February 2015 was the first time many in the West heard of the Copts, Egypt’s indigenous, Christian inhabitants. Then, the Islamic State published what subsequently went viral—a gory video of their jihadi members savagely carving off the heads of 20 Copts and one Ghanaian by the shores of Libya because they refused to renounce Christ […]
Sword and Scimitar : “Not for the Squeamish”
Note: The following book review appeared on Moonbattery: We might reverse the decline and fall of Western Civilization if only we could get enough people to read Sword and Scimitar, a new book by Raymond Ibrahim. This highly readable military history of the ongoing 1,400-year war between Islam and the West focuses on eight key […]
Shock Therapy from Islamic History
The following article/review of Sword and Scimitar was originally written in the Czech language by Benjamin Kuras, a journalist and author (original here). Titled “Shock Therapy from Islamic History,” it was published on Nov. 25, 2019: Here and there a book appears that has the effect of a therapeutic shock. In today’s confused world, crowded […]
American Thinker: “Raymond Ibrahim and the History the Army Refuses to Heed”
On November 13, 2019, American Thinker published a review by John Dale Dunn, titled “Raymond Ibrahim and the History the Army Refuses to Heed.” A shortened version follow: In the book Sword and Scimitar Raymond Ibrahim, an Egyptian Christian, tells the story of the millennium-plus of conflict between Islam and Western (Christian) Nations, structured on 8 landmark […]
Sword and Scimitar: “Both a Treasure of Detailed Scholarship and Page-Turning Storytelling”
The following book review of my Sword and Scimitar was written by Mark Tapson for FrontPage Magazine, Oct. 9, 2019: On the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 jihadist attacks on United States soil, as on every anniversary, the cry “Never forget!” went out across social media as Americans somberly vowed to keep the memory […]
Sword and Scimitar: “A Compelling Reminder of the Terrifying Dynamic which Continues to Drive the Islamic World”
Note: The following book review of my Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West was written by Terry Scambray and first appeared in the Sept. 2019 issue of the New Oxford Review: We judge individuals by what they say and what they do. We judge cults, religions and ideologies the […]
The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs
Note: The following is a book review of The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs by Martin Mosebach. A shorter version was first published by the Middle East Quarterly (Fall 2019, Vol. 26, No. 4). To learn as much as possible of the 21 Coptic Christians martyred for refusing to recant their […]
Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean
Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean by Joshua M. WhiteStanford: Stanford University Press, 2017. 376 pp. Reviewed by Raymond IbrahimAuthor of Sword and Scimitar Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2019 In the late sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire and its European opponents increasingly withdrew from the Mediterranean, their primary theater of war, leaving it to privateer […]
Juan Cole’s Imaginary Muhammad
Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires by Juan ColeNew York: Nation Books, 2018. 336 pp. Reviewed by Raymond IbrahimAuthor of Sword and Scimitar Middle East QuarterlySummer 2019 (view PDF) Note: Cole’s ludicrous pro-Islamic revisionist history, which I review below, is representative of the only sort of history that CAIR and its Islamist allies insist […]
Reversing the Roles of Crusade and Jihad
Editor’s note: The following book review by Raymond Ibrahim of William R. Polk’s book, Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War between the Muslim World and the Global North (Yale University press, Jan. 2018) first appeared in the Christian Research Journal. ——– From beginning to end, Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War between the Muslim World and the […]