IN the last decade or so a variety of words from the context of the ongoing political struggles in the Middle East have made their way into the vocabulary of English: fatwa, intifida, jihad. Terms like these frequently serve to give West Europeans and North Americans a sense of uneasiness at the spectre of a violent, religiously motivated fanaticism posing a threat to the security and identity of our own societies.
This unease, often compounded with the fear of the unknown, can be seen as a key stimulus to this exploration of the concept of holy war in Christianity and Islam by Peter Partner, who has covered Arab topics for several British newspapers and the BBC, and has published a number of books on Christianity in the middle ages.
Partner traces the development of ideas of holy war in the two religions from their beginnings down to the present day, prefaced by an outline of the role of religion in warfare in the ancient Near East in general, with particular attention to the idea of holy war in ancient Judaism. The book basically covers three periods: the early centuries of both religions, the middle ages, in which the Christian crusades to the Holy Land feature prominently, and the modern period.
It admirably bridges the divide between scholarly and popular writing. It is blissfully free of the kind of superficiality which all too often characterises popular nonfiction, while at the same time it is equally free of the kind of pedantry which frequently makes scholarly works incomprehensible to a nonspecialist reader.
Partner shows the complexities and ambiguities involved in the development of concepts of holy war in both religions. Christianity avoided any clear holy war ideology for its first millennium. The killing of an enemy in battle was regarded as a sin, for which penance must be done. Attitudes to war, however, were not unambiguous, and at all times a whole range of political and cultural factors must also be taken into consideration when looking at the relationship between militarism and faith. This applies also to the adoption of a holy war doctrine by western Latin Christianity in the middle ages, and to the demise of such ideas in more recent times.
In Islam the concept of jihad, or "struggle in the way of Allah", encompassed the possibility of military activity from the time of Mohammed on, but this has never provided an unambiguous ideology of religiously inspired aggression. As in the case of Christianity, a whole range of factors need to be taken into consideration in understanding the emergence and the development of the idea of holy war in Islam. Through the ages, holy war has played a more restricted role in Islam than is commonly believed, and the targets of holy war have been dissident Islamic groups as often as they have been Christian.
IN analysing the complexity of the issues involved in the idea and practice of holy war in both religions, Partner in fact provides far more than a history of holy war. His book gives us a wideranging cultural history, also exploring the diversity of political, economic and social interaction and influence between the Christian and Islamic peoples of Europe, Asia and North Africa.
The amount of detailed information which Partner supplies is all the more remarkable in view of the large scope of the book.
At all times, Partner writes with impressive sensitivity towards the subjects he is discussing. He is aware of the need to view different situations in their own contexts, and avoids creating any simplistic Grand Scheme to present a unified and unchanging concept of holy war in either religion. His sensitivity to the diversity and complexity of Islamic thought is particularly welcome in the context of the suspicion and unease which Islam in general, and the shadow of Islamic militancy in particular, can generate in western societies. At the same time, he stays clear of the kind of cultural relativism which would exonerate excesses performed by either side in the name of religious conviction.
Historians are never neutral observers, and Partner's work is not without its own agenda. In the context of mistrust, fear and prejudice in relation to Islam, Partner - is clearly attempting to dismantle much of the ignorance which undenies these attitudes. To achieve this, he sets out the complexity of relations between Islam and Christianity in historical context. He demonstrates that modern Islamic militancy is specific to particular contexts, is not specifically directed against the West, and does not constitute a single, unambiguous ideology of violence intrinsic to the nature of Islam.
In doing this, he succeeds in going a long way towards dispelling fear of the unknown in relation to Islam. This book replaces caricature with a sympathetic, though not unduly flattering portrait. As an appeal to understanding, it is greatly to be commended.