Violence in Early Islam: Religious Narratives, the Arab Conquests and the Canonization of Jihad

The concept of jihad holds a prominent place in Islamic thought and history. Beyond its spiritual meanings, the term has historically been associated with the sweeping Arab-Believers conquests of the 7-8th century BCE. But given advances in our understanding of the historicity and chronology of the Qur'an and early Islamic texts, is it correct to identify jihad and Islam with violent conquest?

In this book, Marco Demichelis explores the history of the concept of jihad in the early proto-Is...