chapter 2

IT WAS NOT JUST ANY NECKLACE, THOUGH IT WOULD HAVE BEEN easy enough to

think so, for it was really no more than a string of beads.
They may have been agates, or coral, or even simple
seashells—Aisha never did say, and one can almost see
her waving her hand dismissively, as though such detail
were irrelevant. Perhaps she was right, and it’s enough
to know that it was the kind of necklace a young girl
would wear, and treasure more than if it had been made
of diamonds because it had been Muhammad’s gift to
her on her wedding day.

Its loss and the ensuing scandal would be known as
the Aʃair of the Necklace, the kind of folksy title that
speaks of oral history, which is how all history began
before the age of the printing press and mass literacy.
The People of the Cloak, the Episode of Pen and Paper,
the Battle of the Camel, the Secret Letter, the Night of
Shrieking—all these and more would be the building
blocks of early Islamic history. This is history told as
story, which of course it always is, but rarely in such