Interesting TED Talk - Reading the Koran

Interesting talk by author/researcher Lesley Hazleton.  My Goodreads review of her excellent book on the Shia-Sunni split (the most important factor driving Middle East politics) follows the talk.





After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam by Lesley Hazleton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As the description says, this is a narrative history. However, if you are completely in the dark about the Middle East and Islam in particular (as was the entire Bush administration apparently), this is a good introduction to the single most important event in Middle East history, that which has affected all of its history - the original schism between the Shia and Sunni.

I had the good fortune to travel to Saudi Arabia (pre-2001) and have studied the history of the area since that fascinating trip. I can tell you firsthand that this very basic division within Islam does not lie very far beneath the surface in anything that has happened in the Middle East in the last 1500 years. As a 'narrative history' this is a simplification of many events, but reading it as a Westerner will give you some idea of the deep passions and beliefs that are struggling for supremacy in the region today...and why the US blustering in there with a 'here's our democracy - take it or leave it' approach is never going to work.

View all my reviews