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In the Shadow of the Sword
Global Empire and the Rise of a New Religion
- Author: Tom Holland
- Category: Non-fiction Narrative Philosophy / Religion
- Publisher: Little, Brown (UK) / Doubleday (US)
- Pub date: 5 April 2012
- Length: 544 pages
About In the Shadow of the Sword
Every bit as thrilling a narrative history as Holland’s previous works, In the Shadow of the Sword is also a profoundly important book
– SUNDAY TIMES
In the sixth century AD, the Near East was divided between two great empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on, and one had vanished forever, while the other was a dismembered, bleeding trunk. In their place, a new superpower had arisen: the empire of the Arabs. So profound was this upheaval that it spelt, in effect, the end of the ancient world.
But the changes that marked the period were more than merely geo-political. It witnessed as well a transformation of human society with incalculable consequences for the future. Today, over half the population of the world subscribe to one of the various religions that took on something like their current form during the final centuries of antiquity. Wherever men or women are inspired by belief in a single god to think or behave in a certain way, they bear witness to the abiding impact of this extraordinary, convulsive age.
About the Author
Tom Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in Salisbury, England. He obtained a double first in English and Latin at Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is the author of RUBICON: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (Little, Brown, 2003) and PERSIAN FIRE: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West (Little, Brown, 2005), and MILLENNIUM: The Eleventh Century and the Making of the West (Little, Brown, 2008). He has adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio, and lives in London with his wife and two small children.