The Printed Page

Welcome to By the Chapter. This week’s featured book is Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam by Kamran Pasha. Sharing hosting duties with me this week is Nicole from Linus’s Blanket.

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If you’re not familiar with Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam here’s a little background on the book from FSB Associates:

Deep in the desert of seventh century Arabia, a new prophet named Muhammad has arisen. After he beholds a beautiful woman in a vision and resolves to marry her, the girl’s father quickly arranges the wedding. Aisha becomes the youngest of Muhammad’s twelve wives and her feisty nature and fierce intelligence establishes her as his favorite. But when Aisha is accused of adultery by her rivals, she loses the Prophet’s favor—and must fight to prove her innocence.

Pardoned by her husband after a divine revelation clears her name, Aisha earns the reluctant respect of Muslim men when their settlement in Medina is attacked and she becomes a pivotal player on the battlefield. Muhammad’s religious movement sweeps through Arabia and unifies the warring tribes, transforming him from prophet to statesman. But soon after the height of her husband’s triumph—the conquest of the holy city of Mecca—Muhammad falls ill and dies in Aisha’s arms.

A widow at age nineteen, Aisha fights to create a role for herself in the new Muslim empire—becoming an advisor to the Caliph of Islam, a legislator advocating for the rights of women and minorities, a teacher, and ultimately a warrior and military commander. She soon becomes one of the most powerful women in the Middle East, but her passionate nature leads to tragedy when her opposition to the Caliph plunges the Islamic world into civil war. The women of Islam view her as a hero, but Aisha is filled with uncertainty and regret whenever she considers her legacy.

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Today’s post is based on excerpts from Mr. Pasha’s blog post, Why my novel might shock you.

I could spend this post rehashing the story line but I really want to touch on some points that the author, Mr. Kamran Pasha, considers possible areas of controversy. After re-reading Mr. Pasha’s post I’m finding that an author’s take on their work might be quite different from a reader’s point of view. An author is more intimately, and passionately, involved with their characters, facts, time and place. Having spent countless hours living and breathing their subject matter, in a sense becoming an expert, they might be more sensitive to feelings that could arise from a reader’s point of view. I feel this is especially true when you tackle religion and politics. Both are intertwined in this story. I won’t attempt to touch on the points that relate specifically to a Muslim point of view simply because I’m not Muslim and therefore would have no basis for any comments.

From his blog: So there will be things in my book that surprise and shock some Muslims. But there are many aspects of “Mother of the Believers” that will startle, and perhaps anger, non-Muslims as well. The story is told from a Muslim point of view and directly addresses many of the critiques raised against Prophet Muhammad by non-Muslims. The Prophet was a compelling spiritual figure who was famed for remarkable acts of generosity and compassion, and his words still ring true with wisdom today. But he has also been maligned by Westerners for many aspects of his life. 

He thought Westerns might take issue with the following:

• The practice of polygamy
• The practice of warfare
• Aisha’s age when married to the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s blessings and peace be upon him. (anywhere from 9 to 13 to her early 20s)
• Some might label the Prophet anti-Semitic

Taken within the context of factual history, time and place none of the above offended me. When I first requested the book I was simply intrigued by story itself. Due to recent events in history and portrayals in Western media I’ve become interested in the history of Islam. Often Westerns hear and read conflicting views of this religion. Controversial wouldn’t have even have entered my mind if I hadn’t read his blog post, or author’s note, before starting Mother of the Believers. I think I went into the story looking for something that would offend me. I was digging for something and finding nothing. With religion and politics I think we sometimes seek to make issues where none exist. It’s become the nature of society today to stir up trouble merely because we are able to do so.

Polygamy/Underage marriage
Taken within the context of the story’s setting polygamy was a matter of survival and a common practice. I wasn’t the least surprised that the Prophet had a household of multiple wives. What would have seemed unusual to me would have been if he’d married only one woman at a time. I’ve come to expect stories set in India and environs within similar time frames to have such households. John Shors’ beautiful love story, Beneath a Marble Sky, revolves around Shah Jahan, who is consumed by grief over the death of his empress, Mumtaz Mahal (she was his favorite, not his only). The Shah had a harem which is expected in such story. It’s part and parcel of this time in history. While I can’t speak for Mr. Shors’, nor should I, still I’ll presume that he didn’t expect there to be controversy over this aspect of his story.

What was practiced then is still practiced today. Under aged females forced into marriage is common as much as we’d like to think it isn’t. For those of us from the West we don’t need to look overseas for these practices (underage marriage/polygamy) as it happens in our own backyard so to speak. Look no farther than some groups of fundamentalist Mormons. While it offends me in terms of modern beliefs and practices I wasn’t offended by its portrayal in this story. Once again it’s a matter of historical context. It isn’t fair to attack an author who writes historical fiction based on documented fact. It’s not as if they are making it up as they go along. I believe Mr. Pasha handles this difficult subject matter very well. If you read the author’s note before starting this book you know exactly what the story entails and there are no surprises, or there shouldn’t be.

Warfare
Today we fight wars based on religion. You only have to look to media headlines from the Middle East. Recent events on US soil were carried out based on radical interpretations of religious writing. Religious warfare is inevitable and will continue as long as two people with different religious opinions live. As much as Muhammad was a man of peace and strived to live such a life survival dictated that he use the necessary means available to ensure freedom and longevity. He was a man of compassion and his actions show us such. There is section in the story when he has defeated his enemy. Instead of calling for the deaths of all peoples by the laws of Islam he has the condemned die by their laws and those laws were mitigated by reading selected religious passages from their holy teachings. Do we have the right to condemn a man of history for what we continue to do today?

Anti-Semitic (this is the Wikipedia link)
This never even crossed my mind. I took a trip to Wikipedia to clarify for myself the usage of this term. Here’s what I found:

Despite the use of the prefix “anti,” the terms Semitic and anti-Semitic are not directly opposed to each other (unlike similar-seeming terms such as anti-American or anti-Hellenic).Antisemitism refers specifically to prejudice against Jews alone and in general[1][2][5], despite the fact that there are other speakers of Semitic languages (e.g. Arabs or Assyrians) and that not all Jews speak a Semitic language. (In fact, at the time of the origin of the term, most Jews spoke Yiddish or Ladino, both Indo-European languages.)

While I can try to understand how one would make an argument for this fact I myself can’t do so. The Muslims had/have so many different enemies that to single out the Prophet as being anti-semitic doesn’t hold water for me. It could be because I’ve always associated this term with Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. This story takes place centuries before that time in history. Intellectually I know that Jews have been persecuted throughout history. And once again I’ll claim lack of in-depth knowledge that keeps me from making this association.

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None of these 4 points has kept me from enjoying this book. It is very well written and researched. He does a wonderful job of relating what could be delicate subject matter. Because I have distance from this story line I can simply enjoy the story for what is – a look back at a important time in world history. This story is rich in detail transporting me to a place I haven’t been before. I’m thoroughly engrossed in this journey. For those of you shying away because of potential controversy I say give this book a try. I don’t think this is a story we should judge based on preconceived impressions.

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If you’ve read, or are currently reading, Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam please share your thoughts with us.

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This week’s reading scheduling:
Monday: The Printed Page
Tuesday: Nicole from Linus’s Blanket
Wednesday: The Printed Page
Thursday: Nicole from Linus’s Blanket
Friday: The Printed Page/Nicole from Linus’s Blanket

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