U.S. publisher buys novel about wife of Mohammad

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. publisher Beaufort Books has bought a novel about the Prophet Mohammad's child bride a month after Random House canceled its release, citing fears it could "incite acts of violence."

The publishing house will release "The Jewel of Medina" in October and a sequel in 2009, Beaufort president Eric Kampmann said in a statement released on Friday.

Beaufort is the same publisher that took on "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's book about the murder of his wife, after it had been dropped amid public outrage by its original publisher, Regan books, a unit of NewsCorp's HarperCollins.

"We are building a great team to bring 'The Jewel of Medina' to the audience it deserves to have," Kampmann said, calling it a "ground-breaking novel."

Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, had been due to publish "The Jewel of Medina," a first novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, on August 12.

Random House pulled out, saying it had received "cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

In a statement, Jones said that she was pleased to have found a publisher "that wouldn't be spooked by controversy."

Deals have now been reached with publishers in Britain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Russia, Spain and other countries, Jones's literary agent Natasha Kern said.

The novel traces the life of Aisha from her engagement to Mohammad, when she was six, until the prophet's death.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Eric Walsh)