In the Shadow of the Prophet

-->

In the Shadow of the Prophet is a bit off-genre for the usual books in this blog. Aida Afaf has written a historical fiction about the life of a family in ancient Syria in about the year 600 when Mohammed was establishing himself as Islam’s last prophet. This is a four-generational story that involves a couple Hajj trips to Mecca, both before and after Mohammed became known. The danger of the trips was integral to the plot. The author addresses the customs of the time and shows that the unequal treatment of women was not universally practiced by all communities. This is a family story of coming of age, birth and death, triumph and tragedy. The dialogue has a simplistic quality of the sort that I expect captures the way people spoke to one another in that era. I thought Ms. Afaf caught the excitement and danger of Mohammed’s word spreading across the continent, spreading the belief in one god rather than the polytheistic Islam that had existed before him. If this era and content is of interest to you, then I recommend this book.