This book provides an account of nine major military clashes between Christendom and Muslim empires. It opens with an overview of the historical backdrop, covering the formation of both Christendom and the Caliphate. Each chapter then dives into a specific war or siege, where Christian and Muslim forces clashed. The author occasionally touches on the internal power struggles and religious schisms within both sides.

Drawing on his military background, Simon Mayall meticulously describes the strategies, siege preparations, battle progressions, and the aftermaths from both attackers' and defenders' perspectives. Although readers might find the extensive details on battle tactics, and the numerous names of places and figures a bit overwhelming, Mayall’s engaging writing style keeps the narrative compelling. The portrayal of both the brutality and chivalry of historical figures—sometimes demonstrating mutual respect and at other times unleashing violent animosity—adds a powerful human element to the historical events.

While Mayall attempts to connect these historical conflicts to contemporary issues, this part of the book feels less developed. The broader historical context surrounding each battle is also relatively thin, with the focus primarily on the military action itself. Given the book’s scope and scale, this emphasis on battle scenes over broader context is understandable.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and Osprey publishing in exchange for an honest review

In this fascinating history of the Ottoman Empire, Simon Mayall explores its relationship to Europe and other Christian countries through 1300 years of conflict and violence from the 7th century CE to the end of World War I in 1918. Each chapter focuses on a different battle or conflict (appropriate year attached), and Mayall goes into a lot of fantastic detail based on the relevant historical documentation. In creating this broad narrative and traversing over a millennium of human history, Mayall gives readers the tools to explore the history of the Ottoman Empire and the caliphate’s relationship with Europe as it changes over the centuries. Rather than presenting a solely Euro-centric narrative, Mayall brings this fascinating history to life in this incredibly detailed work of history nonfiction. Well-researched and complex, this book is dense but manageable, and the organization of the book into one conflict per chapter allows Mayall to successfully present this overview of the Ottoman Empire to readers. A fascinatingly complex book, readers will definitely enjoy this take on the Ottoman Empire and experience several major events like the Crusades and World War I from an alternate perspective that adds nuance to established historical discourse on the topic.

A long time ago two men and two books messed the world up pretty badly and for good. One was named Jesus and the other Mohammad. Ever since the world has gone mad and people started killing each other in the name of a dead man and a book.
This is what this book is about - the fight between two religions and their fanatical followers. The fight for power and dominance. The author goes into details quite deeply and explains a lot while staying objective. This is rare especially when it comes to such matters. There are a lot of names, places, and terms that might confuse a reader a little, but overall it`s a good book worth your time.
Highly recommended.

The House of War by Simon Mayall was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. My Mayall did something that I would have deemed impossible in taking several thousand of years of history, with names and dates, and making it not boring. Since the end of the 20th Century and thus far in the 21st Century, world events have been happening that knowing what is in this book, may have made things make more sense. Everyone has heard the term "the Crusades," but do most really know what they were? If you want to know, give this book a read. If you want the younger generation to know some important history, have them read this book. The author gives enough information that the reader understands what is going on, the action scenes are great and the reader cannot help but learn something.

5 Stars

I can think of very few things more difficult than trying to write a book which is effectively Christians vs. Muslims. Simon Mayall tried it and it turned out great in his book The House of War!

Let's get the big question out of the way first. Who is Mayall pulling for in this book? Great news, he is team no one! Joking aside, Mayall puts on a masterclass in not taking sides. He writes an overview of the religions starting from the beginning (which is a great place to start) that wouldn't irk anyone on either side of the theological debate except the people you really should not be hanging out with. The House of War then looks at various battles in history where Muslims and Christians did battle. Obviously, today we know many of these wars had nothing to do with religion in the slightest. However, Mayall doesn't get caught up in the semantics and minor debates. Sure, the crusades had very little to do with religion, but for the men on the ground an indulgence was not nothing.

The problems I always run into with books like this are twofold. First, there is the issue of what I call "name vomit." This is where you have to introduce so many people and places to set the stage every chapter because you jump around in time. Second, there is the extensive backgrounds themselves just to set up the stakes of the upcoming battle. While both issues are present in Mayall's narrative, I have to say he minimized them. More importantly, when he gets to the actual fighting, the storytelling is exceptional. I highly recommend it.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Osprey Publishing.)

This is an interesting account of nine crucial battles and sieges between Christian and Islamic forces throughout history. The book explains the details of the battle but also the context leading up to clash and its aftermath. I found it intriguing how history isn't just a story of Islam and Christianity being in conflict, but also how in every age some people were willing to cross the religious divide if it was in their interest (the Franco-Ottoman alliance being the most prominent example).

The narrative is interesting and easy to read, with a good balance between enough detail while still being readable.