Product Description

Narrative history at its most compelling, After the Prophet relates the dramatic tragic story at the heart of the ongoing rivalry between Shia and Sunni Islam.

Even as Muhammad lay dying, the battle over his successor had begun. Pitting the family of his favorite wife, the controversial Aisha, against supporters of his son-in-law, the philosopher-warrior Ali, the struggle would reach its breaking point fifty years later in Iraq, when soldiers of the first Sunni dynasty massacred seventy-two warriors led by Muhammad's grandson Hussein at Karbala. Hussein's agonizing ordeal at Karbala was soon to become the Passion story at the core of Shia Islam.

Hazleton's vivid, gripping prose provides extraordinary insight into the origins of the world's most volatile blend of politics and religion. Balancing past and present, she shows how these seventh-century events are as alive in Middle Eastern hearts and minds today as though they had just happened, shaping modern headlines from Iran's Islamic Revolution to the civil war in Iraq.

After the Prophet is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and an emotional and political revelation for Western readers.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15890 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-15
• Released on: 2009-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 6.40" w x 9.70" l, 1.10 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385523936
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Book Description
Narrative history at its most compelling, After the Prophet relates the dramatic tragic story at the heart of the ongoing rivalry between Shia and Sunni Islam.

Even as Muhammad lay dying, the battle over his successor had begun. Pitting the family of his favorite wife, the controversial Aisha, against supporters of his son-in-law, the philosopher-warrior Ali, the struggle would reach its breaking point fifty years later in Iraq, when soldiers of the first Sunni dynasty massacred seventy-two warriors led by Muhammad's grandson Hussein at Karbala. Hussein's agonizing ordeal at Karbala was soon to become the Passion story at the core of Shia Islam.

Hazleton's vivid, gripping prose provides extraordinary insight into the origins of the world's most volatile blend of politics and religion. Balancing past and present, she shows how these seventh-century events are as alive in Middle Eastern hearts and minds today as though they had just happened, shaping modern headlines from Iran's Islamic Revolution to the civil war in Iraq.

After the Prophet is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and an emotional and political revelation for Western readers.

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Lesley Hazleton on After the Prophet

It began with a question asked after a particularly ghastly suicide bombing in Iraq: "How come Muhammad, the prophet of unity who spoke of one people and one God, left behind him this terrible, unending, bloody legacy of division between Sunni and Shia?" The question haunted me, and led me to the magnificent story of the struggle for leadership after Muhammad's death, an epic as alive and powerful today as when it first happened.

I knew then that how I wrote this book was as important as what I wrote. I had discovered a story so rich in characters, culminating in such a tragic and unforgettable sacrifice, that it would have made a writer like Gabriel Garcia Marquez green with envy. Of course--how else could it survive and gather power over so many centuries? How else inspire people to forfeit their lives and those of others in its name? Yet though it is deeply engraved in Muslim consciousness--to the Sunnis as history and to the Shia as sacred history--the story of the events that divide them has remained largely unknown in the West. And our ignorance of it has haunted us as one Western power after another has tried to intervene in a conflict they barely understand.

That's why I wanted to bring Western readers inside the story, to make it as alive for them as it is in the Middle East, so that they can not only understand it on an intellectual level, but experience it--grasp its emotive depth and its inspirational power, and thus understand how it has survived and even strengthened, and how it affects the lives of all of us today.

The subject was all the more irresistible to me personally since it brings together many of my deepest interests: the interplay of religion and politics, more intricately intertwined in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world; my own experience living in and reporting from the Middle East for Time magazine and other publications; my affinity for narrative nonfiction and for tracing the interplay of past and present; and my original training as a psychologist, which comes into play as I explore the story, the way it has endured, and how it is used today in politics, society, spiritual life, and, too often, war.

