Mohammed

by Maxime Rodinson

English (translation)

Genres: History, Islam, Religion, Nonfiction, Biography, Middle East, Philosophy

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Marxist historian, sociologist and orientalist. He was the son of a Russian-Polish clothing trader and his wife who both died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After studying oriental languages, he became a professor of Ethiopian (Amharic) at EPHE (École Pratique des Hautes Études, France). He was the author of a rich body of work, including the book Muhammad, a biography of the prophet of Islam.

Rodinson joined the French Communist Party in 1937 for "moral reasons", but later turned away after the party's Stalinist drift. He was expelled from the party in 1958. He became well known in France when he expressed sharp criticism of Israel, particularly opposing the settlement policies of the Jewish state. Some credit him with coining the term "Islamic fascism" (le fascisme islamique) in 1979, which he used to describe the Iranian revolution.

Reviews

[James Hartley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a clear-sighted, lucid, well-written biography which provides both background and day-to-day descriptions of its subject´s life. It is revealing, shocking and thrilling in places and well recommended to anyone who would simply like to know what went on back then and how it has affected our world.
This story of how a religion was built, an empire founded and a world changed makes for fascinating reading and Rodinson leaves himself just far enough out of the telling that it should appeal to the devout and the doubters alike. Be warned, though: he is an unbeliever and the more sociological aspects of the story are those which fascinate him. He watches as though observing a foreign race, something which happened on an alien planet. He cannot quite believe it ever happened at all; the fact it did is what seems miraculous to him and he wants to know how and why.
This book was written in 1961 although it could have been written yesterday. Rodinson was a Frenchman whose parents both died at Auschwitz. He spoke Arabic and Hebrew, was a student of Islam and a member of the Communist Party. During the Second World War he worked at the French Institute in Damascus, thus avoiding the same fate as befell his parents. Later he became a librarian at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, in charge of the Muslim section.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I learnt that those who try to prove the Qur'aan as a mere writing of man actually prove in itself that the Qur'aan is the word of God.
I also re-understood that man is ever argumentative. Deaf, dumb and blind!

[Samuel Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very unbiased look at the life of the prophet of Islam from a secular perspective. A must-read for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

[Aamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maxime Rodinson offers the clearest look at the lives of one of the men who made history in Muhammad.

As a Marxist historian, Rodinson eschews the common trap of debating Muhammad's authenticity as a Prophet. Instead, Rodinson analyzes Muhammad as a synthesis of the material conditions in Mecca at the time, situated within the broader conflict between the Byzantines and Sassanids. Rodinson advances a convincing case that Muhammad himself believed that he was the recipient of divine revelation - and that belief fueled a man who went from being a poor shepherd to the pre-eminent statesman, warlord, politician, and prophet of Arabia.

It is important to approach this book with an open mind. If you are a devout Muslim who believes that the Qur'an is the Word of God, turn away now, as this book will not confirm divinity as such. However, if you, like myself, are interested in history from a materialist perspective, this book is for you. If Napoleon was history riding a horse, then Muhammad is history riding a camel.

My one criticism of this book is its avoidance of tackling the seeds of the Sunni/Shi'a schism that began during Muhammad's life. There is no mention of the declaration of Ghadeer, and Rodinson skims over most of the conflict between Ali on the one hand and the Abu Bakr/Umar/Uthman triumvirate on the other - especially in the last chapter describing the effects of Muhammad's death. However, this book is first and foremost a biography of Muhammad - and in that it is the foundational text for anyone interested in the man who started a movement followed by 2 billion people today.

[Ali Hassan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a psycho-physiological study of the Prophet of Islam. It explains all the possibilities that might have happened through the lens of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and theology - particularly, Christian theologists, apologists, and philosophers like Voltaire and Hubert Grimme. The writer, Maxime Rodinson, was a Marxist historian, an atheist. He went beyond the traditional historiography and studied the life of Prophet Muhammad PBUH scientifically, sociologically and psychologically. This book doesn't tell you about the dates and years or wars or any other event related to the Prophet of Islam; it rather tells you how the personality of the Prophet developed and, that too, with critical examination of the circumstances in which all that happened and with counter analyses of the philosophers who reprimanded him or considered his teachings as lies or magic tricks.

