CM40: Biography

We celebrate ten years of Critical Muslim, Shanon Shah examines recent biographies of the Prophet, Ziauddin Sardar honours the life of anthropologist and writer Merryl Wyn Davies, Robert Irwin puzzles over the memoir of the seventeenth-century writer and storyteller Hanna Diyab, Josef Linnhoff thinks that Mohammad Asad is a neglected thinker, Shabana Mir discovers transcendence, Hilman Fikri Azman endorses the nineteenth-century Malaysian writer Munshi Abdullah, Taha Kehar is mentored by Aamer Hussein, Jeremy Henzell-Thomas looks into his DNA, Bina Shah has a surprising encounter with the Algerian-French novelist Yasmina Khadra, Hassan Mahamdallie revisits his anti-racist days, Robin Yassin-Kassab retires for a new life in Mossland, Boyd Tonkin is not sure whether he has really seen the Taj Mahal, Faisal Devji is sceptical about a new biography of Edward Said, and Medina Tenour Whiteman recounts the Sufi years of singer Richard Thompson. Also in this issue: Mohammad Aslam Haneef on Anwar Ibrahim's Humane Economics, Saimma Dyer on suspicious Muslims, Amina Atiq on being a Yemeni-Scouse artist, poems by the celebrated Ruth Padel, Last Words by Merryl Wyn Davies, and C Scott Jordan's list of stolen and fabricated lives.