Transjordan in the Bible have the wrong ethnicity, but are "within the boundary of the 'pure' geographical location." According to Genesis, (), Ammon and Moab were born to Lot and Lot's younger and elder daughters, respectively, in the aftermath of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible refers to both the Ammonites and Moabites as the "children of Lot". Throughout the Bible, the Ammonites and Israelites are portrayed as mutual antagonists. During the Exodus, the Israelites were prohibited by the Ammonites from passing through their lands (). In the Book of Judges, the Ammonites work with Eglon, king of the Moabites against Israel.
In the Shadow of the Sword (book) or 'Muslim' is looked upon with suspicion." Another critic, Sarah Annes Brown, believes it is impossible to find any Islamophobic content in the book, while the historian Glen Bowersock criticized it for lack of historical accuracy, saying he has "not seen a book about Arabia that is so irresponsible and unreliable since Kamal Salibi's "The Bible Came from Arabia" (1985)." Dan Jones, writing for the "Telegraph", gave the book a favourable review calling it a "complex story" which Holland "made his own". He describes Holland as "one of the most distinctive prose stylists writing history today, and he drags his