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Black Banners of ISIS: The Roots of the New Caliphate
A medieval Islam historian’s incisive portrait of ISIS, revealing the group’s deep ideological and intellectual roots in the earliest days of Islam
With tremendous speed, the Islamic State has moved from the margins to the center of life in the Middle East. Despite recent setbacks, its ability to conquer and retain huge swaths of territory has demonstrated its skillful tactical maneuvering, ambition, and staying power. Yet we still know too little about ISIS, particularly about its deeper ideology.
In this eye-opening book, David J. Wasserstein offers a penetrating analysis of the movement, looking closely at the thousand-year-old form of Islamic apocalyptic messianism the group draws upon today. He shows how ISIS is not only a military and political movement but also, and primarily, a religious one with a coherent worldview, a patent strategy, and a clear the re-creation of a medieval caliphate. Connecting the group’s day-to-day activities and the writings and sayings of its leaders with the medieval Islamic past, Wasserstein provides an insightful and unprecedented perspective on the origins and aspirations of the Islamic State.
With tremendous speed, the Islamic State has moved from the margins to the center of life in the Middle East. Despite recent setbacks, its ability to conquer and retain huge swaths of territory has demonstrated its skillful tactical maneuvering, ambition, and staying power. Yet we still know too little about ISIS, particularly about its deeper ideology.
In this eye-opening book, David J. Wasserstein offers a penetrating analysis of the movement, looking closely at the thousand-year-old form of Islamic apocalyptic messianism the group draws upon today. He shows how ISIS is not only a military and political movement but also, and primarily, a religious one with a coherent worldview, a patent strategy, and a clear the re-creation of a medieval caliphate. Connecting the group’s day-to-day activities and the writings and sayings of its leaders with the medieval Islamic past, Wasserstein provides an insightful and unprecedented perspective on the origins and aspirations of the Islamic State.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published August 22, 2017
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September 3, 2017
Black Banners is a dense and extensive examination of Islamic State's ideological roots in medieval Islamic history and teachings with the aim of better understanding their present day objectives.
There is a clear ideological distinction in the West's separation of church and state and the age-old integration of Islam and politics. In other words, "just as religion can easily be politics for Muslims, so politics can easily be religion". David Wasserstein argues that this is crucial to the understanding of Islamic State's behaviour and ambitions, in particular within the context of a specific form of Islamic apocalyptic messianism that IS ardently subscribes to.
The Islamic State only formally came into being on 29 June 2014 and rapidly spread into controlling a territory the size of the United Kingdom with a population in excess of eight million.
Clearly it is a grave mistake to simply classify IS as an anarchic violent terrorist group that acts with a criminal indifference to laws. Rather, IS is subscribing to and operates under a particular set of laws and rules with the express intention of recreating the medieval caliphate.
There is a great deal of speculation and conjecture regarding the financial sustainability of IS and whether IS is the richest and most successful terrorist outfit in history. There is even more openly admitted unsubstantiated conjecture regarding the living conditions and day-to-day activities of IS as the author does not have firsthand verifiable and authentic sources in this regard.
Whilst there is an exhaustive examination of the historic record in Black Banners, there isn't much substantiation of the present and that leaves this reviewer knowing more about IS as an organisation steeped in the past, but very little about what is really happening on the ground.
There is a clear ideological distinction in the West's separation of church and state and the age-old integration of Islam and politics. In other words, "just as religion can easily be politics for Muslims, so politics can easily be religion". David Wasserstein argues that this is crucial to the understanding of Islamic State's behaviour and ambitions, in particular within the context of a specific form of Islamic apocalyptic messianism that IS ardently subscribes to.
The Islamic State only formally came into being on 29 June 2014 and rapidly spread into controlling a territory the size of the United Kingdom with a population in excess of eight million.
Clearly it is a grave mistake to simply classify IS as an anarchic violent terrorist group that acts with a criminal indifference to laws. Rather, IS is subscribing to and operates under a particular set of laws and rules with the express intention of recreating the medieval caliphate.
There is a great deal of speculation and conjecture regarding the financial sustainability of IS and whether IS is the richest and most successful terrorist outfit in history. There is even more openly admitted unsubstantiated conjecture regarding the living conditions and day-to-day activities of IS as the author does not have firsthand verifiable and authentic sources in this regard.
Whilst there is an exhaustive examination of the historic record in Black Banners, there isn't much substantiation of the present and that leaves this reviewer knowing more about IS as an organisation steeped in the past, but very little about what is really happening on the ground.
Displaying 1 of 1 review