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The Heirs of Muhammad | 
 enlarge | Author: Barnaby Rogerson
Publisher: Overlook TP
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $6.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 632796
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1590200225
Dewey Decimal Number: 956
EAN: 9781590200223
ASIN: 1590200225
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: A couple of the edges are very lightly worn.
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Book Description
The Prophet Muhammad brought his vision of the word of God to the Arabs, and within a generation of his death, his followers--as vivid a cast of heroic individuals as history has known--had exploded out of Arabia to confront the two great superpowers of the seventh century and establish Islam and with it a new civilization. The Heirs of Muhammad is a swaggering saga of ambition, achievement, self-sacrificing nobility and blood rivalry. In it, acclaimed historian Barnaby Rogerson recounts the lives of the handful of individuals--the first four Caliphs, the Prophet's widows and the conquering generals--who led and influenced Islam after the death of Muhammad. Within the fifty-year span of conquest and empire-building, Rogerson identifies the seeds of discord that destroyed the unity of Islam and traces the roots of the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims to the rivalry of the two people who best knew and loved the Prophet: his cousin and son-in-law Ali and his wife Aisha. The Heirs of Muhammad is the best kind of history--the kind that brings a forgotten era back to life while simultaneously illuminating a neglected history that is vital to an enlightened understanding of our present world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
The Birth of Islam November 18, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rogerson makes this complex story intelligible. It's very involved, so it's no wonder that few non-Muslims understand it. Besides the interwoven relationships of the principals (nicely presented in charts at the end), there is the difficulty in seeing how religion gets spread through battle. This is clearly not a story that lends itself to sound bites.
While the book gives a framework for understanding the Shiite-Sunni split, I am at a loss to actually explain it to anyone. What I did learn, was how the religion was founded and took root. I came away with a greater understanding of its believers.
The First Four Caliphs August 13, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is an extremely well-written book that details the history of Islam during the 30 or so years after the death of the Prophet. Not knowing much about this religion, and particularly the reason for the animosity betwen Shia and Sunni, I was compelled to read and learn. I must admit that the author handles all of the history and the main characters quite well, and never denigrates their view of the faith. Having read this book, I'm really at a loss as to why there is this split in Islam, for the differences between the two sides appears to be extremely minor. Of course, Chirstianity has split over many more trivial items of doctrine, the most conspicuous of which is the use or non-use of "filioque" in the Creed. To learn about one of the world's great religions, and its early leaders, this book is an essentail read.
Great help understanding the Shia, Sunni Divide August 10, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Reads like a mystery. The geography, paganism, sectism, perversity, mercantialism- and not to forget treachery,blood and gore, make this book a great read. Connects the dots from heir to heir to the leadership of ancient Islam. identifies the Prophets wives and tells you enough to get to know them. Most importantly, I grew to understand why the Shias think they were so hard done by.
The heirs seem to prefer age over 'ability,' not that anyone was obviously better than the next. The Shia- followers of Ali- were 'meritocratic'. I see why they think Ali paid his dues first, took great risks, was the first male convert e.g. while the elders, Abu Bakr, Omar and Uthman, seemed to inherit the leadership in chronological order. However each did a great job while Caliph
Growth of misogyny after the death of Mohammad evolved from subsequent leaders.Mohammad loved and respected women- he appears to have married about a dozen.
Heirs of a Faith, Creators of an Empire June 24, 2007
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
THE HEIRS Of MUHAMMAD by British journalist and travelogue author Barnaby Rogerson is both a thoroughly researched and quite enjoyable recounting of nascent Islam's first century and the origins of its split into Sunni and Shi'a factions.
Rogerson has gone to great lengths with this book to show that Islam, like all mass movements, was troubled by factionalism and in-fighting even before the death of the Muhammad. In Part 1 he details the rivalries amongst the Prophet's wives (called here by their respectful title, "the Mothers of the Faithful"), the roots of Aisha's lifelong hatred for Ali, and the rise in importance of such former adversaries of the Islamic faith as the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh and various other families, clans and tribes, who were now jockeying for leadership in the growing Muslim state.
Part 2 opens with the death of Muhammad and the institution of the politico-religious office of leadership known as the Caliphate. Abu Bakr is chosen over Ali as Muhammad's successor - and thus the origin of the Sunni/Shi'a split. Rogerson also recounts another event little known to most non-Muslims: the Ridda Wars. Also called the War Against Apostasy, these were a series of battles fought to bring rebellious Bedouin and settled Arab tribes back under Islamic rule. It is here that the author shows the complex political and religious makeup which existed in the Arabian peninsula: Arab clients of the Roman emperor in Constantinople, Arabian tribes under Persian cultural and political influence, or tribes and clans who desired not only to revert back towards indigenous pagan cults but also to the Christianity that they had only recently adopted before adopting Islam itself.
Most noteworthy also is Rogerson's history of the wars which would ultimately lead to the Arab conquest of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
The Arab victories over the Roman Empire and its eventual conquest of Sassanid Persia -at the battles of the Yarmuk (636) and al-Qadisiya (637) respectively- altered forever the racial, religious, and political developments of not only the Middle East, but of Christendom (and thus Western civilization) as well. Suprisingly, however, very little has been written on these two supremely major events for the average reader of history. So, for his detailed account of these battles alone, Rogerson's HEIRS Of MUHAMMAD, is an exceptional and worthwile read.
With the long-awaited election of Ali as caliph, Rogerson illustrates the new religion's rising tensions in philosophies and practices. Would Islam -born out of strife- remain a religion of conquest? Or would it nuture and encourage its more spiritual and universal aspects, best exemplified in the personalities of Ali and his sons Hasan and Hussein.
The political rise of the Machiavellian Mauwiya upon the death of Ali and his Umayyad Dynasty's subsequent persecution and many attempts at the annihilation of the Prophet's very bloodline should help to answer these questions.
Barnaby Rogerson offers an excellent and fair-minded history of Muhammad's later years and the early Caliphate. Writing it filled with all the drama and intrigue, war and conflict of an epic. For this was a time filled with the people and events which utterly define the word of epic.
holds the reader's interest throughout June 21, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
We don't have many books relating to this era which are not only completely unbiased but also encompasses all the major personalities of earlier Islam in a narrative which holds the concentration of the reader through every page. This book accomplishes all of it. It expertly shows how Abubakr firmly established the writ of the Caliphate over Arabia, and held the budding nation together. Omar in addition to bringing down the main world powers of that era, also established a system of justice rarely seen ever since. Uthman despite all the accusations thrown on him, did not flinch from his principles till the very end, sacrificing his life rather than shedding anyone's blood. Ali was the true model of piety. Another great aspect of this book is showing the gradual disintegration of Muslims-not only politically but ethically as well, illustrated by the events of Prophet's own grandson losing his life to people belonging to his own faith, and the attack on the holiest of sites in Islam-the Kaaba-by a group of Muslims themselves.
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