What do you think?
Rate this book
The War of the Three Gods: Romans, Persians, and the Rise of Islam
The War of the Three Gods is a military history of the Near and Middle East in the seventh century-with its chief focus on the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius (AD 610–641)-a pivotal and dramatic time in world history. The Eastern Roman Empire was brought to the very brink of extinction by the Sassanid Persians before Heraclius managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Sassanids with a desperate, final gambit. His conquests were short-lived, however, for the newly converted adherents of Islam burst upon the region, administering the coup de grace to Sassanid power and laying siege to Constantinople itself, ushering in a new era.Peter Crawford skillfully narrates the three-way struggle between the Christian Roman, Zoroastrian Persian, and Islamic Arab empires, a period of conflict peopled with fascinating characters, including Heraclius, Khusro II, and the Prophet Muhammad himself. Many of the epic battles of the period-Nineveh, Yarmuk, Qadisiyyah and Nahavand-and sieges such as those of Jerusalem and Constantinople are described in as rich detail. The strategies and tactics of these very different armies are discussed and analyzed, while plentiful maps allow the reader to follow the events and varying fortunes of the contending empires. This is an exciting and important study of a conflict that reshaped the map of the world.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
395 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 16, 2013
274 people are currently reading
503 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
October 31, 2021
Sooo I’m listening to this book again and I still can’t absorb everything. It’s so dense tons of history. But I found an ebook at one of my libraries so I think I’m going to check that out. I have a feeling that will work out better. I just can’t keep all of the rulers and countries straight
Soo I’ve prob listened to this book four times now. It’s quite an impressive topic. I’m thinking of buying it but i dont know if I want the ebook I’m afraid it might bog down there’s just so much history that I’ve never learned. Like I said in a comment response there just has to be something sacred in that area for all of these ancient bands to be battling over it just as they do today. That just doesn’t happen. And it was also refreshing to read about this part of the world that has nothing to do with the crusades. Many authors want to pretend that nothing important happened until those began. Ummm obviously that’s incorrect.
Soo I’ve prob listened to this book four times now. It’s quite an impressive topic. I’m thinking of buying it but i dont know if I want the ebook I’m afraid it might bog down there’s just so much history that I’ve never learned. Like I said in a comment response there just has to be something sacred in that area for all of these ancient bands to be battling over it just as they do today. That just doesn’t happen. And it was also refreshing to read about this part of the world that has nothing to do with the crusades. Many authors want to pretend that nothing important happened until those began. Ummm obviously that’s incorrect.
October 7, 2015
A great story. Digging into all avaialable sources, the author has tried his best to put together a coherent description of the great war between Persia and Rome, followed by the Arab conquests all the way up to the fall of the Ummayad dynasty. The detail makes the military actions much more comprehensible and corrects many many misconceptions caused by generations of over-simplified and superficial accounts. Unfortunately, many of the interesting details about the first set of Arab conquests sound reasonable, but are based on such shaky sources that in every case something entirely different may have happened. We just don't know, and probably never will.
He also likes to present the military decisions of the early caliphs in exactly the same framework that he uses for the Persian and Roman leadership: intelligence is received, reinforcements are sent, reserves are mobilized, strategic decision and tactical maneuvers are discussed and implemented. The problem is, it may or may not have been like that. Maybe the Caliph and his government really did resemble the Roman and Persian states to some degree, but maybe it did not look like them at all. There is some possibility of things having been different and perhaps not so easily fitted into the standard framework Crawford has decided to use. On the other hand, maybe he is right. Maybe it is time to look at the events more as "normal" military history...
He also likes to present the military decisions of the early caliphs in exactly the same framework that he uses for the Persian and Roman leadership: intelligence is received, reinforcements are sent, reserves are mobilized, strategic decision and tactical maneuvers are discussed and implemented. The problem is, it may or may not have been like that. Maybe the Caliph and his government really did resemble the Roman and Persian states to some degree, but maybe it did not look like them at all. There is some possibility of things having been different and perhaps not so easily fitted into the standard framework Crawford has decided to use. On the other hand, maybe he is right. Maybe it is time to look at the events more as "normal" military history...
