Somewhat surprisingly, this is not really a book about the birth of Islam. It is rather a sweeping history of the centuries in which Islam appeared and thrived. Rather than conquest being the reason for its rapid rise, Holland prefers to concentrate on the great Bubonic plague of AD 541 as the defining reason for its dominance – it decimated both the Persian and late Roman empires, and thus Islam filled the void. The caliphate of the 7th century was the last of the ancient empires. The first part of the book deals with the history and philosophies present in that area of the world at that time. It then goes on to report that the Qur’an is the only real source for Mohammed’s life, and contains many ideas from other religions (Jewish, Christian, Samaritan, Zoroastrian, Gnostic and Manichaean), mixed in with pagan cults and arising out of post-Roman Palestine (and not Arabia or Mecca). Holland emphasises that Islam is a religion of submission. On the whole, Shadow of the Sword is in fact mainly a study of the rise of monotheism in the Middle East.
Any historical account dealing with many religions was always going to be difficult for someone who professes no faith. This book is unlikely to find favour with true believers of any faith. However, Tom Holland writes in an accessible and readable style that combines textual criticism, historical analysis and somewhat superficial theology. He began his research for the book, which apparently took six years to write, by going after the accessible evidence in western libraries – and found little when it came to discovering the originals of Islam. He rejects that the Qur’an could ever be divinely revealed to the Prophet Mohammed in its entirety. Any textual criticism would be anathema to any Islamic follower. Anyhow, Arabs possessed an oral culture that did not seek to produce written records until the 7th Century. Holland contends that the Qur’an evolved over time and took nearly two centuries to assume its final form. The book itself is weighed down by detail and even with the addition, for example, of titillating stories about the Byzantine Empress Theodora in order to spice up the narrative, when it has little to do with the main tenet of the work. It all results in this being firmly in the category of popular history.