In the Shadow of the Sword The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World
by Tom Holland
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
'A stunning blockbuster' Robert Fisk
'A brilliant tour de force of revisionist scholarship and thrilling storytelling' Simon Sebag Montefiore
'A compelling detective story of the highest order'Sunday Times
'Tom Holland has an enviable gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of the past'Independent
In the 6th century AD, the Near East was divided between two venerable empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on and one had vanished forever, while the other seemed almost finished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval so profound that it spelt, in effect, the end of the ancient world. In the Shadow of the Sword explores how this came about. Spanning from Constantinople to the Arabian desert, and starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived, he tells a story vivid with drama, horror, and startling achievement.
HistoryAncientMiddle EastEuropeMedievalReligion
RELEASED2013
PUBLISHERAbacus
LENGTH574
LANGUAGEEN
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire his history of the Graeco-Persian wars, won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award in 2006; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, a panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000; In the Shadow of the Sword, which covers the collapse of Roman and Persian power in the Near East, and the emergence of Islam; and Dynasty, a portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty.
In the Shadow of the Sword The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World
by Tom Holland
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
'A stunning blockbuster' Robert Fisk
'A brilliant tour de force of revisionist scholarship and thrilling storytelling' Simon Sebag Montefiore
'A compelling detective story of the highest order'Sunday Times
'Tom Holland has an enviable gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of the past'Independent
In the 6th century AD, the Near East was divided between two venerable empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on and one had vanished forever, while the other seemed almost finished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval so profound that it spelt, in effect, the end of the ancient world. In the Shadow of the Sword explores how this came about. Spanning from Constantinople to the Arabian desert, and starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived, he tells a story vivid with drama, horror, and startling achievement.
HistoryAncientMiddle EastEuropeMedievalReligionIslamSocial Science
RELEASED2013
PUBLISHERAbacus
LENGTH574
LANGUAGEEN
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire his history of the Graeco-Persian wars, won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award in 2006; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, a panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000; In the Shadow of the Sword, which covers the collapse of Roman and Persian power in the Near East, and the emergence of Islam; and Dynasty, a portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty.