March 26, 2014
Engagingly written and nicely paced with a good blend of narrative and analysis. As you would expect from a Pen and Sword it leans heavily towards the military and definitely has the most comprehensive accounts I have come across of the early battles of the Arab Conquests with lots of deployment maps so you can follow the action blow by blow. It also takes the time to describe some of the smaller actions which other books I have read on this period skim over to get straight to the big decisive engagements. Definitely recommend both as a general intro to the period and for those after a bit more insight into the battles.
Want to read
March 5, 2020$1.99 Kindle and Kobo sale, March 5, 2020.
July 27, 2021
Written in an engaging style. The book provides a good overview of the collapse of the ancient order, including the military campaigns that change the maps of the world. One area left unexplored is *why* Islam triumphed - other than the exhaustion of the Roman and Persian armies after years of war.
January 3, 2022
Via Audible
Really enjoyed this one
Really enjoyed this one
September 3, 2017
This book covers the military and political history of the 7th century AD. The Roman and Persian empires had just spent two decades slugging each other back and forth in yet another war in their centuries-long rivalry for dominance in the Middle East. They had no idea that their worlds were about to be overturned by a brand new player emerging from the bowels of the Arabian Peninsula: adherents of the religion Islam.
Prior to reading this book, I only had a very broad brushstrokes knowledge of this era and place. I feel I now have a much better understanding of how Islam managed to dominate so quickly and of the factors that led to the severe weakening of the Romans and the ultimate demise of the Sassanid Persian Empire.
This was a good read (more of a 3.5 than 3), but I struggled with keeping track of a lot of the names. And because this era is so foreign to me, I would have appreciated even more maps and detailed graphics than were provided to help ground me in this time and place. But I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the geopolitical roots of Islam and/or the challenges faced by the Roman Empire in the middle of the first Millennium.
Prior to reading this book, I only had a very broad brushstrokes knowledge of this era and place. I feel I now have a much better understanding of how Islam managed to dominate so quickly and of the factors that led to the severe weakening of the Romans and the ultimate demise of the Sassanid Persian Empire.
This was a good read (more of a 3.5 than 3), but I struggled with keeping track of a lot of the names. And because this era is so foreign to me, I would have appreciated even more maps and detailed graphics than were provided to help ground me in this time and place. But I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the geopolitical roots of Islam and/or the challenges faced by the Roman Empire in the middle of the first Millennium.
August 28, 2022
In this book, the author, Peter Crawford, discusses the 7th century catastrophe that overtook both the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire. The choice of terminology may give some readers pause. What I am referring to as the Roman Empire is more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire. However, the name Byzantine is based on Byzantium, a city that was renamed Constantinople by Constantine and rebuilt as the capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. When the western half of the empire fell to Germanic invaders, the eastern half lived on and during the reign of Justinian regained control of much of the original Roman territories. The eastern empire called itself Roman. Enlightenment era historians coined the name Byzantine as a means of distinguishing the eastern empire from the earlier east/west empire. Consistent with the preferences of the eastern Romans, the author refers to them as Romans, as do I. When people think of the Persian Empire, they usually have in mind the one that conquered Babylon, unsuccessfully invaded Greece and ultimately fell to Alexander the Great. As the Greek successor empires weakened, the Parthian Empire arose, only to be supplanted by a resurgent Persian Empire. This is the Persian Empire featured in this book.
The catastrophe started with a particularly brutal war between the Persians and the Romans. War between Rome and Parthia and between Rome and Persia had been the norm for centuries. If a leader of either empire wanted glory or plunder, he would often pick a fight. Unlike earlier wars, however, this war tended toward the existential:
• Persia’s Avar and Slav allies on the Balkan Peninsula overran significant portions of Rome’s European territories and even besieged Constantinople. If not for their lack of siege equipment and skill in scaling or breaching city walls, they might well have captured it.
