Sword of the Prophet

Robert McNamara, while being interviewed on TV in the wake of the attack on mainland America, said that one of the big mistakes we made in Vietnam was that we didn't understand the Vietnamese and they didn't understand us. We will never forget September 11, 2001. For most of us it was our first experience in what another commentator called `in-your-face terrorism.' Now, we need to understand why we were attacked. We need to understand the history and motivation of our enemies. We need to understand why there is an insurrection in Iraq. We need to understand the historical and religious background of our friends in the Islamic World. "The Sword of the Prophet" is an excellent place to begin a journey of understanding. It was published in 1973 and begins explosively with the so-called `Yom Kippur' war. In his introduction, Goldston tells us (a bit too optimistically, I'm afraid): "As Americans, under the pressure of urgent necessity, took a new look at the Arab world, the fog of prejudice began to lift from a colorful, noble, and fascinating historical landscape. In that landscape they could discern the real meaning of many hitherto puzzling movements and events---and in it too they could find the roots of much that was vital in their own past. For the history of Islam, it turned out, was an integral part of the heritage of all peoples, a part of the human story that had its origins in remote and even legendary times..." If you didn't read "Sword of the Prophet" back when it was first published, there is still time to do so. Since this is a brief, 211-page book, the author of necessity presents a very panoramic view of the beginnings of Islam and how it became such a unifying force---a little more than a hundred years after the time of Mohammed, the Arabs created an empire that stretched from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas. They didn't relinquish the last of their strongholds in Spain until 1492. Their armies were still hammering at the gates of Vienna in 1683. How Islam conquered its enemies and why, the rise and fall of a succession of Islamic empires, and the causes of Islam's fiery reawakening after World War II are all vividly and succinctly presented in "The Sword of the Prophet." Americans who want to understand the difficulties of our crusade against Osama bin Laden should read Goldston's (very brief) account of the Hashashin and the Old Man of the Mountains.

Robert McNamara, while being interviewed on TV in the wake of the attack on mainland America, said that one of the big mistakes we made in Vietnam was that we didn't understand the Vietnamese and they didn't understand us.We will never forget the sheer horror of what happened on September 11, 2001. For most of us it was our first experience in what another commentator called `in-your-face terrorism.'Now, we need to understand why we were attacked. We need to understand the history and motivation of our enemies. We need to understand the historical and religious background of our friends in the Islamic World."The Sword of the Prophet" is an excellent place to begin a journey of understanding. It was published in 1973 and begins explosively with the so-called `Yom Kippur' war. In his introduction, Goldston tells us (a bit too optimistically, I'm afraid):"As Americans, under the pressure of urgent necessity, took a new look at the Arab world, the fog of prejudice began to lift from a colorful, noble, and fascinating historical landscape. In that landscape they could discern the real meaning of many hitherto puzzling movements and events---and in it too they could find the roots of much that was vital in their own past. For the history of Islam, it turned out, was an integral part of the heritage of all peoples, a part of the human story that had its origins in remote and even legendary times..."If you didn't read "Sword of the Prophet" back when it was first published, there is still time to do so. Since this is a brief, 211-page book, the author of necessity presents a very panoramic view of the beginnings of Islam and how it became such a unifying force---a little more than a hundred years after the time of Mohammed, the Arabs created an empire that stretched from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas. They didn't relinquish the last of their strongholds in Spain until 1492. Their armies were still hammering at the gates of Vienna in 1683.How Islam conquered its enemies and why, the rise and fall of a succession of Islamic empires, and the causes of Islam's fiery reawakening after World War II are all vividly and succinctly presented in "The Sword of the Prophet."Americans who want to understand the difficulties of our potential crusade against Osama bin Laden should read Goldston's (very brief) account of the Hashashin and the Old Man of the Mountains.Other books that are both readable and touch more deeply on the history and meaning of Islam are "The Age of Faith" by Will Durant, "A History of the Arab Peoples" by Albert Hourani, and "Islam," edited by John Alden Williams.