This is book 2 of 2 of Sherry Jones's controversial novels about Aisha, Islam's prophet Muhammad's child-bride. As someone well-grounded in Islamic history and teachings, both books profoundly irritated me, and not because of any offense.

Poetic license with history is one thing, sloppy inconsistencies in transliterations is another. For example, one character is sometimes called Abdallah, other times Abdullah, other times Abd Allah. Where was this author's editor and/or proofreader?

Even the author's instances of genuine poetic license, including and especially calling God "Al-Lah" instead of "Allah", seemed like unnecessarily jarring choices to me. It serves no purpose that I can discern.

In short, I came to the books eager for the scandal (modern and ancient) and ended up mostly annoyed. The only reason I'm not giving this the lowest rating is that it's one of the few fictionalized works about Islamic history. It succeeds somewhat in both humanizing Muhammad's closest companions and also illuminating people on the unsavory civil-war-related aspects of early Islam, knowledge about which is often deliberately withheld from Muslims. ( )

mnogo pitkije stivo od Dragulja Medine, mozda zato sto sam usla u tematiku i upoznala likove, prica prati Ajsu kroz period vladavine cetiri halife.... ( )

This book is set in the eighth century in Saudi Arabia right after the death of Muhammed. Before Muhammed died he left his jewelled sword, al-Ma'thur, to his favorite wife Aisha, telling her to use it in the jihad to come. Aisha's father Abu Bakr takes over as Kalifa but quickly succumbs to the same illness which took Muhammed's life, creating yet more turmoil over the who will be the next Kalifa. The turmoil created fissions in the Islamic religion which still continue to this day. Another candidate for the position of Kalifa is Ali, a relative of Muhammed, who is Aisha's sworn enemy due to unkind comments he made years ago. Aisha does all she can to prevent this from happening.

This book of historical fiction is told alternately between the point of views of Ali and Aisha both of whom express increasing dismay at the changes developing in the Islamic religion since Muhammed's death. Eventually Aisha and Ali come to respect each other and Aisha come to see that Ali is the best choice for Kalifa but Ali is murdered before he has a chance to serve.

I very much enjoyed this book. I found Jones' writing style to be engaging from the very beginning despite not being sure what to expect from this book. I have read books before that are set in the contemporary middle east but nothing from around the time of the beginning of Islam so I did not know most of the history. I like the fact that although Aisha and Ali are initially enemies that time and wisdom erases their differences and they begin to see how alike they really are. I would like to read the prequel “The jewel of Medina”. ( )

Picking up where her first book, The Jewel of Medina, left off, Sherry Jones invites us back into the life of A'isha bint Abi Bakar, the prophet Muhammad's favorite wife and child bride. Following Muhammad's death from the Medina fever, his followers are left bereft. When A'isha's father Abu Bakar steps into the role of Khalifa (spiritual leader of the Muslims), things are far from peaceful because various factions are not satisfied with this solution. Unhappiness and rumors rage throughout the camp, leaving A'isha caught in the middle. The unrest grows when tragedy befalls her father, for there are many wishing to replace him. One of the hopefuls is A'isha's hated nemesis, Ali, who was once a close companion to Muhammad. A'isha will do almost anything to keep the position out of Ali's hands, though she soon comes to find that the others jockeying for position are no more palatable. As various men try their hands at being Khalifa, rage erupts in the camp and it is up to A'isha and Ali to prevent their struggling religion from being destroyed by war, greed, and nepotism. Both intricate and timely, The Sword of Medina painstakingly exposes this most pressing and engulfing time in history.

Just over a year ago, I had the distinct pleasure of reviewing Sherry Jones provocative and thoughtful historical novel, The Jewel of Medina. Though I mostly enjoyed the book, I harbored questions as to the legitimacy of the prophet Muhammad's intense love of women. Sherry, eager to share her collected information regarding this subject, wrote me a beautiful post addressing my question and helped me to more fully understand Muhammad's interest in the fairer sex. I was both surprised and honored to hear from her again a few months ago when she asked me if I would like the opportunity to read and review her next work in the series, The Sword of Medina. I accepted eagerly because I was very interested in finding out what had transpired with A'isha after Muhammad's unexpected death, and I was pleased to become enmeshed in the continuing saga of A'isha Bint Bakar.

First of all, I felt that Sherry did a magnificent job of highlighting the political and religious turmoil that raged throughout Muhammad's encampment after his death. There were a lot of very unhappy people plotting and scheming during that time, and the author did a great job of canvasing the many groups who had their own ideas about the future of Islam. The tension that she created throughout these sections was palpable and it was clear to me why A'isha was so troubled by the direction that Muhammad's legacy had taken. A lot of A'isha's time and energy went towards smoothing the ruffled feathers of the people and trying to stay one step ahead of the roiling mass of unhappiness that was spreading over the camp. I felt that A'isha was torn between the desire to keep her people happy and her overwhelming urge to prevent Muhammad's wishes for his people to be tainted.

I also thought that the relationship between A'isha and Ali was written with precision and believability. Ali harbored much anger and resentment towards A'isha, just as she did for him, but there were moments when the ideals and beliefs of the two were very similar, which highlighted the contradiction between their feelings and their beliefs. Towards the conclusion of the book, A'isha's eyes are opened in regards to Ali and she is able to see that his wishes are not so alien from her own, a fact that does much to quell her fear for the uncertain path of Islam. I liked the scenes between these two characters because I felt that both characters were able to admire each other privately while still being headstrong and clashing every time they interacted, which gave a profound depth to their relationship.

In the first book, much of the action centered around Muhammad's wives and their struggles amongst themselves for peace. This book was much more focused on the path that Islam took after the death of its founder. There was much political intrigue in this second book, which I appreciated because it gave me a frame of reference and an insider's peek into the problems that plagued a religion without a strong leader. There were some very developed battle scenes in the book as well, which served to highlight the Muslim's quest for acceptance and honor among tribes of non-believers. The crux of the battle towards the conclusion of the book sharply delineated the power struggle between A'isha and Ali, and was, I felt, a very moving conflict between the two.

The only small quibble I had with the book was the abundance of characters that jostled for space among the story. There was a very large cast of characters, which I felt was a little overwhelming at times, but I really don't see how any of the players could have been excised from the story without creating a gaping hole in the narrative. At times it was a little confusing to keep all the players straight, but as I became more in tune with the story, it got a bit easier for me to sort things out.

This was a very satisfying conclusion to the story that I had read a year ago and I think Sherry created a very precise and detailed story that many readers have had little exposure to. If you enjoyed The Jewel of Medina I think that that this book would make a great read for you, though I might not advise picking up this tale without having read the first. I enjoyed this second book greatly and think that for those curious about the rise and spread of Islam, these books would make enlightening reading. ( )

I found thid book difficult to read. There is no clear plot or expectation of what is central theme of this book, I tried a munber of times to read it and found the skipping from character left me feeling lost. Concept of this story needs to be rethought. ( )