Copyright © 2012 by Tom Holland All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. www.doubleday.com Originally published in Great Britain by Little, Brown, a division of Hachette U.K., London. DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Cover design by Michael J. Windsor Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holland, Tom. In the shadow of the sword : the birth of Islam and the rise of the global Arab empire / Tom Holland.—1st U.S. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Islamic Empire—History. 2. Islam—History. I. Title. DS36.85.H65 2012 956’.013—dc23 2012000207 eISBN: 978-0-385-53136-8 v3.1 To Hillos In memoriam Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements List of Maps Epigraph I INTRODUCTION 1 KNOWN UNKNOWNS II JAHILIYYA 2 IRANSHAHR 3 NEW ROME 4 THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM 5 COUNTDOWN TO APOCALYPSE III HIJRA 6 MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS 7 THE FORGING OF ISLAM ENVOI: PLUS ÇA CHANGE? Timeline Dramatis Personae Glossary Notes Bibliography Index Illustrations About the Author Also by Tom Holland Acknowledgements This is a book that has taken me a horribly long time to complete, and opened my eyes to entire realms of complexity and fascination that I had little idea existed when I first embarked upon the project. The debts of gratitude that I owe are correspondingly immense. Firstly, to my editor, Richard Beswick; to Iain Hunt, Susan de Soissons, and everyone at Little, Brown; to Gerry Howard; to Teresa Löwe-Bahners; and to Frits van der Meij. My thanks as well to that best of agents, Patrick Walsh, and to everyone at Conville and Walsh. Whether as a pygmy standing on the shoulders of giants, or as a fool rushing in where angels fear to tread, I owe a particular due to the scholars who have helped me to negotiate a field of historical study that is, perhaps, more interestingly seeded with landmines than any other. Reza Aslan, James Carleton Paget, Patricia Crone, Vesta Curtis, Gerald Hawting, Robert Irwin, Christopher Kelly, Hugh Kennedy, Dan Madigan, Ziauddin Sardar, Guy Stroumsa and Bryan Ward- Perkins all read parts or the whole of the first draft—with responses as varied as their kindness and generosity were unfailing. I am grateful as well to Fred Donner and Robert Hoyland for allowing me to pick their brains in private conversations, and to Robin Lane Fox for stiffening my backbone at a time when I was first waking up to the full scale of the challenge I had taken on. Like an infinitely greater historian than myself, “I must profess my total ignorance of the Oriental tongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters, who have transfused their science into the Latin, French, and English languages.” Translations from Arabic and Syriac were done for me by Salam Rassi, in whom prodigious learning goes hand in glove with remarkable patience and efficiency. Andrea Wulf, as ever, made good my lamentable lack of German. Last but not last, I must thank friends and family for putting up with five years of crazed mutterings about Hephthalites, Chalcedonians and Kharijites. Particular thanks, as ever, to Jamie Muir, for all his unstinting support, encouragement and advice; to Kevin Sim, who provided such a close and brilliant reading of the manuscript that he somehow managed to extract a film from it, and is now the person I automatically turn to whenever my desire to discuss Umayyad coinage becomes uncontrollable; and, of course, last but very much not least, to my beloved family—Sadie, Katy and Eliza. Maps map.1 The World of Late Antiquity map.2 Iranshahr map.3 The Roman Empire map.4 Constantinople map.5 Jerusalem map.6 Holy Land map.7 Arabia map.8 Justinian’s Empire map.9 Early Arab Conquests map.10 The Caliphate Under the Umayyads Do not look for a fight with the enemy. Beg God for peace and security. But if you do end up facing the enemy, then show endurance, and remember that the gates of Paradise lie in the shadow of the sword. Saying of Muhammad, as recorded by Salih Muslim I INTRODUCTION I shall include in my narrative only those things by which first we ourselves, then later generations, may benefit. Eusebius, The History of the Church The degree of authority one can give to the evangelists about the life of Christ is relatively small. Whereas for the life of Muhammad, we know everything more or less. We know where he lived, what his economic situation was, who he fell in love with. We know a great deal about the political circumstances and the socio- economic circumstances of the time. Salman Rushdie