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The First Muslim: The Story Of Muhammad (2013)

by Lesley Hazleton(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1594487286 (ISBN13: 9781594487286)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Riverhead Hardcover

review 1: This was the first book of Lesley Hazleton that I have read, and probably the last.The author was trying to make a clear image of Muhammads personality, and exactly this didn't do. In the end, there is a feeling that either several different authors, or a schizophrenic one wrote the book.The first part describes a Ghandi-like Muhammad, who lived for ideals of righteousness and justice, completely non-violent and self-sacrificing, whereas in the second part he is described as a roughless struggler for power. And in the third part it is again a merciful Muhammad, that after all his sieges leaves his enemies without any retaliation, merciful and pious.But the most striking irregularity in this book is that the author used reliable, as well as unreliable sources, dependent on... morely on the theory she wanted to prove in the moment. She questions reliable sources when they don't fit to her theories, and she used invented stories (e.g. the story about ordered assassination of a woman poet) where it fits to her points, which is quite unprofessional.I was actually interested in a true story, not in the intriguing tales.
review 2: It is a well researched historical account of "The First Muslim". The author draws from various sources to arrive at some conclusions that are a trifle different from similar accounts by authors like Karen Armstrong. It also goes to the credit of the author that she attempts to narrate the events without any bias. The comparisons with Mahatma Gandhi in the context of non-violence are quite interesting. less

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