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The Epic Story Of The Shia-Sunni Split In Islam
Doubleday
September 2009
On Sale: September 15, 2009
256 pages ISBN: 0385523939 EAN: 9780385523936 Hardcover
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Historical
Narrative history at its most compelling, After the Prophet
relates the dramatic tragic story at the heart of the
ongoing rivalry between Shia and Sunni Islam.Even as
Muhammad lay dying, the battle over his successor had begun.
Pitting the family of his favorite wife, the controversial
Aisha, against supporters of his son-in-law, the
philosopher-warrior Ali, the struggle would reach its
breaking point fifty years later in Iraq, when soldiers of
the first Sunni dynasty massacred seventy-two warriors led
by Muhammad's grandson Hussein at Karbala. Hussein's
agonizing ordeal at Karbala was soon to become the Passion
story at the core of Shia Islam.Hazleton's vivid, gripping
prose provides extraordinary insight into the origins of the
world's most volatile blend of politics and religion.
Balancing past and present, she shows how these
seventh-century events are as alive in Middle Eastern hearts
and minds today as though they had just happened, shaping
modern headlines from Iran's Islamic Revolution to the civil
war in Iraq. After the Prophet is narrative nonfiction at
its finest, and an emotional and political revelation for
Western readers.
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