Review of 'After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
“After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Sunni-Shia Split” by Lesley Hazelton is a very readable but simplified rendering of one of the most interesting stories in religious history: the death of the Prophet Muhammad and the forces that have led to the divergence between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. The book is great for people seeking to understand the present tensions in Islam. But I also think it is a book for people interested in how religions begin – that transition from charismatic leadership to an institutional religion that is essential to the longevity of any religious movement.
What makes the book strong is that Hazelton has striven for balance between the two stories. Too often, in my view, books on Islam write about the history from the perspective of Sunni Islam being the normative while Shia Islam is a quirky, heterodox sect. This may have something to …
“After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Sunni-Shia Split” by Lesley Hazelton is a very readable but simplified rendering of one of the most interesting stories in religious history: the death of the Prophet Muhammad and the forces that have led to the divergence between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. The book is great for people seeking to understand the present tensions in Islam. But I also think it is a book for people interested in how religions begin – that transition from charismatic leadership to an institutional religion that is essential to the longevity of any religious movement.
What makes the book strong is that Hazelton has striven for balance between the two stories. Too often, in my view, books on Islam write about the history from the perspective of Sunni Islam being the normative while Shia Islam is a quirky, heterodox sect. This may have something to do with the fact that the Muslim world is approximately 80% Sunni and 15% Shia—the numbers show which group is the “orthodox” interpretation. But this is a false assumption. At every point in the history or story of religions, there are many possible divergence points and there is no reason why one interpretation or school of thought must be the one that wins out. Hazelton seeks to correct this imbalance by trying to focus on both narratives equally and showing the points at which they disagree. While one may argue that trying to give both denominations equal time is also not ideal, I would argue that it is less of a problem in a book written for a general audience, many who do not know the details of both stories.
The second point that makes Hazelton’s book strong is that she tells the story in a narrative fashion. Far from being irreligious or ideological, Hazelton tells the story of human beings dealing with the death of their Prophet and immense change. This human focus allows Hazelton to discuss the lives of important individuals that makes them into three-dimensional figures. She uses the lives of two individuals at the center of the story who are often portrayed reverently in their respective camps: Aisha, the youngest wife of the Prophet (representing the Sunni view) and Ali, the Son-In-Law of the Prophet and the first Imam of Shiism (and fourth Sunni Caliph). While one may dispute the simplifying of the narrative, using these two figures allows Hazelton to bring the story down to earth and make the tensions clear.
As a scholar of religion, I believe that we should be writing for both scholarly and popular audiences. We have a naturally interesting subject and we have a duty to write clearly about our subject. This book is a book meant for a general audience. I used it in a class on Islam and it worked well. I can set aside its simplified narrative in light of its roundedness and clarity.