• Persia captured Egypt, robbing Constantinople of its breadbasket.
• A Roman army penetrated deep into Persian territory and captured Ctesiphon, the Persian capital. The Roman emperor had faced a choice. He could fall back and protect Constantinople and Roman territory on Asia Minor or, trusting the ability of the city’s defenses to hold up, he could aim his army at the Persian heart. His choice of the latter option was a bold gamble, but it worked.
Not surprisingly, both empires were severely depleted by the war, and the Persian empire was in shambles politically on account of a regime change. Both sides needed time to recover, time they never got.
In Arabia, the prophet Muhammed had founded a new religion, Islam, and one of the results of this was the Ridda wars, an effort by his followers to impose Islam on all Arab tribes in Arabia by military force. Having united the Arabs under the banner of Islam, Muslim armies turned their attention to the Romans and Persians, ultimately overrunning Persia entirely and seizing Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Historians tend to attribute this success to the depleted status of Rome and Persia in the wake of their war as well as to the effects of plague. In 541, bubonic plague spread throughout the Mediterranean basin and made an appearance once a generation for the next two centuries, reducing the population and number of males available for military service. It is believed that the plague bypassed Arabia. Mr. Crawford acknowledges these factors as important contributors to the Muslim victories but also proposes a third factor: generalship and military prowess among the Muslim leaders contrasted with leadership failures among the Romans and Persians. Consider the following:
• The Arab tribes had a history of raiding Roman and Persian border towns. At first, the Roman and Persian leaders assumed the Muslim attacks to be routine raiding. By the time they realized that they were facing an invasion, the Muslim Arabs had made significant inroads.
• On more than one occasion, Roman and/or Persian units came from different locations with plans to link up. When faced with this, the Arab leaders would take the initiative and rapidly attack these units one at a time with whatever forces they had available, wiping them out before they even had a chance to form up into larger armies.
• When an Arab Muslim army faced a Roman or Persian army in battle, the Arabs would challenge the opposing leaders to single combat ahead of battle. Since the Arab champions usually won these engagements, the Romans and Persians lost key leaders before the battle even began.
• The Arab leaders had a talent for luring the opposing army out of strong defensive positions and then using cavalry to launch hammer blows against its flanks, routing it. When they sent an army into flight, they didn’t sit on their laurels; rather, their cavalry followed up with a search and destroy mission to take out the fleeing survivors before they could form back up later. Entire armies were destroyed this way.
• When facing a fortified Christian city that had little chance of relief, the Arab leaders would offer the inhabitants the choice of being overrun and plundered or surrendering. If the city surrendered peacefully, having never engaged in battle with the Muslim army, it would be spared destruction, and its inhabitants would be permitted to continue practicing Christianity and/or Judaism and wouldn’t be forced to convert to Islam. They would have to live under Islamic rule, though. It was a shrewd move, for over time nominal Christians who valued improvements in life over Christianity would convert to Islam and gradually turn a majority Christian city into a majority Muslim city. A committed Christian, I grieve over this but also acknowledge the shrewdness of the long-term strategic thinking of the Muslim leadership.
History often operates in cycles. Sometimes, the Muslim world would be strong relative to Christian Europe, and sometimes the roles would be reversed. Starting with the age of exploration, Christian Europe grew strong while the Muslim world stagnated, giving Christian Europe, America, etc., a feeling of superiority, resulting in a hesitance to acknowledge the prowess of the Muslim leaders who took on Rome and Persia. In the current post-Christian and post-modern culture, there is more openness to the contributions of the rest of the world. Whether Peter Crawford’s willingness to come to terms with their military skill derives from the historical evidence or cultural trends, I cannot say, but I believe he made a good case and enjoyed the book.
The catastrophe started with a particularly brutal war between the Persians and the Romans. War between Rome and Parthia and between Rome and Persia had been the norm for centuries. If a leader of either empire wanted glory or plunder, he would often pick a fight. Unlike earlier wars, however, this war tended toward the existential:
• Persia’s Avar and Slav allies on the Balkan Peninsula overran significant portions of Rome’s European territories and even besieged Constantinople. If not for their lack of siege equipment and skill in scaling or breaching city walls, they might well have captured it.
• Persia captured Egypt, robbing Constantinople of its breadbasket.
• A Roman army penetrated deep into Persian territory and captured Ctesiphon, the Persian capital. The Roman emperor had faced a choice. He could fall back and protect Constantinople and Roman territory on Asia Minor or, trusting the ability of the city’s defenses to hold up, he could aim his army at the Persian heart. His choice of the latter option was a bold gamble, but it worked.
Not surprisingly, both empires were severely depleted by the war, and the Persian empire was in shambles politically on account of a regime change. Both sides needed time to recover, time they never got.
In Arabia, the prophet Muhammed had founded a new religion, Islam, and one of the results of this was the Ridda wars, an effort by his followers to impose Islam on all Arab tribes in Arabia by military force. Having united the Arabs under the banner of Islam, Muslim armies turned their attention to the Romans and Persians, ultimately overrunning Persia entirely and seizing Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Historians tend to attribute this success to the depleted status of Rome and Persia in the wake of their war as well as to the effects of plague. In 541, bubonic plague spread throughout the Mediterranean basin and made an appearance once a generation for the next two centuries, reducing the population and number of males available for military service. It is believed that the plague bypassed Arabia. Mr. Crawford acknowledges these factors as important contributors to the Muslim victories but also proposes a third factor: generalship and military prowess among the Muslim leaders contrasted with leadership failures among the Romans and Persians. Consider the following:
• The Arab tribes had a history of raiding Roman and Persian border towns. At first, the Roman and Persian leaders assumed the Muslim attacks to be routine raiding. By the time they realized that they were facing an invasion, the Muslim Arabs had made significant inroads.
• On more than one occasion, Roman and/or Persian units came from different locations with plans to link up. When faced with this, the Arab leaders would take the initiative and rapidly attack these units one at a time with whatever forces they had available, wiping them out before they even had a chance to form up into larger armies.
• When an Arab Muslim army faced a Roman or Persian army in battle, the Arabs would challenge the opposing leaders to single combat ahead of battle. Since the Arab champions usually won these engagements, the Romans and Persians lost key leaders before the battle even began.
• The Arab leaders had a talent for luring the opposing army out of strong defensive positions and then using cavalry to launch hammer blows against its flanks, routing it. When they sent an army into flight, they didn’t sit on their laurels; rather, their cavalry followed up with a search and destroy mission to take out the fleeing survivors before they could form back up later. Entire armies were destroyed this way.
• When facing a fortified Christian city that had little chance of relief, the Arab leaders would offer the inhabitants the choice of being overrun and plundered or surrendering. If the city surrendered peacefully, having never engaged in battle with the Muslim army, it would be spared destruction, and its inhabitants would be permitted to continue practicing Christianity and/or Judaism and wouldn’t be forced to convert to Islam. They would have to live under Islamic rule, though. It was a shrewd move, for over time nominal Christians who valued improvements in life over Christianity would convert to Islam and gradually turn a majority Christian city into a majority Muslim city. A committed Christian, I grieve over this but also acknowledge the shrewdness of the long-term strategic thinking of the Muslim leadership.
History often operates in cycles. Sometimes, the Muslim world would be strong relative to Christian Europe, and sometimes the roles would be reversed. Starting with the age of exploration, Christian Europe grew strong while the Muslim world stagnated, giving Christian Europe, America, etc., a feeling of superiority, resulting in a hesitance to acknowledge the prowess of the Muslim leaders who took on Rome and Persia. In the current post-Christian and post-modern culture, there is more openness to the contributions of the rest of the world. Whether Peter Crawford’s willingness to come to terms with their military skill derives from the historical evidence or cultural trends, I cannot say, but I believe he made a good case and enjoyed the book.
