A History of the Arab Peoples Albert Hourani Essay

Albert Hourani’s book â€Å"A History of the Arab people highlights the Arab history in general since the early beginning of Islam –and even before that-, till the modern ages in the nineteenth century. The book is great for westerners interested in the Arabs and for Arabs, who are not familiar with their history. The book is a good add to any interested reader. Back ground information Lebanese-American historian Albert Tourane represent this book as an addition to his previous works discussing Arab’s history and Arabian affairs such as, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789-1939,which was first published in 1962. It would be a mistake to deal with this book as a pure history book. It’s not depending only on dates and chronological extent of the Arabic people and civilization and this is a good point to build our review on it. Summary Hourani’s book begins with the story of Ibn-Khaldon, the great Arab socialist. The following chapter talks about the appearance of Islam and Muhammad and then his successors and the formation of the Islamic empire 3 . Next, the book talks about the Islamic society and its Koranic accounts 4 with the great revolution in translating science and Greek philosophy with the appearance of Sufism 5 . Islamic expansion and the description of minorities like Jews and Christians 6 followed. Life in countryside 7 and cities 8 and the rulers of the societies 9 were mentioned in later pages. † way of Islam† 1o and â€Å"The culture of the Ulema† 11 are two chapters talking about the faith in Islam with sense of community and low determination. The book also shows how culture was well represented 12 and how the following Ottoman empire 13 sustained the Arab world, with a brief description of Ottoman societies 14 . Chapter fifteen starts talking about the eighteenth century 15 and the European powers in the Arabic areas 16 like French intervention in Algeria. Opening of Suez Canal and Zionism arose with Jews settled in Palestine 16 and how the culture of Imperialism 17 started to have a loud voice in the area. Word War One 18 and its influence discussed in Chapter nineteen 19 with the modern life in Arabic societies 20 . Book show how the emergence of Israel started and the independent movements were held from French & British and The tragedy of the triple attack on Egypt on 195621. Chapter twenty two 22 show a rapid change in Arabic societies and the Arabic culture extended 23 with the climax of Arabism started from 1950s 23 . Final chapters of the book discussed the difference between Arabs, the sudden death of Nasser and the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel 24. final chapter states some major problems in the area, including Kurds struggle for independence, Sudan problem and women issues. Number of twenty pages of maps followed, which make a great way to represent the places that was mentioned in the book. Evaluation of the book This book is well represented with all the illustration and maps introduced. The Index is well-written and helpful in finding any information directly. As mentioned before, the book couldn’t be categorized as a history book; its better described as Social-history book and starting with the life of Ibn-Khaldun is such evidence. It represents a vast look on the Arabic societies through history, describing the life style, science, different religion and civilization. Many chapters described the same period of time but dealing with different subjects, like chapters twenty 25 two and twenty three 26 in the (1950s and 1960s). From the other point of view, this book skims some important details such as, the detailed pre-Islamic era, the great empires of Umayyad and Abbasid which was represented with partly amount of pages that doesn’t exceed seven pages in some cases. Also the detailed life of Prophet Muhammad, which has a great impact on the Arabic societies. Also Crusaders wars weren’t well mentioned, although it has a very huge impact on Arabs in its time. Conclusion Dealing with the history of Arabs is such a great effort and a hard game to play. This book tried to do the most of the job with a different way, which is representing history from the social point of view. I would recommend this book if one already has a minimum knowledge and understanding of Arab history . Otherwise I recommend alternatives such as, History of the Arabs from the earliest times to the present, of Philip Hitti. It would be useful for a good specialized historical reading.