The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad [Paperback]

The extraordinary life of the man who founded Islam, and the world he inhabited—and remade.

Lesley Hazleton's new book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, is out now from Riverhead Books.

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. InThe First Muslim, 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.

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?

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.The First Muslimilluminates not only an immensely significant figure but his lastingly relevant legacy. A rich biography… Those who read it will come away well prepared to understand the prophet whose message, 14 centuries later, is the creed of more than a billion and a half people.” –The San Francisco Chronicle

This book offers a welcome chance to read [Muhammed's] life story in a more familiar and accessible form than the Islamic sources…The First Muslimsucceeds. It makes its subject vivid and immediate. –Hari Kunzru,The New York Times Book Review

Richly detaill³.