Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time (Eminent Lives Series) » (Reprint)

Karen Armstrong is the author of nearly twenty books, including The Great Transformation, A History of God, and The Spiral Staircase, a spiritual memoir, among other bestsellers. An internationally renowned expert on religion, Armstrong is a powerful voice for interfaith understanding. She lives in England.

Muhammad was born in 570 CE, and over the following sixty years built a thriving spiritual community, laying the foundations of a religion that changed the course of world history. There is more historical data on his life than on that of the founder of any other major faith, and yet his story is little known.

Karen Armstrong's immaculately researched new biography of Muhammad will enable readers to understand the true origins and spirituality of a faith that is all too often misrepresented as cruel, intolerant, and inherently violent. An acclaimed authority on religious and spiritual issues, Armstrong offers a balanced, in-depth portrait, revealing the man at the heart of Islam by dismantling centuries of misconceptions. Armstrong demonstrates that Muhammad's life--a pivot point in history--has genuine relevance to the global crises we face today.

The New York Times - Laurie Goodstein

To glimpse how the vast majority of the world's Muslims understand their prophet and their faith, Karen Armstrong's short biography is a good place to start. The volume is part of a series called "Eminent Lives": small profiles of big-name subjects by big-name authors.

Ms. Armstrong, best known for A History of God, is a scholar and a former nun with a genius for presenting religions as products of temporal forces - like geography, culture and economics - without minimizing the workings of transcendent spiritual forces.