【書評】歷史？小說？評海澤爾頓的《先知之後》伊斯蘭口傳歷史的「歷史性」

【Book Review】History? Fiction? On Hazleton’s After the Prophet: How“Historical”is Islamic Oral History?

海澤爾頓的《先知之後》探討伊斯蘭早期遜尼派和什葉派的分裂因果。她以著名的九世紀伊斯蘭史學家塔巴里的史料為本來書寫。因為廣泛運用伊斯蘭口傳歷史的記錄以及她近似小說體的書寫風格，造成許多讀者批評這本書的學術不夠嚴謹、是小說而不是歷史。

Hazelton's After the Prophet explores the cause and effect of the Shia-Sunni split in early Islam. Her writing is based largely on the historical materials of al-Tabari, a renowned ninth-century Islamic historian. Due to the extensive use of historical accounts from Islamic oral history and her approximate novel style, many readers have criticized the book as being less rigorous in scholarship and as more fiction than history.