In The Shadow Of The Sword

From the bestselling author of Rubicon and Persian Fire comes this thrilling panoramic account of the rise of Islam. In the 6th century AD, the Near East was divided between two great empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on, and one had vanished for ever, while the other was a dismembered, bleeding trunk. In their place, a new superpower had arisen: the empire of the Arabs. IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD explores how a succession of great empires came to identify themselves with a new and revolutionary understanding of the divine.