In 2008 Random House cancelled the publication of Sherry Jones’ novel The Jewel of Medina. The measure was taken after consultations with “experts” who had warned the publisher that the portrayal of ‘A’isha and her life in the book might provoke negative reactions from Muslims. When the book was eventually out in 2009, by another publisher, reactions were in reality few. This article uses the novel, and some of the reactions to it, when probing into the question as to why the genre of historical fiction can be seen as problematic when it ventures into the domains of ”sacred history”. The suggested answer is that one of the main characteristics of the historical novel is the genre based acceptance of the freedom of the author herself to invent ”inner worlds” of protagonists and antagonists, in terms of wishes, intentions, feelings and motives. The ”inner worlds” of characters in a narrative are also central when such a narrative form part of a ”sacred history”, but in the latter case, they cannot, in order to function normatively, be viewed a result of the whims of an author, but instead must be conceived of as historical ”facts”. Hence, a potential for conflict emerges in relation to what neither an author of a historical novel nor someone who narrates “sacred history” can know for sure: what dwells in the minds of others.