armstrong really is a wonderful writer, you can tell that she's coming at this from a non-muslim perspective but for the most part it jives quite well with what i've learned of seerah. i actually learned quite a bit, i wasn't quite as familiar with the details of the tribes and politics of the quraysh and i found the context useful. i would've liked a little more commentary on her sources -- as i said, it was mostly good but there were some choices i questioned (most reputable islamic scholars reject the satanic verses story, even if you don't believe as we do that muhammad was protected from such religious error the chain of narration is weak) and i would've been interested to see why she chose to accept what she did

4 stars