Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet Paperback – 3 Dec. 2001

For most westerners the word "Moslim" usually goes with the word "fundamentalist" and their only other experiences of Moslems may well be limited to the endless hustlers in Mediterranean tourist resorts. This book redresses the balance by giving a very readable account of the gentle side of Islam that most Moslims really believe in.The life of Muhammed is the best place to start if you want to understand the core beliefs of Islam and it is the way Muslim children are introduced to their faith. The exhortations of the Koran itself can lead to all sorts of confusion without the kind of context that Karen Armstrong provides.In her very readable account she presents the prophet as being at least as much a social reformer as a religious leader. Contrary to widely held belief, for example, Muhammed was very concerned to protect the position of women, although the rules he taught to tribes of 6th century warrior nomads may not seem so appropriate today. Certainly stoning rape victims to death does not in any way reflect either the letter or the spirit of his teaching. Just as Christians had their religious wars, their inquisition and so on, so some Moslems still do terrible things in the name of their religion. Karen Armstrong shows us the very different faith held by most of the worlds Moslems.

My wife and I had booked a two-week holiday in Southern Turkey, and, knowing that Turkey is 99% muslim, although a secular country, I thought it would be good to read about the life of Muhammad, in order to understand more about Islam. Karen Armstrong's book, like all her books, is very readable, thoroughly researched, and full of insight into what religion is truly about. Being present at Friday Prayers in Bodrum was a completely different experience after reading this book. We so often see 'Friday Prayers' on the Television news,and it all seems so strange and so different from our English attitude to what religion is about. Having read Karen Armstrong's book, I felt completely in sympathy with the people praying in that Mosque, and in no way alienated. There are many explanations and comments in this book which make one realise that the media often feeds us with a completely false notion of Islam, so I was very grateful for having read it. It has not undermined my own, Christian, faith in any way, but it has strenthened my conviction that we are all loved by the same God and all, when at our best, trying to respond to that unconditional love.

As an atheist bought up as an anglican I was very much in the dark about Islam generally, though I do have some muslim friends. I found this book generally informative about Islam and the prophet. The book takes a while to get into Muhammad's life, the second chapter starts with the prophet's first vision, but then doesn't mention anything about the prophet's life after that, this occurs several times in the first few chapters. So prepare yourself for a lot of background and a lot of Islamic theology/philosophy at the start. Having said that the beginning of the book lays some very important groundwork for understanding what Muhammad was trying (and succeeding) to acheive, which is essential for the newcommer to the subject. I read this book as I wanted to find out about the Caliphate and thought it would be good background reading, which it was, but now I'll probably read more of Karen Armstrong's other books as well. She's such an informative writer, knows her subject inside out and is totally non-judgemental, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. If you buy this book you won't be disappointed.

This is a scholarly and comprehensive account of the life of Islam's founder: Muhammad. Armstrong is a skilled writer, weaving together some of the earliest historical material to present a fluent and highly readable narrative. The book is especially useful for modern Western readers as Armstrong couches the unfolding events in an interpretative framework particularly accessible to them. Given the real differences of geography, culture and historical period which separate us from Muhammad's life, Armstrong skilfully establishes a common frame of reference, or a shared platform of understanding to allow the meanings and significances of events in his life to percolate. She also brings to bear upon her subject her expertise in comparative religion: Judaism, Christianity and other traditions too, allowing the reader to contextualise Muhammad's experiences within a broader framework of religious understanding.Armstrong takes a while to actually begin at the life of Muhammad, choosing to set the scene first with much detailed background information. Her first chapter - "Muhammad the Enemy" - is a well documented and informative analysis of around a millennium of generally Western hostility towards Islam and its founder, along with its reasons. Apart from its historical value, this chapter may awaken the reader to the possibility of inherited subconscious preconceptions which may taint their reading of the text to follow: a testimony to Armstrong's quest for objectivity. The third chapter, "Jahiliyah" (translated as "Ignorance"), paints a vivid picture of the tribal ethos and cutthroat values underpinning the Arab society into which Muhammad was born outlining, in quite some detail, the magnitude of the challenges he faced. This substantiates her assertion, reiterated several times throughout the text, that Muhammad had to "fight his way to peace".Armstrong is fair and balanced throughout and deals with her subject in a sensitive and considerate manner. I don't think Muslims would be offended by her portrayal of their prophet, whilst non-Muslims will appreciate her objective scholarship. Her overriding concern seems to be to sift through the masses of available material and arrive at an accurate understanding of the man behind the faith.This objectivity necessarily begets an ambiguity though. For example, I found her treatment of Muhammad's revelatory experiences to be decidedly ambivalent. On the one hand she states: "We have seen that for nearly a thousand years, Westerners have been unable to believe that Muhammad had a genuine prophetic vocation" (pg. 88) and later "One can only marvel at the spiritual genius of Muhammad, who had practically no contact with practising Jews or Christians and whose actual knowledge of these earlier revelations was inevitably rudimentary, but who managed to get to the heart of the monotheistic experience" (pg. 98).Yet, a little later she makes the assertion: " ... friendly Jews in Medina taught him .. .important information about the scriptures". From them Muhammad "...learned about the chronology of Jewish history ... " (pg. 159) and he learnt "the story of Ishmael for the first time" which "must have been music to Muhammad's ears" showing "God had not forgotten the Arabs, who had been part of His plan since the earliest days" (pg. 161). The implication of these later quotes seems to be that Muhammad derived at least a portion of his knowledge from material, empirical sources (the Jews); something that would be anathema to traditional, believing Muslims who believe all Muhammad's revelatory knowledge is - by definition - from the Divine; indeed this is the very thing which marks him out as a prophet. Yet Armstrong places these two perspectives side by side in the same text, perhaps deliberately engineering an ambivalence able to accommodate both devout and sceptic.To summarise, this is an admirable attempt to present a detailed, balanced and accessible picture of one of history's most influential figures; I would say it is an especially useful biography for those raised in the modern West who seek a better understanding of Islam in light of recent global events. Armstrong yet again has produced an impressive book which reinforces her credentials as one of the world's leading authorities on the history of religion.

I'm glad to be able to find this book as sustainable purchase is a life style for me thus I refuse to but the new one. The condition is satisfying for a second hand book. Everything is neat and quite clean. The price is generous.