The Leading eBooks Store Online
for your Apple or Android device, Nook, Kobo, PC, Mac, Sony Reader...
Shade of Swords
Jihad and the Conflict between Islam and Christianity
Add to cart
US$ 30.95
(+ tax)
Preview (read now)
Add to my own site
Buy multiple copies
Give this ebook to a friend
Add to my wishlist
Author's page
Publisher's page
Devices
- iPad
- Smart phones
- PC
- e-readers with Adobe Digital Editions installed
- Mac
See the full list
Available Devices
X
This book is available for the following devices:
- iPad
- Windows
- Mac
- Sony Reader
- Cool-er Reader
- Nook
- Kobo Reader
- iRiver Story
- Palm-based devices
- Windows Mobile PDAs and phones
- Symbian-based (Nokia etc) phones
- Blackberry
- iLiad
- eBookMan
- Cybook and other ebook reader devices (excluding Kindle)
File Formats
Download: PDF or MobiPocket.
You can also read this book online in eb20 format without having to download anything.
You can also read this book online in eb20 format without having to download anything.
Permissions
Printing
Copy/Paste
Read Aloud
Printing
Copy/Paste
Read Aloud
more
The attack on the towers of the World Trade Center of 11th September 2001, and the retaliatory assault on Afghanistan by the United States and its allies has redefined, in the most powerful manner since the Crusades, the interaction between Islam and the West as a clash of civilisations. Whilst the West today casts its shadow over the Middle East in the form of an avaricious secular faith, seeking control over oil and raw materials, the ancient accusation of 'Infidel' is snatched out of its hands. Holy war or Jihad - set forth in the Quran as Allah's 'divine bargain', paradise in return for martyrdom - is now clearly visible as the defining validation of the Muslim aggressors. 'The West's next confrontation', observes M J Akbar, an Indian Muslim and political journalist, 'is definitely going to come from the Muslim world. It is in the sweep of Islamic nations from the Maghreb to Pakistan that the struggle for a new world order will begin.'But why is this modern, retaliatory Jihad, a response to American materialism, phrased in terms of the logic of faith, and fought in its name? What is it about Jihad, in which politics and religion meet, that inspires such loyal ferocity and joy in death, on a scale unmatched by the prudent violence of the Western campaign? Why is Jihad equated with 'terrorism', and why does it incite such fear in the hearts of apparently stronger opponents? In The Shade of Swords - the first cohesive history of the phenomenon - Akbar considers how Jihad's origins lie in the earliest consciousness of Muslims, as witnessed in the miraculous victory of the Prophet's outnumbered troops at Badr. Travelling over centuries and continents, from Muhammed to the Assassins, and from the collapse of the Moghul and Ottoman empires to the modern struggle for Palestine, Akbar's story explains how Jihad thrives on complex and shifting notions of persecution, victory and sacrifice, and how Muslims themselves have historically tried both to direct and to control the phenomenon. The power of Jihad, and thus of the Taliban today, pervades the mind and soul of Islam. Its plural meaning as simultaneous mass and private sentiment is its true strength and significance. The Islamic mind is where the current battle will be fought, and this is why it will be a long war.
Routledge; October 2003
293 pages; ISBN 9780203402108
Read online, or download in secure PDF format or MobiPocket
293 pages; ISBN 9780203402108
Read online, or download in secure PDF format or MobiPocket
Subject categories
ISBNs
9781134452590
9781134452583
9780415284707
9780203402108
0203402103