Misquoting Muhammad

‘Lucid, learned and engaging’ 

* Karen Armstrong, Sunday Times *

'Brown possesses formidable knowledge of premodern Muslim scholars who sought to preserve accounts of Muhammad’s teachings and practices … Misquoting Muhammad sheds light on the considerable dynamism and sophistication within the Sunni tradition.'

-- Washington Post

‘Exhilarating  ... Brown is among the most talented and productive scholars in the field of Islamic Studies today ... He is also a practicing Muslim who has the rare ability to sit at the feet of traditional scholars from Egypt to Malaysia for hours on end and translate that knowledge into something beneficial for his American audiences.’

* Los Angeles Review of Books *

'Identifies and contextualizes the larger interpretive issues at stake in the global competition between diverse traditional and Salafi Sunni voices, and is written in such an engaging manner that the reader may find it difficult to put it down.' 

* Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies *

‘Superb… an essential read for anyone seeking to understand Islam and the Muslim world… fascinating’

* Tribune *

‘Brown ably navigates the cutting edge of Hadith studies while offering his able insight, encyclopedic knowledge of Muslim textual traditions, and awareness of the political contentiousness of scholarship in Islamic studies… highly recommended’

* ALA CHOICE Magazine *

‘Misquoting Muhammad is a book I wish I had the money to buy for all my friends and colleagues, because he presents readers with a guide to Islamic thought that portrays it not as a fixed entity but as a complex product of utterly human machinations... Ultimately, Brown teaches a simple, if vital, lesson: Authenticity is elusive in religion, and those who claim it tend not to be searching for the truth but grasping for power.’

* Pacific Standard magazine *

'Misquoting Muhammad makes the important point that what many Muslims believe to be essential tenets of their faith are often nothing of the sort'

* Independent, best books of the year *

‘There aren't many books on Islam where the Prophet Muhammad and Martin Scorsese appear together… helpful for the lay reader’

* Independent *

‘an inside view into how key controversial aspects of how Islam took shape’

* Asian Art Newspaper *

‘Erudite and provocative… compelling’ 

* Literary Review *

'Eminently qualified... Brown eloquently parses Islam's rich interpretive tradition.'

-- Kirkus Reviews

‘An accessible yet erudite intellectual history of how the sayings and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad have been preserved and interpreted in Islamic history… This book is one of the best places to start with when seeking to understand the Islamic intellectual tradition.’

-- Chicago Review of B