Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam Across the Centuries [Hardcover]

Tarif Khalidi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2009

From one of today’s leading Muslim scholars, this compelling look at how the Prophet Muhammad has been portrayed throughout the centuries offers a fascinating history of the diversity of Islamic cultures and beliefs.

The Prophet Muhammad has been revered for more than fifteen centuries. Today, one in five people throughout the world calls for daily praises and blessings upon him and holds him up as a model of virtue.

In IMAGES OF MUHAMMAD, Tarif Khalidi examines the ways Muhammad has been depicted and revered from the immediate aftermath of his death to the present day. With scholarly authority, Khalidi explores how the “biography” of Muhammad has been constructed, reconstructed, and utilized in various Islamic cultures, and traces the influences that have shaped his image, including the profound effect of negative perceptions promulgated by the West. As he describes the great variety of Islamic beliefs and practices, Khalidi illuminates the values and ideas shared by the Sunni, Shia, and Sufi sects, as well as the differences among them, providing Western readers with a clear, objective perspective on the current conflicts within the Muslim world as well as their global repercussions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Khalidi's new book, like his previous book, The Muslim Jesus, is a remarkable find in the often stormy sea of misinformation on the religion of Islam and Islamic history." --Winnipeg Free Press, September 13, 2009

"A courageous and seminal work...pathbreaking analysis of a difficult subject...Images of the Prophet is a fascinating and beautifully written book that deserves the widest possible attention." --Middle East Policy, vol.xvii, no.1, Spring 2010

About the Author

TARIF KHALIDI is Sheikh Zayed Chair in Islamic and Arabic Studies at the American University in Beirut. He is the author of The Muslim Jesus, and was previously Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic, director of the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and a fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Born in Jerusalem, he now lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (August 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385518161
• ISBN-13: 978-0385518161
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How much do you really know about the Prophet Muhammad?, August 31, 2009

By 

David Crumm "Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine" (Canton, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam Across the Centuries (Hardcover)

If you're curious about world religions, and you're not Muslim yourself, you've probably looked into the Quran and you may have read about the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad. This book is not a new biography of the Prophet.
It's a book, written by a scholar of Islam for general readers, explaining how writers have shaped--and reshaped--biographies of the Prophet down through history since the time of the revelation of the Quran well over a thousand years ago. It's probably not the best "first book" to read about Islam. Works by John Esposito generally are good starting points for American readers.
But "Images of Muhammad" artfully explores the many different stresses and shadings that writers have brought to accounts of Prophet Muhammad's life down through the centuries: He was a figure meant to reconcile an entire people to God. He was a figure who helped to connect the individual believer to God. He was a great innovator. He was a man who corrected and preserved a pure religious tradition. He had personal likes and dislikes he wished to pass along. He was a religious figure who transcended cultural preferences.
Perhaps you get the idea.
Dr. Khalidi takes us through more than a millennium of reflections on the Prophet's life and we come away with a larger, richer portrait of this figure than any single writer's account could paint.
Dr. Khalidi's interest is in the literary form known as "Sira," the short-hand term for a Life of the Prophet Muhammad. So, his book is not a survey of all literature that includes the Prophet, nor does he cover various contemporary books about the Prophet. He's interested here in how Muslims have shifted their emphasis in remembering their beloved founding figure down through the years.
I write this review as a non-Muslim. Before he's finished, Dr. Khalidi takes us through a wide range of literature, including Sunni, Sufi and Shia literature. Muslim readers are likely to debate some of the conclusions he draws along the way. As a non-Muslim interested in Islam, I welcomed the whole book as complex meditation on what this great figure in world history has meant in many times and places and to the billion people who now call themselves Muslim.