Author: Lesley Hazleton (Author)

Product description

"Fascinating. . . . Lively and engaging. . . . Anyone seeking to understand today's Middle East can learn from this book. . . . Hazleton not only recounts the facts behind the split but also expertly uses centuries-old accounts to convey the depth of emotional and spiritual associations bundled within a simple word like 'Karbala.' . . . [She] deftly uses original sources, many based on contemporaneous or nearly so oral accounts, to give life and breath to figures familiar to every Muslim but unknown to most non-Muslims."

--Seattle Times

"Illuminating. . . . After the Prophet will be held up as a primer for grasping the modern-day Middle East."

--The Miami Herald

"Remarkable. . . . A story of human passion and consequence, told with consummate skill. . . . [Hazleton] manages the not inconsiderable feat of maintaining scholarly respect for her subject while also showing a real fondness for the people at the story's heart--people who, we learn, were not unlike us, and whose tale is directly linked to today's newscast."

--Dallas Morning News

"Thrilling in its depiction of long-ago events. . . . Passionately and scrupulously done."

--The Wall Street Journal

"As sectarian aggression flares in Iraq, Hazleton's explanation of its deep, entrenched roots is essential."

--Christian Science Monitor

"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 novelistic style that puts most other, often dreary, explanations of the Shia-Sunni divide to shame."

--Hooman Majd, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ

"A profound story masterfully told. . . . An exceptional book."

--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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