[sube · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an atheist / marxist biography of Muhammad, seeking to explain his rise within a wider context, while also explaining his own actions through some tools of psychology. It treats Muhammad respectfully, however it is explicitly atheist & analyses him from that position.

Rodinson writes quite well, making the first half for me quite a breeze. He imo nicely contextualises Muhammad within his context, showing him to be a particular context and that if he didn't arise, Islam wouldn't have arisen - showing the particular role of individuals, while nonetheless emphasising the wider context.

Nonetheless, this is likely because I know myself not enough - the second half became quite complicated as it mentioned a lot of people without properly introducing them. Nonetheless, it was quite interesting and makes me want to learn more about the person himself and the wider faith.

[Sabrena · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book as awful . It was full of misquoted verses from the Qur’an as well as made up Hadiths . The verses he did get right were taken out of context . He also presumed to know what the prophet was thinking and feeling throughout his life . There was very little truth to the book in general . A big disappointment. If I could give it negative stars , I would

[Olivier Pasquier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent essai sur l'histoire du Prophète Mahomet, sur le contexte dans lequel l'islam naît en Arabie, sur la disparition des traditions et rites païens, sur l'utilisation de la religion comme moyen politique. Pour Maxime Rodinson, les révélations d'Allah à Mahomet sont authentiques et se retrouvent effectivement dans le Coran mais elles ont été retranscrites dans des contextes politiques et géographiques différents (il est possible de distinguer les sourates rédigées à Medine et celles à la Mecque). Une très bonne biographie qui permet de mieux connaître la naissance d'une des 3 religions monothéistes.

[Ali Akbar Zaidi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Recommended to me by an atheist friend, this book by mazime rodinson is the height of misinterpretation, misquoting and illogical referencing leading to far fetched deductions. To me, this explains why Europe and the Western world have historically and wonderfully failed to understand the Islamic history and making a balanced argument towards dialogue with the Muslim world, because of writers and books like these, there is even more division and the rising phenomena of Islamophobia and worsening differences.

The book is full of unclear traditions and references regarding the Prophet. Most of the citations are from European writers and that to mostly German who have given most the repulsive translations and picked up the most negative interpretations of events. The original historians referred to, such as Tabari and Al Waqidi are misquoted and Koranic versions are quoted out of reference.

In the end, the writer is exposed, a french marxist, who believes in propaganda and violent struggle to overthrow the yolk of the rich. Calls the prophet a primordial marxist in the year 16th century as ode to Karl Marx. The writer views every event of the prophet through the lens of "religion is an opium" and that too with negative references and quotes. He deduces wars imposed on him as wars initiated by him. He deduces justice as violence. He argues self-defense and offense. A good lie runs parallel to the truth.

The writer also fails to understand the events after the life of the prophet and that no biography was written for 150 years and for 90 years of Banu umayyad rule, traditions and biographical details were subverted to bring a bad name to the House of Prophet, Ahle Bait and Hashmites. Many of these references are misquoted. For starters, the writer does is not even aware of the fact that the Prophet had only one daughter, the remaining came with Hazrat Khadija and were under her care. Explains his competence that carries through-out the book.

Also, he applies Freudian theories to the Holy Prophet pbuh. Again, with a sketchy picture, his gives voice to the "Us versus them" argument between Europe and the Middle East. The writer cherry-picks events that caused confusion and twists them against the Prophet. The Prophet was called a kahin, a magician, a poet, a copier all his life and he proved all of them wrong when he laid the foundations of a civilizations that became larger than the roman empire at its zenith. Maybe in the deluded mind of Rodinson whose own parents were killed in a concentration camp, some sort of inborn hatred reflects into his writing. A style copied from Phillip k Hitti.

It is because of books like these and hatred they cover, that the world continues to be divided, but no one can change the fact that Muhammad(PBUH) was and is the greatest man who ever lived, a law giver, a prophet of God from Arab, a saint, a savior and a man who changed the future of mankind, who transformed the barbarians of Arab into men who bowed before God and cleaned themselves five times a day, who paid the poor due, who respected their parents, who made efforts to pardon and protected widows and wives from abandon and shunned female infanticidal acts. Over 1 Billion people believe in him and the prediction he made 1400 years ago, as providence is coming true as Islam is set to become the majority religion of the world, for practical purposes if not religious ones. Peace be Upon the Prophet Muhammad and his pure Family(ahle Bait). May the Creator of the world guide us in understanding the true Message of Muhammad, the same message that was given by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and thousands others.

[s · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucid and tells the story well, most importantly within the larger geopolitical context of the time. The author is a French Marxist, not a Muslim, so the casual treatment of things like the prophet's sex life causes the faithful some discomfort. I understand why he does it (French), but it's clearly intentionally provocative and self-indulgent at times. It doesn't really help the book either, because it's often just speculation about desires and intents. That isn't to say of course that he disrespects Muhammad as a figure: if anything he doesn't hide his disdain for the prophet's enemies and for pre-Islamic Arab society, and he sees the movement clearly as the revolutionary force that it was.

[Joules · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book if you are looking for an accurate depiction void of editorial content.
I admit several aspects of this book are intriguing, alluring, from its physicality to the time it was written in, the name of the author and such....I read the negative reviews and decided to inspect it myself and found similar issues. The author attempts to feel for the subject. I decided to stop reading around pg. 56 (so I did not read all of it but did skim after this page) when the author stated that the Prophet surely felt feelings of adultery for a woman of her age and must have contracted to not marry anyone else, with some small disclaimers afterwards. When I began to skim after this I found similar flagrant remarks and not being well skilled in history I concluded that my inability to distinguish truth from falsehood was not sufficient to properly read this book.

* I decided to read this book because it was what was free from my local public library.

[Darrell]

This book was written in French in 1961 and then updated in the late 1960's and then translated to English. I say this because some of the language is outdated and needs upgrading. For instance: Rodinson speaks about Negro's on more than one occasion. The Negro was a creation of the Atlantic slave trade during the 17th or 18th centuries. There were no Negroes in 620 A.D. Nor were there any Negroes anywhere before the Atlantic slave trade.
Also, since this was first published in French, Rodinson used French resources including translations of the Quran. Some of his references are off. For instance: 20:113 is actually 20:114 in English translations, as well as 9:108 is 9:107 on page 325 and so forth. If Quranic references cannot be found where designated in English it will be necessary to look either before or after the mentioned reference.
As far as the book itself I found very interesting as well as enlightening. The book not only gave a different perspective on the Prophet. (PBUH) but an insightful perspective on religious experience itself. Running parallel with Muhammad (PBUH) in my mind was the conversion experience of the Apostle Paul.
Although the book started out slow, once it gained speed I read it in a short period not wanting to put it down. Except for the above mentioned needed upgrades, I found it very worthwhile. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject of Islam began.

[Safdar · Rating 3 out of 5]

'everyone, in fact, has sought in him a reflection of their own doubts and anxieties and those of their time. Everyone has ignored what they have not understood. Everyone has shaped him after their own passions, ideas of fantasies. I do not claim to be immune from this general rule'

as i had said earlier, my idea of the prophet was constantly fighting with the history of the prophet as man and therefore this read was challenging for me. i still think it is essential to read about him this way too.

[Michael Flick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Biography of Muhammad, crippled by how very little is known about him from primary sources. Emphasis is on places, names, and battles, with very little about theology. To understand Islam, look elsewhere.

[Elliot Boss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marxist evaluation of Muhammad’s political and religious ideology. Unapologetically secular, Maxime Rodinson takes up the unenviable task of trying to separate fact from fiction, myth from reality in the most ardently defended prophet. Of course this can never truly be the task when faced such religious power, the story is in the symbolism, and besides, all sources available of Muhammad’s life are Muslim. So Rodinson settles on a secular interpretation of Muhammad’s political ideals, as expected from a Marxist with religion seen as mostly the tool with which to wield political power. In this viewpoint it provides a coherent and useful understanding of Islam’s political nature and origin.

[Thomas Ray]

BP75 R613 1971a Memorial Library

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I am ready to see Dune II

[Tarbuckle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very learned biography of the Prophet of Islam, erudite and thoughtful in equal measure, intelligently placing Muhammad within a roiling Arabian culture in the late sixth/early seventh centuries, ere the irruption of faith outwards in great, inexorable waves. Rodinson is a secularist Marxist historian, and the book particularly shines within this structure—analyzing and detailing the onset of the (supposedly) divine visitations and messages within their contingent historical context; the political creation hewn out of arid Arabian materials; the interplay of ideology and politics within Muhammad's life; how he was able to overcome so many obstacles, realize a version of himself that had been frustrated and stunted by earlier events deriving from his stature in the Meccan community; and the way in which the Islamic adherents rallied after his sudden and unforeseen death and channeled all of the energy the originator had harnessed, unleashing it outwards upon a world primed for conquest—politically and spiritually—even as the seeds of a future, enduring split amongst the faithful was sown in the events immediate upon the Prophet's passing.

However, I find myself in agreement with Karen Armstrong, in that Rodinson, though an excellent writer and well-informed regarding his subject, does subsume the religious element of Muhammad's life within the biographical-societal, and, seeing as this was the vital, impassioned, enduring kernel of the new faith, its relegation to secondary status is problematic. The reader of Rodinson's book will come away educated about the factual events—in as much as they can be so determined—of this singularly important life, but with only vague intimations of how the faith the man espoused took such firm hold amongst his followers, and many millions more in the decades after his death. Merely classifying this potent religious element as ideology and treating it as such—academically, clinically—is to miss out on a full-fleshing of the life of a man who continues to have enduring influence upon the historical unfolding of our world.

[Simon B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muhammad is clearly one of the great figures of history. I was prompted to read this to get an insight into what political and ideological context gave rise to a person who rose from having a mere handful of followers in the early 600's to uniting the Arab peoples into a powerful religious/political movement that was to rapidly conquer much of the Sassanid Persian & Byzantine empires. This is an informative scholarly biography of Muhammad by a French Jewish historian who is respectful of Islam while a non-believer. The book carefully takes into account the difficulties with reliable sources for someone who lived 1400 years ago.

[Dan Terbush · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential history of Muhammad. Well devised and succinct. The author is a Marxist well versed in historical method and objective reasoning. The faithful will tire, however, of his apparent aloofness at times. His conclusion should satisfy the needs of the devil’s advocate and his work as a whole is invaluable to a western reader. I’ve read other versions of the story of Muhammad’s life and can attest that he is writing in good faith.

[Mahmoud]

The book harbours the same orientalist basic ideas about Islam. It is a reflection of a desire to see the Prophet as one more gifted politician and reformer. The book is as well full of false assumptions: it assumes a rich Christian atmosphere before the Prophet's message in Arabia which is not reflected in the cultural situation in Arabia at the time.

[Kushal Karwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author - a self proclaimed atheist - has given a detailed, well researched and objective storyline of the life of Muhammad. The ancient Arab way of life and its implications on the development of Islam (Koran) has been explained quite nicely.
Highly recommended for anyone who seriously wants to understand Muslim people or the Islam faith!

[Wake Coulter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very human portrait of a prophet. Doesn’t paint him as overtly good or a unreasonably cruel, and emphasizes the shaping nature of the time and place he lived in, but acknowledges how his powerful personality shaped the circumstances in which he lived. But damn, for a prophet he sure did kill a lot of people!

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've got 2 biographies of Muhammad on the list. Both are good and fairly balanced. This one has a slightly negative view of Muhammad and one (the Karen Armstrong one) a positive view, but both are good and fairly balanced.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a not-very-complimentary yet not condemnatory study of a man who is arguably the most influential person who ever lived. Rodinson's Muhammad is state-builder and ideologist at once, yet he is placed in the specific and highly contingent circumstances of his own society.

[Taoufik · Rating 5 out of 5]

i great book,i found it Rodinson very objectif

[Irfan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring as batshit.

[Fauzi Garib · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliantly written.... gives a complete picture of an amazing human being in complete historical context. certainly a benchmark for biographies..

[Zara Tayebjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does a group of people come to adopt a changed perspective? That is, how do ideological movements bring about a new vision of how we relate to each other, the world (and in the case of religious movements, the divine)? And as a result, change our answers to the question: what we should value? This is Rodinson's central focus, explored through the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. What results is an enthralling historical account of the rise of Islam as a religious movement, a state (and thus a political movement) and then an enduring ideology (thus, creating a social movement and a defining, yet open to all, identity: Muslim).

Rodinson crucially embeds Islam in the history of its uprising. Showing first, how it meshed with, and adopted existing cultural practices and beliefs. For example, Rodinson explains how the Muslim deity — Allah — was the name of one of many deities that polytheists worshiped at the time. What Islam provided, over and above the prevailing culture, Rodinson argues, was liberation for those who were worst off— the slaves, orphans, women, and those who were poor. Over time the program of Islam became apparent through revelations spoken from Allah to the Prophet. As the scope of the program became more clear, so too did the number of followers increase.

After a while, once enough people had signed onto the new ideology, it was time to make a decisive break— distinguishing those who were followers of the new prophet from others in the community. It was at this point, that more transformative (from the culture as it stood) prescriptions began to come down. Now, followers must accept the one-ness of Allah, refrain from eating certain meats and drinking alcohol, pay the religious tax zakat and refrain from userous loans. The increased burden was not a problem for those who had accepted Islam early on for its benefits over and above the prevailing culture.

But, as this new religion began to take hold, those in power worried about the influence it might have. Rodinson details how state leaders offered the Prophet great riches to abandon the revaluations and leave Mecca, and how his refusal brought both credibility to his mission and increased scrutiny by the powerful ruling class. He also details the various battles the Muslims fought against neighboring tribes, including the famous battle of Badr.

Finally Rodinson details the migration from Mecca to Medinah and the formation of the new Muslim state. Here, the challenges of living alongside those who did not accept Islam become apparent. Christians didn’t want to be subjected to the dietary restrictions, Jews wanted to charge interests on their loans. Though Islam eventually aims to touch all of mankind, it had to adapt to the practical realities of people who disagree.

The book ends with the death of the Prophet and the taking up of the mission by his followers. Rodinson describes how what was originally a message for the Arab community became taken up worldwide, though it remains fossilized in its cultural practices.

All in all, Rodinson’s work is a masterful account. Not only is it a deeply researched history, it’s a careful program for those looking to change minds. He insists at every turn that one must understand the culture and history in which a practice arises before judging it, and provides an opening for a functional approach to religion and broader ideology.

[Sam Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful and well-reasoned book. Rodinson is a true great among the historians, and there's good reason why this is probably his best-remembered book. I've also read half of William Montgomery Watt's two-volume biography of Muhammad (to which this is heavily indebted), but (as is probably expected) Rodinson's is much more readable and incisive (not to denigrate Watt of course!!). Please read this!!

I was incredibly struck by the anecdote, probably apocryphal, that the six-year-old Muhammad was struck by a vision whilst living in the desert with his Bedouin foster mother and foster father, wherein two angels, or two men dressed in white robes, came up to him and, opening his chest, removed his heart, cleaned it, and put it back. In one telling, the angels weigh him (with his perfectly pure heart) against one man, then ten men, then a hundred, and he weighs more than all of them. In another, which Rodinson also quotes, the young Muhammad is said to have said that the men opened up his chest and touched something though he knew not what. That imagery has stuck with me ever since I read it. I can't stop thinking of it, how uncanny, how awful in both the sense of being awe-inspiring and the sense of being honestly terrifying. Rodinson consistently does a fantastic job of balancing these contradictory senses throughout this biography. He places the perspectives of faithful Muslims alongside historians both favorable and critical, Christian critics of the middle ages and Enlightenment, etc., and returns to the available sources of the Prophet's life to get at the many simultaneous aspects that made his life so impactful on human civilization. It's a perspective that is understandable given Rodinson was a Marxist, and held to a philosophy that centers contradiction, centers opposites being held within the same whole, but it is also perfectly fitting given that this book is both a traditional biography and one that centers Muhammad's psychology, as well as painting a picture of a society and a world. People's minds are contradictory, and the worlds we inhabit are also contradictory. And I really appreciate Rodinson for exploring that to its greatest extent here.

I really love his closing words: "Ought we to be surprised at these complexities and contradictions, this mixture of strength and weakness? He was, after all, a man like other men, subject to the same weaknesses and sharing the same powers, Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah of the tribe of Quraysh, our brother." Our brother; all men are brothers (and all women are sisters, all people siblings). Something important to remember, across all gulfs of time and however many miles away.