The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography

Description

The Prophet Muhammad is a hero for all mankind. In his lifetime he established a new religion, Islam; a new state, the first united Arabia; and a new literary language, the classical Arabic of the Qur'an, for the Qur'an is believed to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. A generation after his death he would be acknowledged as the founder of a world empire and a new civilisation. Any one of these achievements would have been more than enough to permanently establish his genius. To our early twenty-first century minds, what is all the more astonishing is that he also managed to stay true to himself and retained to his last days the humility, courtesy and humanity that he had learned as an orphan shepherd boy in central Arabia. If one looks for a parallel example from Christendom, you would have to combine the Emperor Constantine with St Francis and St Paul, an awesome prospect. Barnaby Rogerson's elegant biography not only looks directly at the life of the Prophet Muhammad, but beautifully evokes for western readers the Arabian world into which he was born in 570 AD.

Barnaby Rogerson is 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 forthcoming THE LAST CRUSADE (Little, Brown, 2006).

'A fascinating book ... written with style & sympathy' Fergus Flemming 'We can almost smell & feel the Arabia of the 7th C.. The end product is more than enchanting' New Statesman '...communicates wonderfully how extraordinary Muhammad must have been as a character' E. Standard 'Rogerson recounts the tale with the love & artistry of a master storyteller... an important book' Guardian 'A first-rate, highly readable book' Express