The author is simultaneously able to impart a compact lesson on the history of Islam in 300 pages, from Mohammad to the present, and to relate this history to contemporary debates.ĭifferentiated account of historical events Other passages liven up the narrative flow with tales of the author's traveling experiences or Sufi verses. The reader gets the feeling that he was there in the vast Arabic desert when Mohammad's followers anxiously waited for the Prophet to arrive for the Hijrah, the migration from Mecca to Medina. Instead, they are interrupted by scenes which Aslan illuminates as if with a spotlight by infusing them with a literary and poetic quality. The stories unfold skillfully and with ease, but not in a linear fashion. No God but God, Aslan's first book, reads as if you were sitting at the movies. He studied religion at Harvard and also taught at the renowned University of Iowa's Writers Workshop. Reza Aslan was born in Iran and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was seven years old.
No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam quite harmoniously combines reading pleasure with academic knowledge in an easy-to-read tone. Now a German translation of an American publication by Reza Aslan offers much of what these other books had been lacking.
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If you leaf through these a bit, you'll probably put them back on the shelf rather quickly, irritated with the many footnotes, complicated transcriptions, and the lackluster academic speak – all of which command the full attention of the reader, yet without rewarding him with even a hint of reading pleasure. A rarer find for the willing reader are the Islamic studies publications located one row further. Whether in print, television, radio or internet, reports on Islamist terror can be found on a daily basis.īut for those who want more than the daily news on issues such as the origins of Islam, its religious foundations, and the historical figure of Mohammad, what jumps out at you from the shelves at your local bookstore are the colorfully bound works by warhorse-type Middle East experts like Peter Scholl-Latour et al. Whenever the key words Islam or Muslims are heard these days, the topic is usually "terror." Anyone who wants to learn something about this frightening phenomenon in our globalized world has a lot of material to choose from.
Reza Alsan account of the hijra, Mohammed's migration from Mecca to Medina, is particularly colorful, says Helena Sabbagh
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