M. J. Akbar The Shade of Swords

Annotation

In The Shade of Swords - the first cohesive history of Jihad - 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. 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 of Jihad. 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.