Explores the link between religion and war, focusing on the philosophies that have allowed zealous followers of the world's major religions to shed blood in the name of God since the Middle Ages.

Acknowledgments -- 1: Religious war: brief introduction -- 2: Crusades -- 3: Islamic superpower: rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, 1354-1922 -- 4: One king, one law, one faith -- 5: Poetry of genocide: celebrating religious murder in verse -- 6: War on terror: or, a case of continuing conflict-life since 9/11 -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.