Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet

After 9-11 I thought it best for my perspective and thinking to read something about Islam. I did not want to be an ignorant propagandist responding emotionally to events without knowledge or insight. I wanted some fact less fiction. Having read most of Ms. Armstrong's other work I felt comfortable with her objectivity and fairness dealing with sensative historical facts, fiction, and mythology as she does. Muhammad is not about current affairs. It is not the story of the Muslims of the middle east today. It is not the story of the conservative Islamists of today. It is the story of Muhammad in the context of his day and his culture. As the story of Christ and Budda are best understood in the context of their day and their culture. All such stories of the Great Ones involve a certain amount of interpretation and conjecture but they are all relevent and meaningful. This is a very good read for any person interested in the world's Third Great Book Religion.

Enough has already been said about how the book is easy to read and follow. So I won't add to that.As a Muslim who has studied other biographies of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), I found the book to be authentic enough. What I mean is that there is some variation within Muslim biographers. Within the limit of that variability, the book is authentic enough.However, I must add that anyone reading the book must read it with an open mind. This biography is what Armstrong thinks the life of the Holy Prophet, and Islam is. She has, at the narration of almost every incident, made her interpretations clear as to how she believes the world of religion works in general. Though not an atheistic view, her oppinions are certainly not in concert with orthodox monotheism either. I saw her on TV calling herself a "freelance monotheist". So the reverberation of her views on faith, religion, myth and divinity are all too strong in this book.One thing that I would like to commend her about is that she has presented the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in such a way as to dispel the negative propaganda that has been hurled against him by the Christian and Jewish scholars of the past. In the chapter "Muhammad the enemy" she gives an elaborate history of hostile views of the West towards Islam and its founder, and also explains their views in light of the religious and political realities. At many points in the biography of the prophet where other western scholars have raised objections, she has analyzed the issues and the common objections, and has put them in perspective in the 7th century Arabia. She gives countless examples of the writings within the Jewish and Christian scriptures, in order to counter the negative views of some scholars that aim to denegrade Islam versus Christianity or Judaism. She also presents the blunt history of the Church to rebuke those who make useless revilements against the Prophet. She is not, however, an apologetic for the Prophet (sa) in the sense that she does not take on the robe of a Muslim scholar bent upon defending the Prophet through dogmatic argumentation. Rather, she asserts that the actions taken by the Prophet (sa) in the environment of the 7th century Arabia made those actions reasonable, if not righteous and justified.A final critical note: she admits in the openning of the book that she has freely used Waqadi as one of her sources. Waqadi is one of the original sources of Islamic history and the life of the Prophet, but his contemporaries and later historians who scrutinized his work in tremendous detail, found him to lack integrity in giving preference to authenticity over his need to write prolific details. Many consider his word not worthy to be taken seriously since he does not make clear where the authentic narration of history from the source ends and where his imaginative mind gets out of control in concocting flowery details, something which the western biographers very tempt

Being a Muslim, I find that there are some inaccuracies to the Islamic message in this book, but it it very thorough in the other 99% . This book is excellent for Muslims and non-Muslims alike in that Karen Armstrong's approach does not praise the prophet or even assume he was, but rather explains him in a very objective manner and brings to life his human side. For Americans and westerners in general, this book has a lot of comparitive religion insight. It lets the person ddecide for himself without any pro-Islamic doctrine or propaganda. Another excellent aspect of this book is that it is ordered chronologically, which for me was very important because I can now get a better picture of the context of Quranic Chapters. This is a must read. Hats off to Karen Armstrong.

As a High School Teacher of Seniors enrolled in a History of the Middle East Course, this book is perfect for placing the life and messages of Muhammad in a real-life historical perspective including influencial 6th century political and economic forces. Students reported that Armstrong cleared up numerous misconceptions, questions, and outright historical inaccuracies. The casual reader may find some passages regarding the 6th century clan conflicts & intrique dry, but they can skim that and still reap the well supported points Armstrong brings forth - including the history of seclusion/veil, the 5 pillars of Islam, the significance of Jerusalem for Muslims, and centuries of conflict bewteen Christiandom the Muslim world. She explains the controversy surrounding the "Satanic Verses" as well as the evolution of the religious concepts pertaining to "al-Llah." In short she weaves the ancient to make sense of the modern.

Karen Armstrong scored big with Muhammad. Having read her History of God, I read her biography of the Prophet believing I would be treated to some genuine insight, and I was not disappointed. I highly recommend this, especially to Western readers!Muhammad, his story, his religion, and his people are among the least understood elements of world history to your average Westerner. The information we are bombarded with today portrays Muslims as terrorists, anti-western, blood-thirsty savages. This book endeavors to release the Western mind from the bonds of ignorance and the blinders of propaganda, and reveal a Prophet, and a people, with a real, sometimes tragic and sometimes triumphant history, with a conclusion of remarkable success. Whether you agree with Muhammad or not, you will finish this book appreciating his genius, his faith, his leadership, and his accomplishments. Most importantly, you will read the story elegantly portrayed within the context of the cultural dynamics of the Arabia of Muhammad's day. Without that context, it is easy to cast Muhammad's actions as barbaric. Additionally, Armstrong does a fine job of demonstrating the demise of much of Muhammad's most original thinking by zealous, but culturally constrained leaders who followed him (most notably the emancipation of women). Because most Western Christians don't read Arabic, we will never understand nor appreciate the Koran, Muhammad's crowning achievement. But with the help of Karen Armstrong, we can gain an appreciation of the origin of that great work, and the meaning it has in the lives of nearly a billion people in the world today.