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I've read several biographies of the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, but this one was unique. Karen is respectful and yet not reverential, and although she uses orthodox Muslim historical sources (Ibn Ishaq, Tabari, Muhammad Ibn Sa'd and al-Waqidi) her outsider approach produced some surprises in what I thought was a familiar topic.

She tries to rationalize several incidents, sometimes ignoring the sources in the search for a more credible explanation. An early example is that the army of Abraha the Abyssinian governor of southern Arabia which attempted to destroy the ka'bah on the year of the prophet's birth, relating that "at the very gates of the city it seems that his army was stricken by plague and forced to beat an ignominious defeat". This isn't a weakness though, as it provides historical context and forces an evaluation of the source - whether they could be romanticised, tweaked or exaggerated in retelling. She also strongly contextualizes many incidents, providing significant political background to the conflict with the Jewish tribes of Medina.

One of the most interesting things about the narrative by far was the attention paid to the socioeconomic situation in Arabia through the time period, explaining it from several generations before the prophet's birth to his death in more detail than the original sources or any secondary ones I've yet come across. This brings an understanding of the power dynamics in the community, how various factors interplay with the newly founded religion of Islam and the complex motivations of different characters. She claims that the tribal solidarity ethic of nomadic Arabs was ill-suited to more cosmopolitan life when Quraysh settled in Mecca, and discussed the slow dissolution of society as the first generation to be born without the daily risk of desert life became mercantile and obsessed with financial profit, neglecting the weak and creating a rapidly-growing wealth and class divide which was new to Arabs. The youth, who felt growing malaise and a lack of belonging in this new Arabia, were naturally among the first to be attracted to Islam, given that social solidarity was one of the first messages preached.

The main weaknesses of the book are poor transliteration and several infuriating contradictions of itself or its sources ("there is no evidence that Muhammad saw Islam as a universal religion" being one of the worst). But if you are already familiar with the source material, that isn't significantly detrimental to its enjoyability.

Ultimately it ends on a positive note, balancing the just war theology with the strong evidence for a complementary paradigm of peace evidenced from the treaty of Hudaybiyah, the opening of Mecca and the subsequent reconciliation with and forgiveness of Quraysh. Written at the time of the Rushdie crisis, the opening chapter discusses the modern climate of fear and hatred towards Islam and Muslims together with historical trends in Eastern-Western relations, and calls for an attempt to come to mutual understanding and fight Western media and academic bias against Islam. I think she succeeded in presenting a sympathetic, accessible portrayal which is greatly relevant to our modern times, and therefore I happily recommend it.