Rebalancing the account
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The life of the Prophet Muhammad has always polarized opinion in the West. After 9/11 and 7/7 it has become increasingly difficult to find balanced accounts of Islam and its founder. Having read Robert Spencer's "The Truth About Muhammad", which was relentlessly hostile, I was looking for something rather more sympathetic about Muhammad's life. I found it in Barnaby Rogerson's book.
Rogerson is an excellent storyteller, a professional, in fact. In the preface, Rogerson tells how, when taking Western tourists around Roman sites in a Muslim country, he heard groups of men sitting around in cafes telling tales from the days of the Prophet as if they were fresh and new. "I was on the side of a good story," says Rogerson. "The life of the Prophet Muhammad is a story of overpowering pathos and beauty. It is history, tragedy and enlightenment compressed into one tale." And that's how Rogerson tells it.
He has the knack of taking the reader into the picture, of conjuring up the sights and sounds and smells of Arabia in the days of Muhammad. And he gives us a sense of the struggles that Muhammad and his early followers went through, of the Prophet's family, and of the harsh life of the Arabs in the desert. He tells it in the end as a tale of triumph over challenge, but never implies that victory was a foregone conclusion.
But - and it is a big but - I was conscious throughout that Rogerson had omitted much of the very difficult episodes of Muhammad's apparent cruelty that Spencer includes in his book. In fact, my first reaction to Rogerson's book was that he was a Romantic, that he had to some extent sentimentalized Muhammad's story and had evaded these difficult episodes. The problem with writing a biography of Muhammad that is accessible and readable for the non-scholarly Western, non-Muslim reader (which is what I am) is that the writer must inevitably abbreviate the story and cannot really acknowledge the difficulties that a historian would have with the very limited primary sources for the life of Muhammad.
This is not to say that Rogerson avoids reference to sources. In fact, he has included a useful note on sources, as well as a timeline, maps, profiles of the main characters in the story, and a glossary of the 99 Names of God. But the main issue, as with all historical material, is one of interpretation. What do the various episodes mean? What frame of reference do we wish to put on the story of Muhammad? Spencer starts with harshly negative assumptions and sets out to prove what he already believes about Muhammad. Rogerson, on the other hand, starts with positive assumptions and sets out to show the beauty and majesty of Muhammad's life.
I have to admit I was repelled by Spencer and beguiled by Rogerson. Beguiled, but always a tad suspicious that he was carried away with the story and not conscious enough of where there could be difficulties and different views of what he was asserting about Muhammad. Somehow, I heard the echoes of Fitzgerald's translations of the Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam in Rogerson's voice.
Never mind, I shall now read Rogerson's "The Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad" and move on to the next part of the story of Islam. It is essential that we understand Islam's history and try to avoid the hatred and prejudice that so many in the West accept as the "proper" reaction to Islam. However, we must also acknowledge that extremist voices have captured the attention of the media and, indeed, of the Muslim community. It is my belief that any form of religious extremism is, as Baha'u'llah, Founder of the Baha'i Faith says, "a world-devouring fire".
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What a disappointment
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If this book is one of the better biographies of Muhammad, as one reviewer says, then we are in sad shape, indeed, in understanding both Muhammad and early Islam. This is not to argue with accuracy of the facts (to the extent they are known) of Muhammad's life, as offered by Rogerson. But legends, tales and traditions that have little or no grounding in historical fact are offered up without attribution and are treated as if they are provable fact, as well. Time after time, the author simply doesn't differentiate between fact and speculation. In a purported biography, that is terrible scholarship and completely unacceptable. Even worse, the author breezily tells us that it was fine that Muhammad's third wife was 9 years old (he was 53) because, after all, they were deeply in love! And when Muhammad was attracted to his step-son's wife, the step-son was more than happy to divorce her so Dad could move in. Please, give me a break. But that's how Rogerson writes. I do think such a style is called "mindless apologetics". If these events in fact occurred, then tell me how and why they were acceptable in that culture at that time. Islam, and Muhammad's role in establishing Islam, are simply too important for us now to have books like this trotted out as helpful. Can't someone give us better?
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Highly recommended but with a word of caution...
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I found this book by chance and wasn't planning to read it. Being a Muslim, I have had a reasonable exposure to literature regarding the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and I didn't think I needed another lecture on history. However, having read the first few pages, I couldn't put the book down! Rogerson's style is candid, lively and sometimes cheeky, yet for most part so full of affection that I didn't feel I was reading a book written by a non-Muslim. And now a word of caution. I must admire Rogerson's attempt to cover almost every aspect of the Prophet's life. However, this comes at a cost. Some events described in the book require detailed background and context. I don't question author's sincerity but on a few occasions, he has stopped short of a fair account. The author's description of Prophet's marriage to Zaynab is unfortunately inaccurate and would leave learned Muslim readers quite concerned and non-Muslims readers misled.
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great on content meagre on quality
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As a muslim i found rodgersons portrayal of the prophet muhammed (peace be upon him hence abbreviated to pbuh) enlightening as well as concerning.
I was astounded at his elegant style of writing and forthright commitment to sounding out the facts whilst sifting through all the romantics - as is found in most biographies of the prophet pbuh.However i was aghast at the lack of references given for some of his dubious claims. Albeit an ample and lengthy bibliogrphy was given at the nof his book. In conclusion an excellent little starter for muslim and non muslim alike about one of the greatest personalities of all time
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An excellent read, especially now
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This is a very interesting book indeed. Rogerson tells the story of Muhammad with respect, but does not leave out 'difficult' topics. He is brilliant on the background of the prophet's life in sixth century arabia and also on the surrounding empires which held sway over the region. At the start of the book, one wonders whether Rogerson is a convert to Islam. By the end, one doesn't care. In an age where it is difficult to lift most biographies, this slim, but very learned volume has a lot going for it.
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