Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (Galaxy Books)

This book was exactly what I was looking for. It is a historical perspective of Muhammad that addresses both the political and religious nature of his life. What I really liked was how I would be questioning some aspect of his argument and two paragraphs later Watt would deal with those questions. Watt is also really good at outlining his points and conclusions so they are very easy to follow. It's definately a sympathetic view of Muhammad, but I really enjoyed it.

Most readers probably won't have the patience to slog through Watt's two bigger volumes, Muhammad At Mecca and Muhammad At Medina. This slimbooks is a good compromise, and an excellent introduction to Western scholarship on the subject. Unlike later, more radical historians like Wansbrough and Crone, Watt sifts through the early Muslim accounts and accepts most of them as being historically reliable.

If you're looking to gain an understanding of the life of Muhammad, grab this book. Watt presents a prose description of Muhammad's life, backed by sound, comprehensive study. It is actually enjoyable reading, almost like a story, yet completely historically accurate. (Or as much as we can be.) Watt does not make either extreme mistake of simply accepting the traditions of the Hadith or the Qur'an as absolute truth; or of looking only at Western denigrations of Islam. Rather, he appears to recognize historical truths in the Qur'anic traditions, and in Western and Eastern scholarship. If you've been trying to learn about Islam and have spent time looking over the Qur'an, this is *the* book to turn to get that background on Muhammad and "flesh" him out. Watt shows a human, beyond the traditions and myths, that changed his world, and then the rest of the planet.