Fascinated by the arena of politics and religion
When Lesley Hazleton decided to write a book about Prophet Mohammed, she knew she wanted to read the Quran herself. So, she took four well known translations and began reading them side-by-side with a transliteration of the original seventh-century Arabic version. Her previous research into Islamic history prepared her somewhat, but in a TED talk that would garner over half-a-million views she later admitted:“I knew enough, that is, to know that I’d be a tourist in the Quran – an informed one, an experienced one even – but still an outsider, an agnostic Jew reading someone else’s holy book.”
She marvelled at the beauty of the text, even as she realised no translation could ever quite capture it. In a world where the word was used to justify the most extreme and perverse kinds of violence, here was a thoughtful, nuanced text. “The phrase ‘God is subtle’ appears again and again, and indeed, the whole of the Quran is far more subtle than most of us have been led to believe,” Hazleton told her captive audience.
Hazleton is the author of such books as ‘Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen’ (Finalist: 2008 Washington Book Award); ‘After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split‘ (Finalist: 2010 PEN-USA book award); ‘The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad‘ (2013, New York Times Editors’ Choice) and ‘Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto‘ (2016, New York Times Editors’ Choice).
Hazleton can sometimes still seem surprised by the bent her books have taken. Writing in her blog, she speculates: ‘Perhaps the thirteen years I lived and worked in Jerusalem have a lot to do with it — a city where politics and religion are at their most incendiary. Or my childhood as the only Jew in a Catholic convent school, which somehow left me with a deep sense of mystery but no affinity for organised religion. Or the fact that I’ve spent the past fifteen years writing on the roots of conflict in the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.’
She describes herself as “a psychologist by training, a Middle East reporter by experience, an agnostic fascinated by the vast and often terrifying arena in which politics and religion intersect.” Having spent 13 years in the Middle East as a Jerusalem-based foreign correspondent, reporting for the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, The Nation, and several other publications, the author will soon be in Sri Lanka as a participant at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival.