The shade of swords: Jihad and the conflict between Islam and christianity PDF
Preview The shade of swords: Jihad and the conflict between Islam and christianity
THE SHADE OF SWORDS Shad-pre.p65 1 4/17/02, 3:18 PM THE SHADE OF SWORDS (cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:4)(cid:7)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:8)(cid:3)(cid:9)(cid:6) (cid:13)(cid:10)(cid:7)(cid:11)(cid:12)(cid:2)(cid:13)(cid:8)(cid:6)(cid:14)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:15)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:7)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:12)(cid:4)(cid:18)(cid:6)(cid:4)(cid:7)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:19)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:2)(cid:17)(cid:8)(cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:7)(cid:2)(cid:8)(cid:21) M.J. AKBAR London and New York Shad-pre.p65 3 4/17/02, 3:18 PM First published in the UK in 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Roli Books M-75, Greater Kailash - II (Market), New Delhi - 48, India Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 2002 M.J. Akbar All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-415-28470-8 (Print Edition) ISBN 0-203-40210-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-71034-7 (Glassbook Format) To the memory of Ammiji and Abbaji, who are still with me Shad-pre.p65 5 4/17/02, 3:18 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Preface xiii Introduction xv 1 Chapter and Verse 1 2 The Joys of Death: A Bargain with Allah 12 3 Rebellions in the Dark of the Night 26 4 A Map of Islam 40 5 Circle of Hell 52 6 Allah! Muhammad! Saladin! 67 7 The Doors of Europe 83 8 Jihad in the East: A Crescent Over Delhi 99 9 The Holy Sea: Pepper and Power 113 10 The Bargain Goes Sour 131 11 The Wedge and the Gate 145 12 History as Anger, Jihad as Non-violence 160 13 Islam in Danger Zone 177 14 Jinnah Redux and the Age of Osama 189 Glossary 214 A Suggested Reading List 218 Thumbnail Sketches 228 A Relevant Calendar 239 Index 251 Shad-pre.p65 7 4/17/02, 3:18 PM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Authors are loath to admit it but they labour under both conception and misconception. Time is one judge of the difference. This book has had an exceptionally tortured pregnancy, so the list of those in whose debt I am is long, much longer than the few names that will appear. One of the first essays that I wrote on the shifting mood of the Islamic world emerged out of travel in the 1980s through the debris of a collaps- ing Soviet Union, and the sudden surge of Islam through some of the oldest Muslim countries in the world, in Central Asia. Faith quickly filled the space left behind by retreating communism. My first visit to the region was in the same year that Margaret Thatcher tested Mikhail Gorbachev’s dawn by lighting a candle in a church in Moscow. The cue was irresistible. I insisted to my guide on a conducted tour of Dushanbe that on the coming Friday I wanted to pray at a mosque since I had been informed that Comrade Mikhail had released religion from Marxist chains. Allah knows how many telex messages were ex- changed between my guide and his masters in Moscow. (Remember the telex? This book began in the pre-e-mail age and this is as good a time as any to acknowledge that this book could never have been completed in time without the blessed e-mail. So thank you, Bill Gates, or whoever.) When Friday arrived they drove me through some exquisite country for a couple of hours till we reached a mosque adjoining the shrine of a Sufi pir, or master. They had not been able to locate a mosque nearer than that. The startled mullahs offered me a mute and suspicious welcome, very apprehensive at the thought of Marxist Moscow bringing a believer to their doorstep. They spread the finest melons, pomegranates and dry fruit Acknow.p65 9 4/17/02, 3:19 PM
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