Customer Reviews

Muhammad and the Course of Islam

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This is a well-researched and excellent history of Islam. Verses from the Qur'an are included in such a way as to make the Qur'an itself more understandable to the Western non-Muslim reader. The most refreshing aspect of the work is its lack of reliance on many of the old axe-grinding sources that lead the Westerner down a road not to further understanding of one of the world's great religions, but rather to a dismissal of millions of people as deranged fanatics.

To the reader of Islamic history, the author's Persian extraction does come through a bit in his depiction of the status of Ali as the rightful successor of Muhammad. I imagine Sunni Muslims would take issue with that point of view, but still this history is one of the best that I've seen over the years.

I read this book 2 years ago and was fascinated by the detail on the life of Mohammad and the history of Arabs and their conquests post-Islam. I recommend this to anyone interested in history and learning about the events that led to Islam becoming one of the major religions of the world today. Unfortunately this book was out of print for a while and I am glad to see it is back.

It has been several years since I read this book, but I still recall how clear it was. It provides a detailed yet comprehensible history of Muhammad and the time in which He lived. Some of the events in the early history of Islam are dramatic and make for an interesting read. Verses from the Koran are included and explained. This book is particularly valuable to the Western reader.

I found this work to be an excellent study of the Life of the Prophet
and the unfoldment of Islam. It gave me a deeper understanding of Muhammad's life. Balyuzi's work is objective and illuminating.