Faith and Sword: A Short History of Christian-Muslim Conflict »

Alan G. Jamieson is a researcher and writer based in Alberta, Canada, and the UK. He is the author of Ebb Tide in the British Maritime Industries: Change and Adaptation, 1918-1990.

In today’s tense geopolitical climate, terrorist groups avow their allegiance to the Islamic faith in their edicts, while the president of the United States undertakes controversial wars in Islamic nations and openly refers to his Christian faith as a key component of his decision-making. With the recent surge in terrorist acts and military confrontations, as well as ever-strengthening fundamentalist ideologies on both sides, the Christian-Muslim divide is perhaps more visible than ever—but it is not new. Alan G. Jamieson explores here the long and bloody history of the Christian-Muslim conflict, revealing in his concise yet comprehensive study how deeply this ancient divide is interwoven with crucial events in world history. 

Faith and Sword opens with the tumultuous first centuries of the conflict, examining the religious precepts that framed clashes between Christians and Muslims and that ultimately fueled the legendary Crusades. Traversing the full breadth of the Arab lands and Christendom, Jamieson chronicles the turbulent saga from the Arab conquests of the seventh century to the rise of the powerful Ottoman Empire and its fall at the end of World War I. Faith and Sword then explores the complex dynamics that emerged later in the twentieth century, as Christendom was transformed into the secular West and Islamic nations overthrew European colonialism to establish governments straddling modernity and religiosity.

From the 1979 Iranian revolution to the Lebanon hostage crisis to the present-day war in Iraq, Faith and Sword reveals the essence of this enduring struggle and its consequences.

Literary Review of Canada

"He correctly notes that due to the secular reforms of the West, the confrontation changes from one of religion to one pitting imperialism against nationalism."—Thabit A. J. Abdullah, Literary Review of Canada

— Thabit A. J. Abdullah

List of Maps

1.  Introduction: The Longest War

2.  The Arab Conquests, 632-750

3.  Byzantine Defiance, 750-1000

4.  Rise of the West: Christian Advances in the Eleventh Century

5.  Muslim Reaction:  Victory over Outremer, Defeat in Spain, 1100-1300

6.  Rise of the Ottoman Turks, 1300-1500

7.  Ottoman Challenge:  The Sixteenth Century

8.  Ottoman Revival and Decline, 1600-1815

9.  Triumph of the West, 1815-1918

10.  Breaking Free, 1918-1979

11.  Challenging American, 1879-2005

12.  Conclusion:  A New Conflict?

Glossary of Place Name Changes

Chronology

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index