The heirs of Muhammad
Subtitle: Islam's first century and the origins of the Sunni-Shia split
By: Barnaby Rogerson
Publisher: Overlook Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Woodstock
Language: eng
Number of pages: 415
ISBN-13: 9781585678969
Subjects: Islam; History
Work titles: Heirs of the prophet Muhammad
Description: [In this book, the author] recounts the lives of the handful of individuals - the first four Caliphs, the Prophet's widows and the conquering generals - who led and influenced Islam after the death of Muhammad. Within this fifty-year span of conquest and empire-building, [the author] identifies the seeds of discord and civil war that destroyed the unity of Islam and traces the roots of the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims to the rivalry of the two people who best knew and loved the Prophet: his cousin and son-in-law Ali and his wife Aisha. -Dust jacket.
Notes: Originally published: The heirs of the prophet Muhammad. London : Little, Brown, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [396]-402) and index.
Table of contents: title: List of maps -- Preface --; title: Introduction -- -- pt. 1 -- 1.; title: Medina : oasis capital of the Muslim state -- -- 2.; title: Ali : first disciple of the prophet -- -- 3.; title: Arabian soldiers of the seventh century -- -- 4.; title: Aisha and the other mothers of the faithful -- -- pt. 2 -- 5.; title: Caliph Abu Bakr and the Ridda Wars -- -- 6. The; title: invasion of the Holy Land and the death of the first caliph -- -- 7.; title: Omar and the great victories -- -- 8.; title: Uthman : third caliph of Islam -- -- 9.; title: Imam Ali : the fourth caliph -- -- 10.; title: Muawiya the Umayyad, Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn --; title: Appendix A : The political heirs of the prophet after the death of Husayn --; title: Appendix B : How can we know? : Aisha's legacy among the storytellers of Medina --; title: Key dates in political and military history for the fifty years after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, 632-83 --; title: Key characters in the life of the Prophet Muhammad --; title: Family trees of the Prophet Muhammad and the Caliphs --; title: Further reading --; title: Index.