September 26, 2022
This is a history book describing the wars and interactions between three empires, namely the Eastern Roman Empire (soon to be called the Byzantine Empire), the Sassanid Persian Empire, and the Islamic Caliphate, in the 7th and 8th centuries.
As background to the beginning of this era, major civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Persian plateau had been at war with each other on a regular basis for almost a thousand years, such as the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes vs. the Greek city states, the Parthian Empire vs. the classical Roman Empire, and finally the Sassanid Empire vs. the Eastern Roman Empire.
By the 7th century, an uneasy status quo had been established between these two empires. This was disrupted, oddly enough, when the Eastern Roman Emperor Mauricius helped the deposed Sassanid Emperor Khusro II regain his throne. However, when Mauricius himself was usurped, this persuaded Khusro to declare war on the new emperor. This was followed by decades of war that left both empires weakened and unprepared to a new rising power, the Islamic Caliphate.
All together, this book provides a coherent and fairly in-depth description of how the events in this era unfolded leading to massive changes in the balance of power in the region for centuries to come.
As background to the beginning of this era, major civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Persian plateau had been at war with each other on a regular basis for almost a thousand years, such as the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes vs. the Greek city states, the Parthian Empire vs. the classical Roman Empire, and finally the Sassanid Empire vs. the Eastern Roman Empire.
By the 7th century, an uneasy status quo had been established between these two empires. This was disrupted, oddly enough, when the Eastern Roman Emperor Mauricius helped the deposed Sassanid Emperor Khusro II regain his throne. However, when Mauricius himself was usurped, this persuaded Khusro to declare war on the new emperor. This was followed by decades of war that left both empires weakened and unprepared to a new rising power, the Islamic Caliphate.
All together, this book provides a coherent and fairly in-depth description of how the events in this era unfolded leading to massive changes in the balance of power in the region for centuries to come.
March 2, 2022
- Book Review: "The War of the Three Gods" by Peter Crawford - 📚☦️☫☪️
In a word: thrilling!
This book is an absolute must read for anyone interested in the Late Antique Middle East period that saw the clash of two superpowers - the Eastern Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire & the Zoroastrian Persian Sassanid Empire - and the meteoric rise of the Arab-Muslim Empire.
The three main protagonists being the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, the Persian Emperor Khusro II, and the Arab-Muslim General of the Rashidun Caliphate Khalid Ibn Al-Walid.
The book shows in great detail the guile of Emperor Heraclius as he personally led campaigns to win back lost territories from the Persians.
It shows how the Persians were for the most part self-destructing from within due to infighting.
And last but not least, the book demonstrates in full details the sheer genius of Khalid Ibn Al-Walid as one of the greatest military generals of his generation, and arguably the greatest cavalry commander of all time.
So decisive were the events in this time period in the 7th century CE that it's effects are still seen till this day.
No negative critique per se, except that reading about war stories in full battle detail is - quite literally - an acquired taste.
My rating: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
In a word: thrilling!
This book is an absolute must read for anyone interested in the Late Antique Middle East period that saw the clash of two superpowers - the Eastern Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire & the Zoroastrian Persian Sassanid Empire - and the meteoric rise of the Arab-Muslim Empire.
The three main protagonists being the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, the Persian Emperor Khusro II, and the Arab-Muslim General of the Rashidun Caliphate Khalid Ibn Al-Walid.
The book shows in great detail the guile of Emperor Heraclius as he personally led campaigns to win back lost territories from the Persians.
It shows how the Persians were for the most part self-destructing from within due to infighting.
And last but not least, the book demonstrates in full details the sheer genius of Khalid Ibn Al-Walid as one of the greatest military generals of his generation, and arguably the greatest cavalry commander of all time.
