Ten revised versions of presentations at an international colloquium held in October 1997 in Nijmagen, the Netherlands, provide a range of methodological approaches and use varying types of evidence to examine issues around the sources for the several biographies of The Prophet written between the end of the second and end of the third Islamic centuries. Five of them look at the development of the sira tradition of writing the life of Muhammad; the other five at the historical reliability of the biographical source material, including that used by the earliest Christian writings. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Acclaimed worldwide as the definitive biography of the Prophet Muhammad in the English language, Martin Lings' Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources is unlike any other. Based on Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries, of which some important passages are translated here for the first time, it owes the freshness and directness of its approach to the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life. Martin Lings has an unusual gift for narrative. He has adopted a style which is at once extremely readable and reflects both the simplicity and grandeur of the story. The result is a book which will be read with equal enjoyment by those already familiar with Muhammad's life and those coming to it for the first time. Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources was given an award by the government of Pakistan, and selected as the best biography of the Prophet in English at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad in 1983.

"In this biography, Barnaby Rogerson explores the life and times of this deeply influential figure. Vividly describing the sixth-century Arabia where Muhammad was born, Rogerson charts his early years among the flocks, the caravans and the markets of his native Mecca; the night the Archangel Gabriel appeared before him and Muhammad become the messenger of God; the dangerous years of reciting the divine revelations in Mecca; his escape to Yathrib (Medina) and the subsequent battles between the pagan Meccans and the Prophet's Muslim forces, who would ultimately prove victorious."--BOOK JACKET.

A life of the prophet Muhammad by bestselling author Karen Armstrong. 'Armstrong has a dazzling ability: she can take a long and complex subject and reduce it to its fundamentals, without over-simplifying' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of our best living writers on religion' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Not just a sympathetic book that would dispel the misconceptions and misgivings of its western readers, but also a book that is of considerable importance to Muslims' MUSLIM NEWS Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity.

Kecia Ali delves into the many ways the Prophet’s life story has been told from the earliest days of Islam to the present, by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Emphasizing the major transformations since the nineteenth century, she shows that far from being mutually opposed, these various perspectives have become increasingly interdependent.

Muhammad, the prophet-founder of Islam, is one of the most influential and misunderstood figures of history. The religion he founded in mid-seventh century Arabia now has over 1.5 billion followers and his impact on world affairs is immense. In this small volume, a Muslim and non-Muslim come together to tell the story of Muhammad's life and teachings in straightforward language that will appeal to all who seek an easy to read primer on the Prophet and his teachings.

It's All About Muhammad, A Biography of the World's Most Notorious Prophet, is a comprehensive biography of the man who created a religion that he called Islam. It gives a no-holds-barred account of the atrocities he committed in spreading his religion. The book contains 25 illustrations, half of them depicting these atrocities.

The extraordinary life of the man who founded Islam, and the world he inhabited—and remade. Lesley Hazleton's new book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, is out now from Riverhead Books. Muhammad’s was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality. Hazleton’s account follows the arc of Muhammad’s rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown, from insignificance to lasting significance. How did a child shunted to the margins end up revolutionizing his world? How did a merchant come to challenge the established order with a new vision of social justice? How did the pariah hounded out of Mecca turn exile into a new and victorious beginning? How did the outsider become the ultimate insider? Impeccably researched and thrillingly readable, Hazleton’s narrative creates vivid insight into a man navigating between idealism and pragmatism, faith and politics, nonviolence and violence, rejection and acclaim. The First Muslim illuminates not only an immensely significant figure but his lastingly relevant legacy.