Library Journal’s Barbara Hoffert chose The First Muslim as one of her picks for January 2013. This is what she wrote:
Understanding Islam would seem to mean understanding the life, the times, and the beliefs of its founder, but there don’t seem to be a lot of universally acknowledged biographies of Muhammad around. I’ll go out on a limb to highlight this one, because Hazleton, who reported on the Middle East for over a dozen years, wrote the well-regarded After the Prophet: the epic story of the Shia-Sunni split, a PEN-USA Book Award finalist that won praise from several quarters. Hazleton aims to examine how the man Muhammad — an orphan, a merchant, and an exile — upended the established order and became the Prophet. Keep your eyes peeled.
No comment on that phrase “universally acknowledged,” but to get such a nice nod so far ahead of publication is much appreciated.
Very cool, Lesley. I look forward to reading the book. I managed to get endorsements from Frank Schaeffer and Marcus Borg on my Confessions of a Bible Thumper. I mentioned you in the aknowledgements because I liked your advice so much. Cheers!
Well, Desiderata says that we are all children of the universe, and I acknowledge your command of and passion for the topic. Thus, you really are “universally acknowledged”.
Brava, Lesley!
Lesley dear,
I’m happy to read this. Let her be the harbinger of the hordes to come.
Love, Pantz
i look forward to this also.
have read karen armstrong’s
Are there any’universally accepted’ biographies of any other major religious figures who came before him?
Well put, Sohail.
Hello Lesley,
I am almost in the midst of reading the book ‘THE HAJ’by Leon Uris. I assume you have read it and I wonder if you could give me your opinion on the veracity of how the Bedouin and Arabs are described. At this point I am appalled by what I read.
Kristin, hi — have never read this Uris book, but to judge from what I’ve read of his (decades ago), am not surprised that it’s appalling. Sounds like to finish it would be an act of pure masochism.
Nothing less can be expected from the awaited book!
I’m already feeling like the first Medinans waiting outside Quba for the arrival of the first Muslim….
More wishes Lesley…
Ah, I wish. Love the image of waiting outside Quba. But I should point out that as Barack Obama can confirm, great expectations can also lead to disappointment…
When will this book be published?
Publication date is January 24, 2013.