The Shade of Swords Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam & Christianity

M.J.Akbar, an Indian journalist and author, traces the origins of Jihad in the struggle against oppression that was part of the earliest consciousness of Muslims. Travelling across centuries and continents, from the triumphant rise of Islam under the Prophet Muhammad to the depression of defeat in the first Crusade, through the renewal of Saladin to the rise and fall of the Ottoman and Mughal empires and the raw passions of Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent, Akbar's gripping story explains how Jihad thrives on complex and shifting notions of persecution, victory and sacrifice.