The Jewel of Medina (2008)

An entertaining novel about Muhammad and his many wives. Strong protagonist voice. ( )

LOVED this book. Great read!! ( )

This is my new favorite aurther. People must read this book. ( )

This is the story of the birth of the Muslim religion told through the eyes of the Prophet Muhammad's child bride, A'isha. Excellent writing and very interesting to this reader who knew nothing about Islam. This is a love story but a very realistic one. Life was not easy in Arabia in the year 622. War and drought and lack of food were the only constants. Add into the mix the fact that Muhammad had many wives who lived in his "harem" and that A'isha was a very jealous wife, this created a lot of competition and drama. Most of the marriages involved politics and alliances in furtherance of Islam. I did feel the book tried to cover too much territory at the expense of character development, but it was still a good read. ( )

This was historical fiction telling the story of A'isha Bint Abi Bakr child bride of the Prophet Muhammad. It's set at the beginning of the of Islam, while it is a story of the beginnings of Islam it is more a story of A'ish and her life. It’s told in first person from A'isha's point of view, she was promised/engaged to Muhammad very young and married him when she was 9 years old. She was his third wife and after seeing her mother be a kind of slave to the head wife in her own home A'isha vows to be hatun or "Great Lady" and never be a slave to anyone.
A'isha is just a child when she marries Muhammad and has a quick tongue and a jealous streak that gets her in trouble alot, she can be rash and petty but she is also strong, independent and eventually very loyal to those she allows to love her.
I enjoyed this book I've read alot of historical fiction but never any set in this time and place so it was a new experience for me. It was interesting how Ms. Jones brings a humanity to Muhammad that maybe we non-Muslims didn't know about him like how he treated his wives he listened to their opinion and would never have beat them, which in that day and age no matter what religion was something different.
I will be reading the next book in this series to see what happens to everyone after the sadness at the end of this book.
I would say if you like historical fiction with a good love story try this book. ( )