I could almost imagine that if all this had only been better known in the West, American troops would never have been sent within a hundred miles of Iraqi holy cities like Najaf and Karbala, which figure in it so largely, and that we would never have tried to intervene in an argument fueled by such a volatile blend of emotion, religion, and politics. But I know this is wishful thinking. In the end, I will be happy if readers simply turn over the last page and breathe out the words I found myself saying again and again as my research deepened, and that seem to me an entirely appropriate response to a story of this power: "Oh my God..." --Lesley Hazleton

(Photo © Lesly Wiener)

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Much American foreign policy has been shaped by the centuries-old disagreement between Islam's two main factions, and yet Americans in general, and our politicians in particular, often can't tell Sunnis from Shi'ites. With the publication of this outstanding book, we no longer have any excuse. Hazleton (Jezebel) ties today's events to their ancient roots, resurrecting seventh century Arabia with reverence and vivid immediacy. Here are rich recreations of the lives of the Prophet Muhammad and his beloved wife Aisha; here are often overlooked details (why is green the color of Islam? why do some Muslim women veil?) filling in the contours of the narrative. The battle to name Muhammad's successor is gripping—but it is Hazleton's ability to link the past and present that distinguishes this book: the main issue is again what it was in the seventh century—who should lead Islam?—played out on an international level. Where Ali once struggled against Muawiya, Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia today vie with each other for influence. Anyone with an interest in the Middle East, U.S.-international relations or a profound story masterfully told will be well served by this exceptional book. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Praise for After the Prophet


"In After the Prophet, veteran Middle East journalist Lesley Hazleton tells with great flair the 'epic story of the Shia-Sunni split in Islam,' as she rightly calls it...    " Ms Hazleton frames her account between such ghastly events as the bombing of the Shia shrine in Karbala on March 4, 2004, and the later, equally devastating attack by Al Qaeda on the Askariya Mosque in Samarra in February 2006..  But After the Prophet isn't simply on-the-spot reportage.  Ms Hazleton has steeped herself in the work of classical Muslim historians and in recent scholarship...
    The book is often thrilling in its depiction of long-ago events such as the tragedy of Karbala in 680, when Ali's son Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet, was massacred with most of his family.  The slaughter -- still commemorated by the Shia in the annual Ashura rites -- is evoked vividly by Ms Hazleton, and it forms the inevitable climax of After the Prophet.  Though she's quite even-handed in her narrative, her sympathies tend to lie with the Shia.  That is to the good.  Earlier accounts have almost always been skewed to the Sunni version of history.  Sometimes the sheer telling of a tale, passionately and scrupulously done, can ease even the oldest and sorest of grievances -- with luck, maybe Ms Hazleton's work will have that effect on at least a few of these entrenched adversaries."
                    -- Eric Ormsby, The Wall Street Journal

"After the Prophet is a remarkable and respectful telling of the story of Islam—a tale of power, intrigue, rivalry, jealousy, assassination, manipulation, greed, and faith that would have made Machiavelli shudder (had he read it), but above all it is a very human story, told in a wonderfully nov...

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Customer Reviews

Conscise, readable, & thoroughly illuminating history of the Sunni-Shia schism
As a Sunni Muslim, I feel that I have been privileged to re-learn some history from a more objective viewpoint. Hazleton has written an educational, yet engrossing account of the 50 years following the death of Prophet Muhammad. Her sympathetic treatment of the main characters relies on historical accounts by the famed Islamic historian al-Tabari who died in 923AD, while her deft treatment of the implications of the Sunni-Shia split offer valid lessons to anyone interested in current events. Highly recommended to all who desire to delve deeper into history than the media soundbites of today - should be required reading for all reporters & journalists covering the Middle East!

An eye opener with an entertaining style
An amazing book, and an eye opener. I liked her style of ending breaks within chapters with a last line of a few words, that would make the reader and sat: Ahaa!

For the reader who thinks that immediately after the prophet's death, a large section of Muslims, "for a short while", did indeed believe that the prophet was immortal and that he could not die. People need to read more before making such judgments. This is a fact what the author has written, that is why Abu Bakr had to come out and claim that the prophet was just a human and has died, why else would there be any need for Abu Bakr to make such a statement? Both Shias and Sunnis agree on this.

This is a must read book for anybody who wants to understand the full details in a story style behind the Shia Sunni split. If I ever hear somebody comment why do the Shias and Sunnis hate each other so much and kill in such a manner, I will tell them to read this book.

a good start to understanding the Middle East
Too often we hear about Sunni and Shia in the news, but don't know or remember the difference between them. This book is great for summarizing the history of early Islam. You will find it hard not to take sides with the Sunni or Shia as the story unfolds and this is why the conflict is so powerful even today. More books like this should be presented to better understand the people of the middle east and the conflict that divides. There may never be a resolution to unify Islam, but if there is sensitivity to the claims that may help.