In a magnificent narrative Stephen O'Shea evokes the crucial encounters between the two imperial faiths, bringing to life the instances of their momentous conflict and coexistence, which have made the world in which we live.
On the one hand the fall of the Christian Middle East at Yarmuk and the sack of Constantinople by the Ottomans, on the other the glorious multicultural societies of Cordoba and Palermo. These and other fragments of our collective memory come alive as part of a huge canvas in this fresh narrative history by a master popular historian.
