The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East

Rogerson's timely book begins with the contemporary Middle East and the proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies and Shiite Iran. To understand these, he suggests, we must understand the origins of the Sunni-Shia divide, which go back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the accidental coup that set aside the claims of his son Ali, and the slaughter of Ali's own son Husayn at Kerbala. These events, known to every Muslim, have created a slender fault line in the Middle East. This is a vivid tale full of doomed heroes and secret conspiracies as Rogerson shows how the rivalry between Arab, Turk and Persian has shaped the modern chessboard of nation states, oil wells, mountains and minorities, and at the seismic shift from the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It is vital, Rogerson contends, to both understand and empathise with the Islamic world's struggles with a conflict that matters not only in the Middle East, but to the world at large

About the Author

Barnaby Rogerson has been travelling the Islamic world for the last forty years, first as a young man writing guidebooks, then as a journalist, and finally as a writer of histories. He is publisher of the acclaimed travel list, Eland Books. His books include The Prophet Muhammad: a Biography, The Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad and The Last Crusaders.

Dimensions (cm): 21.0 x 15.0  x 2.2