After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam Paperback – Illustrated, September 7, 2010

While I can understand the criticism of some reviewers who are likely Sunni Muslim, she makes it clear in the comments after the book that she relied heavily on the history detailed by the early Islamic historian al-Tabari, including some of the quotes that some reader critics have questioned. Interesting to note that he is a Sunni Muslim, so his words would likely not have skewed to favor Shiism. Subject like this can be very dry, but the author's style holds your attention as she literally tells the story of those years in the 7th century, interspersed with some comments on how those events still influence what we see in the Middle East today. I'd highly recommend this if you wish to learn more about the origins of the Sunni-Shia conflict as well as who was instrumental in leading Islam after the death of the Prophet.

I think that this is good chronicle of the Shia-Sunni split in Islam. Interestingly, what makes this book intriguing is almost the same thing that takes away from it, albeit not by much.This book is divided into 3 chapters, about Muhammad, Ali, & Hussein. The death of one leads to the other & so on. Since this book is organized by its emphasis on characters, with chronology/historical context tacitly tucked in, this book reads like a great novel, with character sketches complete & additional narrative to add flavor to historical text which otherwise may come across as insipid.Aside the main characters, the story of Aisha finds great resonance in this text & is probably, as other other reviewers have commented, is the most polemic & divisive content of this text. If you do not have an opinion on this historical figure, you're very likely to find her powerful & assertive - however, the way in which power manifests itself demarcates it as virtuous or vile &, I think, that is in this judgement that the 2 sects of Islam differ widely. This, however, is not the only source of separation - there are many others & this book does a good job of highlighting the various other disagreements between the two sects.Because of it's flavors, you could argue that the book is not exactly an academic view on the matter - I, like many other reviewers, felt that it glorifies the Shia slightly more than it should have, or, on the other hand, represented the Sunni in ways that are more redeeming. I also found certain discrepancies in the exact detail of history between the book by Reza Aslan - No God but God - & this one. Finally, I felt that not enough content was there between the death of Hussein & the formalizing of the Shia as cogent sect of Islam.This is a good introductory book, very easy to read & thoroughly enjoyable - my slight disappointments with it, notwithstanding.

I just finished reading Lesley Hazleton's book After The Prophet and I am delighted. Most writers describing historic events do so in a very dry, sterile manner that is exhausting for the poor reader. Hazleton manages to go over the same material that has been endlessly researched and re-written and puts down her version that draws the reader directly into the story. She breathes life into her story, puts expressions and thoughts into the personalities . She analyses personalities and inter-relationships and even as she deals only with facts...the same facts as most other historians, she makes hers come to life such the readers feels emotions and get involved in the story while reading facts.This book is about the period after the prophet Mohammed and the machinations that followed over the next several decades. Hazleton spares no one in her analyses of what might reasonably have gone through their minds, she stays faithful to the matters of historic record while conjecturing what people may have been planning as evidenced by their past and later actions. She deals with the fracturing relationships after the death of the prophet and how they degenerated into what we know today, as "The Shia-Sunni Divide".In my opinion, thus book is a "must read" for any non-Muslim in order to even begin to understand how Shia and Sunni relate with one another; this is a book the policy-makers in the halls of Washington, should read before they deal with anything further, regarding Iran or the Middle East.Most Muslims go through life knowing only what their peers and their faith-leaders tell them about the "other" sect. Sunnis believe in a whole lot of mythology about the Shia, that stirs up suspicions and antipathy towards the Shia. Shia, on the other hand, have little ability to help inform their Sunni brethren, about the origins and distinctions of the Shia sect.Would that this book were read by members of both sects!My congratulations to Hazleton for another excellent work, it is a real contribution to human understanding.