Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads
Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges

Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads explores the development of ideas of morally justified or legitimate war in Western and Islamic civilizations. Historically, these ideas have been grouped under three labels: just war, holy war, and jihad. A large body of literature exists exploring the development of just war and holy war concepts in the West and of jihad in Islam. Yet, to date, no book has investigated in depth the historical interaction between Western notions of just or holy war and Muslim definitions of jihad. This book is a major contribution to the comparative study of the ethics of war and peace in the West and Islam. Its twenty chapters explore two broad questions: 1. What historical evidence exists that Christian and Jewish writers on just war and holy war and Muslim writers on jihad knew of the other tradition? 2. What is the evidence in treatises, chronicles, speeches, ballads, and other historical records, or in practice, that either tradition influenced the other? The book surveys the period from the rise of Islam in the early seventh century to the present day. Part One surveys the impact of the early Islamic conquests upon Byzantine, Syriac, and Muslim thinking on justified war. Part Two probes developments during the Crusades. Part Three focuses on the early modern period in Europe and the Ottoman Empire, followed by analysis of the era of European imperialism in Part Four. Part Five brings the discussion into the present period, with chapters analyzing the impact of international law and terrorism on conceptions of just war and jihad.

Contributors. Introduction - Sohail H. Hashmi and James Turner Johnson. Part One: The Early Islamic Conquests. Chapter One: Religious Services for Byzantine Soldiers and the Possibility of Martyrdom: c. 400-c. 1000 - Paul Stephenson. Chapter Two: In Defense of All Houses of Worship?: Jihad in the Context of Interfaith Relations - Asma Afsaruddin. Chapter Three: God's War and His Warriors: The First Hundred Years of Syriac Accounts of the Islamic Conquests - Michael Philip Penn. Part Two: The Crusades. Chapter Four: Imagining the Enemy: Southern Italian Perceptions of Islam at the Time of the First Crusade - Joshua C. Birk. Chapter Five: Ibn 'Asakir and the Radicalization of Sunni Jihad Ideology in Crusader-Era Syria - Suleiman A. Mourad and James E. Lindsay. Chapter Six: Angles of Influence: Jihad and Just War in Early Modern Spain - G. Scott Davis. Chapter Seven: Religious War in the Works of Maimonides: An Idea and Its Transit across the Medieval Mediterranean - George R. Wilkes. Part Three: Gunpowder Empires, Christian and Muslim. Chapter Eight: Martyrdom and Modernity: The Discourse of Holy War in the Works of John Foxe and Francis Bacon - Brinda Charry. Chapter Nine: Ottoman Conceptions of War and Peace in the Classical Period - A. Nuri Yurdusev. Chapter Ten: Islam and Christianity in the Works of Gentili, Grotius, and Pufendorf - John Kelsay. Part Four: European Imperialism. Chapter Eleven: Just War and Jihad in the French Conquest of Algeria - Benjamin Claude Brower. Chapter Twelve: Jihad, Hijra, and Hajj in West Africa - David Robinson. Chapter Thirteen: Jihads and Crusades in Sudan: From 1881 to the Present - Heather J. Sharkey. Chapter Fourteen: The Trained Triumphant Soldiers of the Prophet Muhammad: Holy War and Holy Peace in Modern Ottoman History - Mustafa Aksakal. Chapter Fifteen: Muslim Debates on Jihad in British India: The Writings of Chiragh 'Ali and Abu al-A'la Mawdudi - Omar Khalidi. Part Five: International Law and Outlaws. Chapter Sixteen: Jihad and the Geneva Conventions: The Impact of International Law on Islamic Theory - Sohail H. Hashmi. Chapter Seventeen: The Jewish Law of War: The Turn to International Law and Ethics - Suzanne Last Stone. Chapter Eighteen: Fighting to Create the Just State: Apocalypticism in Radical Muslim Discourse - David B. Cook. Chapter Nineteen: How Has the Global Salafi Terrorist Movement Affected Western Just War Thinking? - Martin L. Cook. Conclusion: A Look Back and a Look Forward - James Turner Johnson. Index.

Professor of International Relations and Alumnae Foundation Chair in the Social Sciences, Mount Holyoke College.