So decisive were the events in this time period in the 7th century CE that it's effects are still seen till this day.
No negative critique per se, except that reading about war stories in full battle detail is - quite literally - an acquired taste.
My rating: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
October 29, 2019
The 7th century AD sees the end of the wars between the eastern Roman Empire (the western Empire having fallen a century earlier) and the last Persian empire, the Sassanids, as they fight themselves to a standstill. This set the stage for the rise of Islam and its first Caliphate, and they spread and conquer the Middle East (finishing off the Persians in the process) and north Africa, and leaving the Romans with basically modern Turkey and Greece. They take Jerusalem for the first time, and it doesn’t leave their hands til the First Crusade 500+ years later. This book is a good overview of that time, focusing mainly on the military campaigns. A bit dry at times, but certainly interesting. It made me want to look up lots of things - places, people, tactics - which is always a good sign. I wish the maps were better in it, with more detail, but that a nitpick.
December 12, 2020
This is a straight up military history. One damn battle after another. It was like reading Tacitus or maybe The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It just goes on and on. It's hard to keep the battles and different phases of the neverending wars separate. I would have enjoyed more about the society or the personalities of the leaders or the military technology. It was interesting to learn about the early spread of Islam through jihad and how the great Persian empire collapsed. But between the difficult foreign names and the battle after battle after battle presentation, much of it turns into a great blur. I have read a bit a about Byzantium in other books, so the parts that are told from the Byzantine perspective stuck with me better, but I'll remember little beyond the general themes about the Persians and Muslims.
February 13, 2022
This was a disappointment. After the first couple of chapters the book was almost entirely about battle strategies with no analysis or interesting descriptions, instead listing what happened on each day. Almost nothing about the ideology, politics or history of the region. If you're really into knowing exactly what day a group of horses turned left or right then this is for you. For me it was pretty boring.
Also didn't help that this audiobook was narrated by the same guy who narrated everything on the History Channel back when that channel did history. If you remember falling asleep to "World: A Television History" then you will recognize the narrator. No inflection, no emphasis, just totally monotone as he mispronounces words like "quay".
Also didn't help that this audiobook was narrated by the same guy who narrated everything on the History Channel back when that channel did history. If you remember falling asleep to "World: A Television History" then you will recognize the narrator. No inflection, no emphasis, just totally monotone as he mispronounces words like "quay".
April 8, 2021
I was very disappointed by this book, and honestly would not recommend this to anyone, unless you are interested in reading troop movement manuals. The title implied that it was about three faiths, therefore I expected that there would be more than a cursory cover of the subject. Instead page after page discussed troop movements in various battles. That would have been fine, I guess, but the audio book reader was horrible! The man struggled with basic pronunciations...my personal favorite was his transposition of "Cavalry" and "Calvary".
Don't bother with this book. Seek out something else.
Don't bother with this book. Seek out something else.
August 5, 2017
If you are really interested in military history, and the conflicts between the Romans and the Persians, and how this led to the rise of Islam in the 600s, this book is for you. It is very detailed with specifics to the use of tactics, and to internal political conflicts in the three empires. Over a roughly one hundred year period the geopolitical structure around the Mediterranean Sea completely changed. The last time something of this scale had happened was the invasion of the Sea People in 1174 BC.
August 19, 2017
Really enjoyed this one as it gave me a more in depth knowledge on the final Roman vs Persian War as well as the rise and spread of Islam as a military and political power. Audible was very helpful in adding a downloadable map aids to help out with the understanding of geography and I am left with a little frustration as there is no graphical representation of the dramatis personae; namely Heraclius, Khosroe II, Muhammed, Khalid ibn al Walid etc. Great narration by James Lurie as I recognized his voice in History Channel shows.
