Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam Thomas Sizgorich "Sizgorich brings the early history of Islamic martyrdom and the emergence of the concept of the shahid ('witness' or 'martyr') into a common framework of similar developments in late antique Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. In doing so, he shows that the two worlds were closely related in their development of apparently different kinds of aggressive, even violent behavior that were connected to ideas of ascetic self-control and the disciplining of the community."--Brent...

Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam Thomas Sizgorich "Thomas Sizgorich is . . . a scholar truly at home in both the late antique and early Islamic worlds who does a superlative job of illustrating the continuities between them."--American Historical Review "In this bold and learned book, Thomas Sizgorich probes the ideological roots of violence in the Christian and Muslim communities of late antiquity."--Church History "A work of erudition and eloquent argument, combined with an abiding ethical impulse underwriting its historical...