The Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad
Author(s): Barnaby Rogerson
The Prophet Muhammad taught the word of God to the Arabs. Within a generation of his death, his followers - as vivid a cast of heroic individuals as history has known - had exploded out of Arabia to confront the two great superpowers of the seventh-century and establish Islam and a new civilization. That the protagonists originated from the small oasis communities of central Arabia gives their adventures, their rivalries, their loves and their achievements an additional vivacity and intimacy. So that on one hand, THE HEIRS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD is a swaggering saga of ambition, immense achievement, self-sacrificing nobility and blood rivalry, while on the other it allows us to understand some of the complexities of our modern world. For within this fifty-year span of conquest and empire- building, Barnaby Rogerson also identifies the seeds of discord that destroyed the unity of Islam, and traces the roots of the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims to the rivalry of the two individuals who best knew and loved the Prophet: his cousin and son-in-law Ali and his wife Aisha.
Product Information
'An absorbing narrative that captures the epic quality of an era to which Muslims of all persuasions look for inspiration' SUNDAY TIMES 'THE HEIRS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD vividly illustrates how the debates, the decisions and the sometimes bloody conflicts that resulted from trying to discern God's will in the absence of God's Prophet ultimately gave birth to the varied and wonderful traditions of the Muslim faith' GUARDIAN 'A natural storyteller, [Rogerson] achieves his purpose not by viewing the first great schism of Islam from the outside, but by immersing his readers in the master narrative of events as these came to be viewed ... An absorbing narrative that captures the e
Barnaby Rogerson is the author of the prestigious Cadogan Travel Guides to Cyprus, Morocco and (with Rose Baring) of Tunisia, as well as a history of North Africa. He is author of THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD and, forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2008, THE LAST
General Fields
- :
- : Little, Brown Book Group
- : Abacus
- : 05 October 2006
- : 198mm X 126mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Barnaby Rogerson
- : Paperback
- : New edition
- : 297
- : 432