Read
July 18, 2022An account of the conflicts between the three empires of the Middle East during the 7th century. The Eastern Roman and Persian empires having fought each other into exhaustion, they were overrun by the armies of Islam, newly inspired and released from their peninsula. Each empire faced internal rebellions, with varying degrees of resilience. Author Crawford's interest originates in military history, extends into various reasons for the success of the Islamic Empire, and follows it into the 8th century until it runs out of steam at both its Eastern and Western ends.
February 24, 2023
It’s not really the writer’s fault that I didn’t grasp his concept before starting it. I expected a book about the perspective of three faiths in violent coexistence over centuries. This is a book about a (absolutely pivotal) century in history.
Imagine you’re reading a detailed blow-by-blow history of something like WW2. Now imagine that applied to a specific and lesser-known epoch: the 7th century.
Not faulting it. This is amazing history. But I was expecting a bit more bird’s eye than microscope.
Imagine you’re reading a detailed blow-by-blow history of something like WW2. Now imagine that applied to a specific and lesser-known epoch: the 7th century.
Not faulting it. This is amazing history. But I was expecting a bit more bird’s eye than microscope.
August 12, 2017
Good background history
Knowing the history of this time period helps understand where we are in today's world. Although not a particularly religious book, since much of this time period revolves around religion the author does a good job of weaving it into the narrative. Sometimes the details of each and every battle can become a bit tedious at times, the author's research on the topic is outstanding.
Knowing the history of this time period helps understand where we are in today's world. Although not a particularly religious book, since much of this time period revolves around religion the author does a good job of weaving it into the narrative. Sometimes the details of each and every battle can become a bit tedious at times, the author's research on the topic is outstanding.
June 26, 2022
A fascinating concise history of the eastern world focusing on the Persian and Roman empires. With the game changing addition of Muhammad and the new Islamic order which conquered the Persians and blooded the Romans into a weaker state.
Crawford attempts to decipher these events through very shady religious, military and political primary sources and does a fair job of presenting a believable narrative.
Crawford attempts to decipher these events through very shady religious, military and political primary sources and does a fair job of presenting a believable narrative.
August 9, 2021
Was not impressed... While the subject is of great interest: the rise of Islam early on... the treatment is poor, with no insight into the thinking, motivation, world view, etc. of the identified participants. Gibbon covers the issue a lot better. I would have thought that with good historiographic research and information, a deeper analysis would have been provided.
March 31, 2019
Monotheism
While there was a lot of good information in this book, it was like any other historical reference; a bit drab at times. I prefer the history that is closer to my generation, but I also understand that all history is good to know.
While there was a lot of good information in this book, it was like any other historical reference; a bit drab at times. I prefer the history that is closer to my generation, but I also understand that all history is good to know.
July 15, 2019
Religious Wars
Religion as the main cause of centuries of war and conflict to establish dominance of one Faith over others. Ultimate struggle for power with religion at its core. Us versus Them!
Religion as the main cause of centuries of war and conflict to establish dominance of one Faith over others. Ultimate struggle for power with religion at its core. Us versus Them!
November 15, 2020
A great survey of the campaigns and politics that swirled around one of the most pivotal moments in world history. It was great to fill in so many of the details, and to see both continuities and ruptures across the three cultures and many decades covered by the author.
October 28, 2023
A remarkable narrative, presented with diagrams and maps to fully help the reader comprehend the world changing events of the 7th century. A must read for those who are curious about how the Islamic empire was forged
July 19, 2017
Poor Read
Great subject matter. But, a tedious read. Many guesses about what happened. I would not recommend to casual historian reader.
Great subject matter. But, a tedious read. Many guesses about what happened. I would not recommend to casual historian reader.
November 6, 2019
The book covers an interesant period of history .I will be very short the book is interesting but as a downfal it lacks a critical analise of islamic surces ,it folows the narative without adding some new insights .
June 15, 2020
A fascinating history that reads like a novel. I learned a great many things I had no idea about previously.
May 15, 2021
This is one of the better ones.
February 7, 2022
Very interesting account of the rise of Islam set against an era of war between the Persian and Roman empires.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews