'A groundbreaking study ... a masterclass in how to do intellectual history, and one that nobody with an interest in radical Islam should miss' Tom Holland, New Statesman'Readers looking for a rigorous but lucid account of Islamic State's ideas will be well-served by Maher's book ... the first of its kind' Kyle W. Orton, Wall Street JournalNo topic has gripped the public imagination so dramatically as the spectre of global jihadism. While much has been said about the way jihadists behave, their ideology remains poorly understood. Shiraz Maher charts the intellectual underpinnings of salafi-jihadism from its origins in the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the jihadist insurgencies of the 1990s and the 9/11 wars. His ground-breaking introduction to salafi-jihadism recalibrates our understanding of the ideas underpinning one of the most destructive political philosophies of our time. 'Magisterial ... Essential reading' Robin Yassin-Kassab, The National'Shiraz Maher, a leading authority on contemporary Islamic extremism, traces the evolution of the key ideas behind one of the most significant religious and political movements of our time. Comprehensive, important and timely' Jason Burke, author of Al-Qaeda 'A work of genuine interest and originality ... indispensable' David Patrikarakos, Literary Review

Shiraz Maher is Deputy Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) and a member of the War Studies Department at King's College London. He is also a contributing writer for the New Statesman, frequently writing on the Islamic State and the broader Middle East. He has conducted fieldwork across the world, interviewing members of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusrah, Ahrar al-Sham and the Free Syrian Army. Most recently, he has conducted interviews with more than one hundred Western fighters in Syria and Iraq. In 2016 he was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in Journalism for his pieces on radicalization, foreign fighter mobilization, and the terrorist threat to Europe.