The Shade of Swords 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

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,

M.J. Akbar’s gripping story explains how jihad thrives on complex and shifting notions of persecution,

victory and sacrifice.
The conflict between Islam and Christianity began from the time of

the Prophet himself and has acquired myriad shapes over fourteen hundred years:

in doctrine, dialectics, literature, culture, and of course on the battlefield, from the fall of Jerusalem to the Caliph Omar in 637, to the presence of British and American troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2002. The fire that is visible on the Muslim street across the world today is fuelled by a perception of injustice and exploitation by the West.