianity, Judaism and the empires of Europe and East Asia. I wasn't looking for that in such detail.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Philo
- 11-01-15
A vivid, illuminating trip through late antiquity
This tale sparkles with personalities, beliefs, collisions, and richly-staged history, moving seamlessly between these different levels. The author is a great storyteller (in wonderful sync with the narrator's style), not so much an exhaustive expositor of various possible views of these things. It starts a bit awkwardly, I thought, as it veers off for quite awhile into the unreliability of sources for modern verifiable historical details on various prophets and prophetic religions of antiquity. This is repeated as needed when a new religion or sect is introduced. But suddenly, these issues are mostly shelved, and we are immersed in the main mode of storytelling which is vivid and virtuoso. I am happy to hop on for the ride, vowing to return to more placid, plodding scholarly explanations another time. Meanwhile, I feel as if I was in the times alongside the people, and my sense of all these peoples' origins is brought to shimmering life. Islam through most of the story is merely anticipated, as we spend much time in other regions of the near- and middle- east and among non-Arab peoples and their sects. The portrait of Constantinople and particularly its Roman overlords was fantastic. Here are Jews, Christians, Pagans, Zoroastrians, yet others, and of course, Arabs as their civilization gathered itself and quickly took amazing flight.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-20-17
A Tour of Late Antiquity
If you've enjoyed Holland's Rubicon and Dynasty, please do yourself a favor and wander into the gorgeous landscape painting of late antiquity he creates in this work. His evocation of the Shah's disastrous expedition against the Hepthalites will dig its hooks into you, I guarantee. Be forewarned, Holland spends most of his time setting the stage, the actual Islamic conquest isn't set in motion until the final third of the book. But, if you've ever been curious about that hazy time between the fall of the western roman empire and the rise of islam, Holland will flesh it out for you in gilded detail.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Charlotte Ward
- 05-09-16
Disjointed
Maybe if I had a hard copy of the book it would all flow in a decent way, but the narrative as I followed it was full of sidesteps and jumped about chronologically. I understand that for a full understanding of the background, one must actually follow the background.... presented as it was it felt more like a Tarantino film than a history, in that it seemed very out of sequence and hard to follow.
Frankly I almost returned the book.
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- Dr.J.A.P.
- 01-11-20
very confusing, not sure I know more now
Was originally assigned this in a class on Islam and the Arab nations, or some such, which I ended up dropping ... but a few years later decided that since the book was on Audible I'd get it and listen... I vaguely remember our professor had only assigned various chapters telling us the book goes WAY off topic, and boy does it. It almost feels like the writer knew a lot about Christian and Jewish civilizations of that period, and wanted to throw all that in since what we actually about about the development of the nations under the umbrella of Islam is kind of sketchy. So hard to follow, and harder to remember because there's so many details and no central storyline. its read ok
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6 people found this helpful
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- Zak
- 11-21-16
Not Holland's best work
I really wanted to love this book. I'm a big fan of Tom Holland's work in written and audio format, but this book was difficult to follow. I could not tell what the presentation style was because it did not seem to follow a thematic progression and it certainly wasn't a narrative history. It just seemed to meander through time and place. While the minute to minute listening was classic Holland, I had no idea how anything fit with what I had heard previously or would hear subsequently.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-17
Good But Too Much Filler
It seems like half the book is spend setting up the background for the rise of the Islamic empire. Perhaps that's because (and I think the author has said as much) there really aren't that many source documents.
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- Jason Cherniak
- 12-25-15
Interesting
This book is not really about the rise of Islam so much as the interplay between Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Muslims in the Middle East around the time of the fall of Rome and rise of Islam. There are some controversial claims that need to be taken with a grain of salt, but the story as a whole is the best overview of the world's major monotheistic religions as they were shaped for the modern world that I have been able to find.
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- Stan Mohler, Jr.
- 09-19-15
Just finished a very dense history of Islam
This history of the rise of Islam, was fascinating, though the language was way too thick and difficult to follow. Due to its educational value, something like this book is a worthwhile alternative to fantasy books like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones - because the story in this book really happened. The first two-thirds of the book tells the background that led up to Islam. I never realized that a horrible plague around 500 AD demolished the Christian Roman empire as well as the Persian, making way for the Arabs to step in and spread Islam. Over time, Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastranism, Islam, and others, all rose and fell in dominance and popularity, each success or failure being attributed to God, Allah, Jesus, or what-have-you, each group thinking God was on their side against the others. And it continues to this day. We are often still very medieval in our beliefs.
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- M. Patterson
- 11-18-18
good but not his best
Beginning is good, end is good but the middle is like wading through a swamp. Personally I had to power through the middle few chapters where Holland left Islam to talk about the rise of Christianity. While it may have been needed for the story, I got bogged down personally on a subject he has a while other book on, which I'm about to listen to next.
Overall it's not a big enough of an issue to not reccomend the book, still listen! You shall enjoy.
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