The book provides a textual analysis of the concept and practice of jihad ("war against unbelievers in the path of Allah") by examining Islamic theological and legal texts, eyewitness historical accounts of Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by scholars analyzing jihad and the conditions imposed upon the non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns.

Jihad is first of all war, bloodshed, subjugation, and expansion of the faith by violence.

"[1] Dean Barnett wrote in The Weekly Standard that the book "is likely to be controversial because it traces a history that polite society often seems unwilling to discuss," while noting that it is "a thorough work; hardly an act of offensive jihad in the last 1,300 years has escaped Bostom's scholarship.

"[2] In The Jerusalem Post, Raphael Israeli wrote that Bostom "deserves credit for this first huge step, to be followed by others.

At any rate, this is one of those books with a long shelf-life, because whatever further investigation and interpretation is done, it will stand alone as the impressive accomplishment of an autodidact layman, which many specialists have reasons to envy.