Full Description
'A fascinating history', Charles Moore, The Spectator
A powerful history of the most significant military clashes between Islam and Christendom over the 1,300 years of the Muslim caliphate.
From the taking of the holy city of Jerusalem in the 7th century AD by Caliph Umar, to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the end of World War I, Christian popes, emperors and kings, and Muslim caliphs and sultans were locked in a 1300-year battle for political, military, ideological, economic and religious supremacy.
In this powerful history of the era, acknowledged expert on the history of the Middle East and the Crusades Simon Mayall focuses on some of the most significant clashes of arms in human history: the taking and retaking of Jerusalem and the collapse of the Crusader states; the fall of Constantinople; the sieges of Rhodes and Malta; the assault on Vienna and the 'high-water mark' of Ottoman advance into Europe; culminating in the Allied capture of Jerusalem in World War I, the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the dissolution of the sultanate and the caliphate, and the formation of modern Europe and the modern Middle East.
The House of War offers a wide, sweeping narrative, encompassing the broad historical and religious context of this period, while focussing on some of the key, pivotal sieges and battles, and on the protagonists, political and military, who determined their conclusions and their consequences.
Contents
Author's Note and Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations and Maps
Introduction
Part One: The Battle Lines are Drawn
1. Rise of the Caliphate: Yarmouk and al-Qadisiyyah 636
Part Two: The Contest for the Holy Land
2. Victory in the East: Jerusalem 1099
3. Disaster at the Horns: Hattin 1187
4. Expulsion from Eden: Acre 1291
Part Three: Ruin of an Empire
5. The Walls Fail: Constantinople 1453
Part Four: The Struggle for the Middle Sea
6. The Knights at Bay: Rhodes 1522
7. They Shall Not Pass: Malta 1565
8. 'There Was a Man Called John': Lepanto 1571
Part Five: The Marches of Central Europe
9. 'Like a Flood of Black Pitch': Vienna 1683
Part Six: The World Remade
10. He Stoops to Conquer: Jerusalem 1917
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
