Ambitious in range, pacy and highly readable, and admirably clear, it should be essential reading for diplomats, military leaders and politicians.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, former Chief of the General Staff

No one could be better qualified to write on this fascinating subject … Simon Mayall is a soldier-scholar at the top of his game.

Andrew Roberts, author of 'Churchill: Walking with Destiny'

This is a remarkable book.

The Rt Hon The Lord Soames of Fletching

Se alle

An engrossing account of over a thousand years of conflict that has shaped our world.

Dan Snow

Rarely has a military history book been so necessary and well-timed as Simon Mayall’s erudite and entertaining <i>The House of War</i>.

Nicholas Hopton, former UK Ambassador to Iran, Libya, Qatar and Yemen

A fascinating history.

- Charles Moore, The Spectator

Simon Mayall sustains remarkable clarity in description and analysis. The book will be of enormous interest to historians who seek to understand the many dimensions of the situation in the Middle East and beyond.

Pennant

...[<i>The</i>] <i>House of War </i>is a great narrative history.

The Critic

'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.

Les mer
A powerful history of the most significant military clashes between Islam and Christendom over the 1,300 years of the Muslim caliphate.

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

Les mer
A powerful history of the most significant military clashes between Islam and Christendom over the 1,300 years of the Muslim caliphate.
A readable, accessible and well-researched narrative of some of the pivotal clashes between Islam and Christendom that have shaped the modern world.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781472864338
Publisert
2024-09-12
Utgiver
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Vekt
600 gr
Høyde
238 mm
Bredde
158 mm
Dybde
36 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
352

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Simon Mayall is a former soldier in the British Army. Much of his 40-year professional career was focussed on the Middle East, and he has strong family and academic interests in the region. His last appointments were as the British Government’s Defence Senior Adviser for the Middle East, and the Prime Minister’s Security Envoy to Iraq and the Kurdish Region. He is currently Chair of the Council of the National Army Museum.