Tom Holland is a historian of the ancient world and a
translator. His books include Rubicon: The Triumph and
Tragedy of the Roman Republic, Persian
Fire, In the Shadow of the
Sword and The Forge of Christendom. He has
adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. In
2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded
to “the individual who has done most to promote the study of the
language, literature and civilization of Ancient Greece and Rome.”
He lives in London with his family.
Visit the author's website at www.tom-holland.org.
Praise for Tom Holland's In the Shadow of the Sword
“Elegantly written. . . . A veritable tour de force.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“A brilliant tour de force of revisionist scholarship and thrilling
storytelling with a bloodspattered cast of swashbuckling tyrants,
nymphomaniacal empresses and visionary prophets. The book is
unputdownable. . . . An important work based on respected
scholarship. It takes courage and intellect to confront such
complexity and sensitivity. Written with flamboyant elegance and
energetic intensity.”
—The Times (London)
“Accessible but delightful . . . as fun to read as any thriller,
and with far richer intellectual nutritional content. . . . Those
unwilling to struggle through academic texts have long needed a
guide to the story of Islam as it’s understood by those with the
fullest access to the latest linguistic and archaeological
evidence. Now at last in Tom Holland’s In the Shadow of the Sword,
they finally have it. . . . Holland—author previously of Rubicon
and Persian Fire—is about as exciting a stylist as we have writing
history today.”
—The Daily Beast
“[Holland’s] prose is shot through with wit and empathy. The result
is a portrait of a lost world that is complex, contradictory and
populated by people in thrall to ideas future generations would
dismiss as ridiculous. Much like our own, in other words.”
—Dallas Morning News
“[An] elegant study of the roiling era of internecine religious
rivalry and epic strife that saw the nation of Islam rise and
conquer. . . . Holland confronts questions in the Quranic text
head-on, providing a substantive, fluid exegesis on the original
documents. Smoothly composed history and fine scholarship.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Tom Holland is a writer of clarity and expertise, who talks us
through this unfamiliar and crowded territory with energy and some
dry wit. . . . The emergence of Islam is a notoriously risky
subject, so a confident historian who is able to explain where this
great religion came from without illusion or dissimulation has us
greatly in his debt.”
—The Spectator (London)
“This is a book of extraordinary richness. I found myself amused,
diverted and enchanted by turn. For Tom Holland has an enviable
gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of
the past, without sacrificing factual integrity. He writes with a
contagious conviction that history is not only a fascinating tale
in itself but is a well-honed instrument with which we can
understand our neighbours and our own times, maybe even ourselves.
He is also a divertingly inventive writer with a wicked wit—there’s
something of both Gibbon and Tom Wolfe in his writing. In the
Shadow of the Sword remains a spell-bindingly brilliant multiple
portrait of the triumph of monotheism in the ancient world.”
—The Independent (London)
“This is a handsome volume, tackling an important question from a
novel perspective.”
—Sunday Telegraph (London)
“Holland tells a complex story, dotted with names and places
leagues beyond the realm of popular recognition. Yet he makes it
unmistakably his own. He is one of the most distinctive prose
stylists writing history today, and he drags his tale by the ears,
conjuring the half-vanished past with such gusto that characters
and places fairly bound from the page. In the Shadow of the Sword
may reach provocative conclusions, but it is also a work of
impressive sensitivity and scholarship.”
—Telegraph (London)
“An exhilarating read because Holland succeeds in capturing much of
the excitement, strangeness and importance of a long past age. It
is difficult not to be bedazzled.”
—Financial Times (London)
“An ambitious and important book. . . . His excellent book will be
lauded, as it should be for doing what the best sort of books can
do—examining holy cows.”
—The Observer (London)
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