The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad

The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad

<b>The extraordinary life of the man who founded Islam, and the world he inhabited—and remade. <br><br>Lesley Hazleton's new book, <i>Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto</i>, is out now from Riverhead Books.</b><br><br> Muhammad’s was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In <i>The First Muslim</i>, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality.<br><br> Hazleton’s account follows the arc of Muhammad’s rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown, from insignificance to lasting significance. How did a child shunted to the margins end up revolutionizing his world? How did a merchant come to challenge the established order with a new vision of social justice? How did the pariah hounded out of Mecca turn exile into a new and victorious beginning? How did the outsider become the ultimate insider?<br><br> Impeccably researched and thrillingly readable, Hazleton’s narrative creates vivid insight into a man navigating between idealism and pragmatism, faith and politics, nonviolence and violence, rejection and acclaim. <i>The First Muslim </i>illuminates not only an immensely significant figure but his lastingly relevant legacy.