Book Review : Jewel of Medina

This book had created a lot of buzz before the book was printed. Random house publishing had initially rejected this book afraid that this might be the "Satanic Verses " of this year. ( I will write about Satanic Verses later) . This book does not have any controversial statements or thoughts most of the stuff written is already there in lot of books.

This book is about Ayesha which means "she who lives", the third wife of Mohammad. Recently I have been reading a lot of Historical fiction , ( first one was Nefertiti ) and I have become huge fan of books which they talk in present tense.

Historical prospective in the Initial stages, Islam had two staunch lieutenants , one was Ali he was the Cousin of Mohammad and other was Abu-bakr a friend and confidant. These are two persons who were the pillars of Islam.

Ayesha is the daughter of Abu-bakr. Ali marries one of Mohammad's daughters and this strengthens his ties. Now Abu-bakr wanted to establish his strong ties and wanted to make sure that he is the second in command , so he agrees to marry his daughter to Mohammad, even though his daughter is just 9 and she is not even attained puberty. The reason why he does is to gain control,every human being wants it and if he does not have it , he tries his best to get it.

Marriages are the way families come together and it also gives access to the person. This is like Jodhaa Akbar, where Akbar marries a Rajput princess to ensure that they don't fight and a truce is formed (even though Akbar and Jodhaa are completely fictional).

Ayesha is married to Mohammad when she is 9, but since she has still not attained puberty she is still with her parents. Her mom is one of wives of Abu-bakr and she wants to ensure that Ayesha becomes a hatun (the best wife) , so that she can treat all other wives like slaves.

Ayesha is different , initially she is told that she is going to marry a foot soldier and she has feelings towards him and then when she becomes the wife of Mohammad , immediately she becomes his favorite wife , since she is the youngest one.

Ayesha is always independent and learns how to fight with Mohammad. She also has a sharp tongue and a good sense of humor. She lights up the house.
Ali hates her right from the beginning and he is also jealous the way Mohammad treats her.
So the story goes from here and it is handled in a good way. The following are my quick comments on this
1 ) Ayesha is described as having red hair , I was under the impression I may be wrong but red hair is usually a causacasian feature and I am surprized that a girl in a village in middle east has a red hair.
2 ) Attaining puberty , may be because I am a guy reading this , there is a lot of mention of ur blood flow should start , I read this atleast 6 or 7 times, she could have used a different sentence.
3 ) Lot of things happening are very situational , either she getting married and bringing her toys or she disappears in the middle of the desert, thats a fascinating part of the entire story.
4 ) The lives of the sister wives, it must be really difficult for them unless they are the lead one and all others make sure that they do all the mischevous thing to make sure that they get their time and have their authority.
5 ) The lives of women as a whole , there is a sentence in the book where Ayesha has not attained puberty and she is married , she wanted to go with Mohammed and he says you can come with me later. Her mom says "Men want only two things from a women , 1 )Pleasure and 2)create an offspring , you cannot do anything now so you cannot go". Women are treated like objects of desire and like a store item.
6 ) Add this to the fact that even if a girl has been kidnapped and raped , the guy can get a divorce from that girl.

But Ayesha still stands apart and she has done an excellent job , either in her war skills or the counsel or the power she yields. She is the first one who goes to the war , unlike normal women who give water to the soldiers , she fights valiantly.

This is my first draft and i will write more on this later.