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

Publisher's summary

A sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West, shedding a revealing light on current hostilities

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 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 battles - 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.

©2018 Raymond Ibrahim (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Concerning nearly 2000 yrs of Muslim aggression against the rest of the world

Barak Obama during his second term as president declared Islam to be one of the worlds great religions of peace. That statement demonstrates a profound error in judgement or an intentional lie of monstrous proportions as the history detailed in Sword and Scimitar proves there is no goal in Islam other than subjugation of the entire world to Mohammed’s sharia law. Great great book! Important book! This history should be taught in every high school and university! Thank you for writing mr. Ibrahim and mr. Hanson.

Excellent History lesson

This book should be required reading in our schools lest we forget what we are up against.

Read and understand where we are. Very important.

A must read. Heavily referenced and very well researched. Jihad never was about any "internal struggle", it was domination, conquest and booty.

Great read

Very enlightening read. He who ignores history is doomed to repeat it. I am afraid that is the path we are on.

Excellent Book

Excellent book covering the history of the conflict between Christianity and Islam. I especially appreciated the references from the Muslim sources to ensure thier views on the subject was properly reflected.

Very informative

My biggest complaint is the constant distraction of sighting references, this only interrupted the flow and made continuity difficult.

Beyond fantastic

Rarely do I read a book of history so engaging as this! A lone voice crying against the insanity of an Orwellian denial of the true history of Islam, Ibrahim ties together the weaving of history so the reader can gauge the modern jihad against its historical antecedent.

Starts slow ends well

I didn’t truly enjoy it until the last several chapters from the 1500’s on. I feel that he could have summarized the first thousand years before cramming recent history in. That being said, I am very glad I listened to the whole book.

Refreshing Truth

The centuries old history of Islamic aggression against Christianity and Western Civilization is never taught in the average school.

Great historical account of the age old competition

Well documented and researched. Primary sources from both sides make the authors thesis not only poignant but compelling. The age old battle of Islam striving to overtake the west is exactly that. Seldom did Christian’s antagonize the Islamic world directly but responded to threatening advances from Arabs, Tartars, Mongols, Turks etc. all of them under the banner of the prophet.