In The Shadow Of The Sword

Author Tom Holland
Narrator Jonathan Keeble, Tom Holland
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Run Time 14 hours and 9 minutes
Format Audio
Genre History.

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What to expect

Praise for Persian Fire

'An unequivocal argument for the relevance of ancient history . . . Holland never strains for modern references; they are implicit in the stories he tells with such scholarship and flair'
Geraldine Bedell, Observer

'Brings this tumultuous, epoch-making period dazzlingly to life'
William Napier, Independent on Sunday

'Tom Holland has a rare eye for the detail, drama and the telling anecdote . . . A vibrant, bloodthirsty history, told with a rich sense of irony and irresistible narrative timing'
Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph

Critics Review

Holland’s new book traces the process by which the world of the first millennium came to be dominated by one God, three religions and an innumerable succession of emperors
Daily Telegraph
It is difficult not to be bedazzled by a cast that includes ulcerated Christian holy men, Zoroastrian priests obsessed with dental hygiene, demonic emperors, barbarians with self-inflicted cranial deformities and Arab ambassadors stinking of camel
Financial Times
Sweeping and perceptive. His major achievement is to set out just how uncertain is our grasp on the immediate setting of Muhammad’s life, and on the formation of the Koran. At this moment in world history above all, it should be required reading
Professor Sir Fergus Millar
Holland is a restless wanderer across the ancient world, both geographically and intellectually… A dazzling range of characters… Holland is a skilful and energetic narrator, and while he guides us along the more intricate twists and turns of the period, he also keeps our eyes on the bigger story
Observer
Holland leaves almost no aspect of the traditional story of Islam intact as he charts its rise to global power from the ashes of the Roman and Persian empires
Sunday Times
A work of history, trying to tell the truth, as modern historians understand that fraught concept… A gripping, colourful book
Daily Telegraph
A handsome volume, tackling an important question from a novel perspective, backed by useful notes and written in an accessible and fluid style
Sunday Telegraph
A brave and valuable attempt to train the lens of popular history upon an exceptionally contentious field of study… elegant and entertaining… In the Shadow of the Sword stands as a useful, and sometimes provocative, starting point for anyone interested in approaching the birth of Islam from a historical, rather than devotional, perspective
Literary Review
Elegantly written and refreshingly free from specialist jargon… marshalling its resources with dexterity, it is a veritable tour de force
Wall Street Journal
Those unwilling to struggle through academic texts have long needed a guide to the story of Islam as it’s understood by those with the fullest access to the latest linguistic and archaeological evidence. Now at last in Tom Holland’s In the Shadow of the Sword, they finally have it
Daily Beast

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