cover image Islam at War: A History

Islam at War: A History

George F. Nafziger, Mark Walton. Praeger Publishers, $46.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-275-98101-3

For a thousand years, the Islamic world overshadowed Europe militarily, only to fall far behind in the modern era; the rise and decline of Muslim power is ably dissected in this insightful, if occasionally oversimplified, study. Nafziger, a retired naval officer and military historian, and Walton, a researcher, cover a huge swath of history, including the early Arab conquests of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain; the battles with Crusaders; the Muslim expansion into India; and the transformation of the Ottoman Empire into the world's most advanced military power in the 16th century. The modern eclipse of Arab arms by Western technology and organizational prowess, and the history of terrorism from the medieval Assassins to Al Qaeda are also discussed. While Muslim ideology does contain a warrior ethos, the authors' belief that there exists a distinctively Islamic kind of holy war is not very fruitful, especially when they attempt to apply their idea to a diversity of nations and epochs. They anachronistically compare bellicose passages from the Koran to concepts in Napoleonic and blitzkrieg warfare, for example, and fall back on""spiritual zeal"" to help explain the ill-documented, myth-enshrouded early conquests. Nafziger and Walton are on much firmer ground when they examine conventional determinants of military success. Particularly acute is their discussion of Arab armies' disastrous performances in wars with Israel and the United States, which they chalk up to illiteracy, bad training, tactical clumsiness and an aloof officer corps. (Though, again, these problems plague many armies, not just those of the Muslims.) While their assertion of""the militarily aggressive nature of Islam"" is overblown, their analysis of the specifics of Muslim military history is lucid and thoughtful.