Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet - Hardcover

Armstrong, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062500147 ISBN 13: 9780062500144

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1992

Synopsis

Discusses the life of the founder of Islam, the emergence of Islam in the midst of the turbulence of seventh-century Arabia, and Western views of the prophet and his religion from a historical perspective

About this title

About the Author:

Karen Armstrong, author, scholar, and journalist, is among the world's foremost commentators on religious history and culture. Her books include the bestselling A History of God and The Battle for God, as well as Buddha and Islam: A Short History.

From Publishers Weekly:

In a meticulous quest for the historical Muhammad, Armstrong first traces the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, which it has stigmatized as a "religion of the sword." This sympathetic, engrossing biography portrays Muhammad (ca. 570-632) as a passionate, complex, fallible human being--a charismatic leader possessed of political as well as spiritual gifts, and a prophet whose monotheistic vision intuitively answered the deepest longings of his people. Armstrong ( The Gospel According to Woman ) refutes the Western image of Muhammad as an impostor who used religion as a means to power, an attitude encapsulated in a psychotic dream episode in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Denying that Islam preaches total intransigence, she finds in the Prophet's teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. The "holy war" urged by the Koran, in Armstrong's reading, alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society. She draws significant parallels between the spiritual aspirations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0062500147
• ISBN 13: 9780062500144
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 290