In the Shadow of the Sword (book)
| Company type | Book |
|---|---|
| Industry | Historical literature |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Tom Holland |
| Products | Historical study on the origins of Islam |
In the Shadow of the Sword (2012) is a historical study authored by Tom Holland that investigates the beginnings of Islam.
Scholarship
This work utilizes perspectives from the revisionist school of Islamic studies and references academics such as Patricia Crone, John Wansbrough, Fred Donner, and Andrew Rippin, employing meticulous textual scrutiny of the Hadithic corpus.[1][2][3]
Holland contends that the earliest biographical narratives concerning Muhammad originate from theological texts composed nearly 200 years after his passing, which were intended to legitimize religious authority. He points out that pre-eighth century sources lack any mention or commentary on the Quran and observes that the Quran does not specify Mecca’s exact location.[4][1] Questioning the validity of traditional accounts, he argues that later Muslim sources conflate literary creation with historical fact. Instead, he proposes a revisionist perspective portraying Islam’s emergence as a socio-political phenomenon evolving over two centuries in response to Arab dominance.[1][5][3][6]
Holland further claims that Quranic descriptions are inconsistent with desert Arabian settings, suggesting Syria-Palestine as Islam’s true place of origin. He portrays Muhammad as a literate member of Jordanian elite society, conscious of religion’s influence, and proposes that elements such as Gabriel’s revelations and fundamental Islamic doctrines were adapted from existing Near Eastern cultures and faiths.[2][1][7][3]
Positive
Dan Jones of The Daily Telegraph lauded Holland for his scholarly rigor and eloquent writing, highlighting the provocative nature of his thesis. In The Guardian, Anthony Sattin praised Holland’s daring reappraisal of early Islamic history. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Malise Ruthven regarded the book as an authoritative account linking the collapse of empires to Islam’s emergence.
Mixed
Barnaby Rogerson in The Independent described the book as detailed and engaging but expressed doubts about Holland’s source interpretation, particularly his shift of Islam’s origins to Syria-Palestine and skepticism regarding Mecca’s historicity. In the Financial Times, Richard Miles characterized it as a thrilling yet highly skeptical narrative that challenges established views on early Islam and questions whether extensive historical fabrication is plausible.
Critical
Historian Glen Bowersock criticized the book in The Guardian as unreliable and irresponsible, citing Holland’s lack of proficiency in original languages, dependence on translations, and disregard for recent scholarship on pre-Islamic Arabia and early Quranic manuscripts. Holland responded to these critiques within the same publication. In the New Statesman, Ziauddin Sardar accused the book of pandering to growing Islamophobic attitudes, relying on a discredited group of orientalists while dismissing Muslim scholarship with arrogance and inaccuracies. Nebil Husayn, formerly at Princeton University, criticized it in the Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies for neglecting contemporary methodological developments in Islamic historiography and likened it to orientalist tropes.
See also
References
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