The Tears of Jihad

In the summer of 634, an Arab army appears by surprise out of the trackless desert of Eastern Syria, moving across the land with a simple message: Convert to Islam, submit, or die. While the war-weary Byzantine Empire struggles to understand and meet this new threat, an adventure-seeking young Syrian Arab named Bashour, disenchanted with the theological controversy that wracks Christendom, accepts Islam because of its attractive simplicity and joins the invaders. Taken as booty from a town that resisted, a girl named Tamara is raped and forced into a sham marriage with a marauding Muslim.

Bashour finds more adventure than he bargained for. Distinguishing himself in a rash act of bravery, he's offered a reward and chooses Tamara, whom he has admired from afar. She's the object of his adoration, but to her he's potentially one more in a line of rapists since she'd been captured. As they endure the hardships of an army on the move and a series of desperate battles, he tries to win her with kindness and heal her trauma. She, in turn, plants seeds of doubt in his new faith. Bashour must confront his crisis of faith as the war climaxes with a prolonged siege of Damascus and the treacherous betrayal of a peace pact after the city surrenders. If he makes the wrong choice, it could mean death - or his immortal soul.

This story takes the reader from the Byzantine Imperial court to the command tent of the invading Muslims, the army's training grounds to intense pitched battles across the Syrian countryside. It plunges the reader into the religious and political controversies of the period, and gives the modern reader a view into the foundations of the current conflict wracking Syria. Timely and relevant to today's headlines, it provides a window into a little-known era and provides a springboard for the reader interested in examining the earliest days of Islam.