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The March from Medina: A Revisionist Study of the Arab Conquests

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"The March from Medina: A Revisionist Study of the Arab Conquests" by John Jandora. When this book was published in 1990, it was at that time perhaps a nice updated review as to how the Muslim prophet Mohammad developed his Islamic military forces, and how his first four "rightly guided" successors used them in conquering Yemen and Syria. However, the author's descriptions about the various battles are generic: some thousands of soldiers, archers and cavalry on both sides met on a field of battle and hacked away at one another until someone was victorious. The specific details of battle are lacking. A better updated source would be: Richard Gabriel's "Muhammad: Islam's First Great General" and Schwartz-Barcott's "War, Terror and Peace in the Quran and in Islam." The author takes issue with some other war-historians regarding as to why Muhammad was successful, and he concluded that Muhammad's military successes were based more on his infantry strengths rather than those of his cavalry. The first chapter is interesting in that it discusses how various military forces campaigned in Arabia prior to the time of Muhammad. Given the generic and brief details of any particular battle, this book really does not have anything to offer over the aforementioned two books. For a good analysis pertaining to the religious or political aspects as to why these battles occurred, Winn's "The Prophet of Doom" is very informative.