Muhammad

Rating:
Summary: Excellent explanation of the birth of a religion
Review: I've actually read the italian version of this book (edited by Einaudi). I found it incredibly interesting to help to understand how a religion and culture is born. The author is atheist, and I think that it is a good precondition for the book's objectivity.

Rating:
Summary: essential essential reading
Review: I've owned this book for more than 20 years. It has always been useful in understanding Muhammed and Islam from a scientfic Marxist view. For fun, I would recommend reading the book together with the passages on Muhammed in Rhushdie's Satanic verses.

I detest the condescension that some people have about Muhammed and this book. Unlike Christ or the Jewish Prophets and most other founds of religions, Muhammed was a person who lived in recorded history, left a mark by real records of his life, and had a recorded life and achievemensts even before he became a religious leader. We know little about him, but almost all of that is known from real history, not hagiagraphy.

Christians are only lucky that no such book exists about Christ, because Christ--if he existed--left much less of a real trace in records than Muhammed. Christians also benefit from the rigorous censorship and recrafting the Christian texts received when Christianity was transformed from being an underground religion of the oppressed and socially alienated, to the religion of the Roman state and ruling class.

Rodison is not a pro imperialist, but a Marxist who defends the Arab revolution against imperialism. He is an objective scholar. If you aren't ready for the theoritical complexity and terse theory of Islam and Capital, please investigate his Israel, A settler colonial state. Recent reader reviews here on Amazon have pointed out how this book written decades ago accurately predicts the present future of Zionist crimes and Palestinian resistance!

Rating:
Summary: Reissued Biography
Review: Rodinson's book is not a scholarly biographical based upon critical examination the early literature and sources, but it is nonetheless an educated and sophisticated look at the events, peoples, and places surrounding Islam's earliest origins and the personality which spawned it.
For such an accessible, non-technical perspective, Rodinson's book is perhaps the most user-friendly for anyone who may not consider themselves to be particularly religious. Rodinson is himself an atheist and a Marxist, and he, therefore, often frames the events of Muhammad's life within naturalistic explanations. For this reason, it is not generally regarded highly by Muslims and banned from libraries in the conservative countries. Reading the book, however, one finds little so scandalous as to merit such a melodramatic reaction,
The two rival books aimed at this market are those by K. Armstrong and M. Watt. The former is sympathetic in a vaguely religions sense, and the other is a severely abridged version of a larger, well-respected biography--peerless really. One would likely choose between the three if one had to based upon which the authors' background you found more appealing.

Rating:
Summary: Critical view of the prophet and Islam
Review: This is a book that a devout Muslim, if he bothered to read it, would rail against, because it treats the founder of Islam as nothing more than a mortal, although a very complicated one. I read it during the years I lived in Morocco and I found it an invaluable tool for understanding Islam from the inside, and also understanding how Muslims view people of other religions. I don't think it is the most balanced account of the prophet's life you'll find, but it's one of the best researched ones and it doesn't pull any punches.

Rating:
Summary: Mohamed is a religously intolerant terrorist who triumphed.
Review: Why does Rodinson reshape the image of a terrorist and religiously intolerant man?

Why is the Prophet a terrorist? Because of the way he reached power. He organized his followers as a band of terrorists who would attack caravans, demand ransom. With the money obtained, he would increase his army of terrorists. When they became strong enough, they attacked Mecca, stole the Holy Shrine from the pagans, and declared it an Islamic Holy place.

Why is he religously intolerant? Well, before he came to power, Christians and pagans, even Jews, existed and made a living in Arabia. After he came, only followers of Mohamed could live in Arabia. This ban exists until today in Mecca and Medina: Only Moslems may enter the city. Christians who help build the Saudi economy may not get citizenship, and may not even build a church.

To say that Mohamed is a remarkable man is to admire religiously intolerant oppressors and tyrants.

Rating:
Summary: Mohamed is a religously intolerant terrorist who triumphed.
Review: Why does Rodinson reshape the image of a terrorist and religiously intolerant man?

Why is the Prophet a terrorist? Because of the way he reached power. He organized his followers as a band of terrorists who would attack caravans, demand ransom. With the money obtained, he would increase his army of terrorists. When they became strong enough, they attacked Mecca, stole the Holy Shrine from the pagans, and declared it an Islamic Holy place.

Why is he religously intolerant? Well, before he came to power, Christians and pagans, even Jews, existed and made a living in Arabia. After he came, only followers of Mohamed could live in Arabia. This ban exists until today in Mecca and Medina: Only Moslems may enter the city. Christians who help build the Saudi economy may not get citizenship, and may not even build a church.

To say that Mohamed is a remarkable man is to admire religiously intolerant oppressors and tyrants.