Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West

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

"With passion, Raymond Ibrahim offers an edgy and eye-opening introduction to a millennium of warfare between the Muslim and Christian worlds before the modern age." ―Thomas Madden, award-winning author of Istanbul, Venice, and Concise History of the Crusades

The West and Islam―the sword and scimitar―have clashed since the mid-seventh 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 territory in 636, through the Muslim occupation of nearly three-quarters of Christendom (prompting the Crusades), followed by renewed Muslim conquests by Turks and Tatars, and 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 encounters―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.

Raymond Ibrahim is a best-selling author, historian, and one of today's most outspoken authorities on Islamic history, doctrine, and conflict. For nearly 25 years, his scholarship and commentary have challenged mainstream narratives and exposed truths about Islam and the West that few dare to confront. He has published over three thousand articles and essays.

His bestselling books include The Two Swords of Christ; Defenders of the West; Sword and Scimitar; Crucified Again; and The Al Qaeda Reader.

Mr. Ibrahim has contributed to numerous anthologies, written forewords to key works, and had his books translated into several languages.

Before being "canceled" for his candor, he appeared regularly on major outlets such as CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, Reuters, and Al-Jazeera. His op-eds, analyses, and translations have also been featured in The New York Times Syndicate, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard. Scholarly journals including Hoover Institution's Strategika, Middle East Quarterly, and Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst have likewise published his work, as have popular platforms such as American Thinker, Breitbart, Christian Post, PJ Media, National Review Online, NewsMax, LifeSiteNews, and The Stream.

A sought-after expert on Islam and its history, Mr. Ibrahim has lectured at numerous universities and institutions, including the U.S. Army War College and the National Defense Intelligence College, briefed U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, provided expert testimony in Islam-related legal cases, and testified before Congress on both the conceptual failures shaping American discourse on Islam and the worsening persecution of Christians across the Islamic world. He continues to speak at international conferences and before parliamentary bodies.

Born in the United States to Egyptian parents, Mr. Ibrahim possesses equal fluency in English and Arabic and a rare understanding of both Western and Middle Eastern mentalities—allowing him to interpret one world to the other with native precision. His lifelong engagement with the Middle East began with childhood visits to Egypt in the 1970s, where decades of firsthand experience deepened his appreciation for the region's culture, faith, and contradictions.

He earned his B.A. and M.A. in History from California State University, Fresno, specializing in the ancient and medieval Near East and studying under Victor Davis Hanson. He also pursued graduate work at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and at Catholic University of America, focusing on Medieval Islam and Semitic languages. His M.A. thesis examined an early Byzantine-Islamic clash using Arabic and Greek texts.

"Raymond Ibrahim's Sword and Scimitar is a much-needed history of landmark battles between Islam and the West, . . . [a] first-rate military history and a product of solid scholarship and philological research."―from the Foreword by Victor Davis Hanson, Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution

"With passion, Raymond Ibrahim offers an edgy and eye-opening introduction to a millennium of warfare between the Muslim and Christian worlds before the modern age."―Thomas Madden, Saint Louis University, and award-winning author of Istanbul, Venice, and Concise History of the Crusades

"The exhaustive scholarship is unassailable.... With almost 1,000 endnotes and 216 works cited―a wealth of primary source and arcane texts―Mr. Ibrahim, who has the unique capacity to read and study modern and classical Arabic, tells the story of these battles through the eyes of the participants in their own words and perspectives."―Washington Times; reviewed by Joseph C. Myers, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan and as a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst

"Impressively informative, Sword and Scimitar is an exceptional work of outstanding scholarship that is so well written it reads more like a deftly crafted novel than a non-fiction history."―Midwest Book Review

"[A] superbly written volume, making extensive use of primary sources from both sides, especially underutilized Arabic language sources... Enlightening for readers unfamiliar with the long history of war between these two faiths."―New York Journal of Books

"Raymond Ibrahim has the humility to take seriously the voices and opinions of history's Christians and Muslims; the result is a refreshingly honest account of Islamic expansion and Christian reaction that provides useful insights into today's problems. This is history as it should be done: allowing the past to inform and guide the present, rather than distorting the past to fit contemporary political ideologies."―Paul F. Crawford, Crusades historian, California University of Pennsylvania

"A vital contribution to our understanding of the most lethal and far-reaching geopolitical threat of our time.... In this meticulously researched work, Raymond Ibrahim shows how anti-western attitudes have been endemic in Islam throughout its history."―Melanie Phillips, best-selling British author of Londonistan and The World Turned Upside Down