Customer Reviews

Introducing Muhammad

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this book twice, cover to cover within a week. It left me with the impression that, until now, what I know about Muhammad and his religion is shallow and unbalanced. The author has given me a fairer and deeper understanding of Islam. Thank you very much Mr. Sardar for enlightening me.

Excellent introduction to Muhammad. Comprehensive, informative, interesting, enjoyable. Get one if you want to know more about the man and his faith (Islam). I would recommend it as a first read to anybody who wants to know the Muslims' way of life.

I have read other books in the series and found them all to be very good, overviews of their subjects. Introducing Muhammad, also provides a very good overview of its subject-Muhammad and Islam. It offers the reader a good entry point to further study of Islam. Although I did find the author to be somewhat biased,it gave me a good insight into one of the world's largest religions and a new perspective on history. The illustrations really help to convey the authors points too.

This revised version of Muhammad for beginners (1994), now gives a clear outlook for novices and good inner look for the seekers.

Published in 1994 before the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan and 9/11, Introducing Muhammad really only spends a third of its pages on Muhammad and would have more aptly been titled, Introducing Islam. In the hit-and-miss illustrated series covering everything from Nelson Mandela to Feminism, this book leans toward hit and is a good primer on Islam. I picked it up wanting an introduction to Muhammad's life and ended up getting an enjoyable lesson in Islamic history.

Though sometimes weighted down with vocabulary and many tangents, it's admittedly hard to encapsule 1400 years of history in 175 pages but Mr. Sardar tries hard. He definitely has the agenda of selling Islam and over compensates by painting its development in an almost too Disney-fied way.

I'm only slightly familiar with Muhammad's life and the Qur'an but it seems strange that issues such as the murders of the succession of Caliphs (post-Muhammad rulers) are glossed over. And when Mr. Sardar gets to the issue of women's status in the Islamic world he can only offer up that their suppression isn't supported by the Qur'an but doesn't explain how their status exists in contrast to the teachings of the Qur'an or why.

What the book does well is to cover the life of Muhammad, the birth of Islam and it's intellectual golden age. Once colonialism and the deterioration of Islam's former world status is discussed and up until modern times the book seems to loose it's hold on the reader. Even though by the end Mr. Sardar bites of more than he hold our attention with, I was curious why the founding of the modern state of Israel and the discoveries of much of the world's oil in the mostly Muslim Middle East was overlooked. Chapters and an index would have been nice as well.

Mr. Malik's illustrations add some nice supplements but toward the end just seem to be overwhelmed by the text. The mood that they set is appropriate and some of the Arabic calligraphy is downright gorgeous. Examples of older Qur'an manuscripts are peppered throughout.

Overall a very good introduction to Islam up to the 19th century. Those looking for information just on Muhammad or an overview of post-colonial Islam may want to look elsewhere.

How can you publish a quality graphic book about Muhammad and not depict him? Sure, there is a Muslim tradition that forbids doing so, but if the authors and publisher are going to abide by that, then they shouldn't have published the book in such a format. Ridiculous.

Here he is wearing a turban and sporting a mustache and beard:

@:{D