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Arabs, Muslims, and History. A History of the Arab Peoples, by Albert Hourani, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard Univer- sity Press, 1991. PUBLICATION oFAlbert Hourani’s great work of synthesis, perhaps the capstone of his career, has been rather an event. Estimate of the decisive role of Cyrus in facilitating the Conquest, and his defence of the Copts against the charge of betraying Egypt to the Arabs on sectarian and political grounds — derive essentially from his interpretation of John and of Severus Ibn Moqaffa`'s History of the Patriarchs. The History of Arabs Bridging Cultures with Knowledge of the Past By Wafaa Al-Natheema (Participant in the ICD conference, November 2012) Today's Arab Spring and the behavior toward Arabs by easterners and westerners have made it crucial to address and understand Arab. Complete summary of Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples. ENotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of A History of the Arab Peoples. Document PDF. This Page Only. The Oxford History of Islam Edited by John L. Lavishly illustrated with over 300 pictures, including more than 200 in full color, The Oxford History of Islam offers the best recent scholarship on an impressive array of subjects, such as the historical encounter of Islam and Christianity, the role of Islam in the Mughal and Ottoman empires, the growth of Islam in Southeast Asia, China. The Real Indian is the Negro aka the Blackamoor. And Arab Libraries, 1983, Ta-Ha. Historians to deceive the masses about the original history and peoples of.

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Preview — History of the Arabs by Philip Khuri Hitti

This authoritative study of the Arabians and the Arabic-speaking peoples is a valuable source of information on Arab history. Suitable for both scholars and the general reader, it unrolls one of the richest and most instructive panoramas in history, telling with insight the story of the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages, its conquests, its empire, its time of greatness and...more

Published November 16th 2002 by Palgrave Macmillan (first published September 6th 1970)

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General Middle East/Islam

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Apr 09, 2012Bryn Hammond rated it it was amazing

I stole a library book once. It was this one.
I was a child, with no conception how to buy a book, beyond science fiction and cheap classics at my local newsagents. Besides, I wasn’t so well-behaved at that stage. We were leaving the area, and this book came with me…
It was my first major history book; perhaps my first ever history book. I had watched Lawrence of Arabia and been ‘crazed with the spell of far Arabia’ (Walter de le Mare). This book was every bit as romantic to me; I read more assidu...more

Jul 21, 2007Aliya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

this book is so amazing, telling us about the history of Islam world and its civilization comprehensively, from a longtime before our prophet Muhammad SAW's life till the end of khilafah turki ustmany. we'll know, from this book, the life of allmost Islam heroes, scientist, ulama, and so on.
but, I remind u moslem readers..., this book is a view of non-moslem person. so, it could be, he wrote without a sense felt by a moslem when writing it. therefore, we couldnt find an Islamic proudness (and u...more

Jul 28, 2019سارة rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5/5
يتناول فيليب حتي في هذا الكتاب تاريخ العرب من بداية اصل السلالة العربية وعصر ما قبل الاسلام ثم ظهور الإسلام ودولة الخلافة الإسلامية ثم الدولة الاموية ثم الدولة العباسية وفترة حكم العرب للأندلس وبعض أجزاء اوروبا ثم الدولة الفاطمية والحملات الصليبية ودولة المماليك ثم الدولة العثمانية ثم الإستعمار الأوروبي وينتهي الكتاب مع صراع القومية العربية مع الإستعمار
في كل مرحلة من تاريخ العرب يصف فيليب صورة كاملة للمجتمع فيذكر كل جوانب الحياة السياسية والعلمية والفنية والتربية والعمارة والتجارة والفئا...more

Mar 11, 2008Ryan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Sebelumnya saya berharap ada penyajian yang objektif dari Hitti (hal ini disebabkan buku-buku yang menulis tarikh Islam sudah cukup banyak) ketika membuat penelitian tentang Islam dan Arab.
Namun jauh panggang dari api, harapan tinggal harapan. Karena objektivitas 'tidak ada' dalam kamus kalangan orientalis barat ketika menemui kata : Islam.
Buku yang sangat tidak direferensikan untuk di baca.
Penuh distorsi sejarah, infiltrasi pemikiran orientalisme (karena memang buku ini ditulis untuk kepentin...more

Jul 28, 2009Raff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A History Of Arab Peoples Pdf Writer Online

Although long out of print, this work is a concise history of the rise and subsequent fall of the Arab conquests of the 7th Century. A primer for people who should know more about the people who set Islam on its course of domination of politics, science and culture of the known world.

Dec 22, 2008Handaka mukarta is currently reading it · review of another edition

memanfaatkan discount 30% di gramedia grand indonesia, lalu ambil buku yg sudah berumur 70-an tahun ini. mungkin hak cipta nya sudah habis. jadi bisa dicetak murah.
tampaknya tidak banyak menyajikan hal baru, dalam keterbukaan dan pencapaian skr ini. sebagai rujukan dan keperluan detail.
cukup 'berani' juga serambi menerbitkan buku tebal yg hampir 1000 halaman ini. berani dalam arti aspek bisnis. buku yg dicap orientalis ini tampaknya sudah cukup dikenal masyarakat indonesia, khususnya yg suka d...more

It is no wonder that he was known as Sheikh Hitti in the Arab world: The history was fascinating and very complimentary as to the advancement of science and technology during ancient times, something frequently omitted from other books. But Professor Hitti does not stop there, pressing the clock forwards through better-known times, which makes this classical work such a logical choice for middle-eastern studies.
I have seen countless other positive reviews and I am sure that I have very little t...more

Oct 22, 2007faaz rated it liked it · review of another edition

waw......
bukunya lengkap banget tentang sejarah arab dari zaman baheula sampai zaman modern....
y pantesan aja jadi salah satu literatur utama penuilisan sejarah islam.but, bikin pusing.... detil banget kali ya...

Dec 07, 2007Pandu K. Utomo rated it liked it · review of another edition

lengkap dan komperhensif!

Oct 11, 2009Danish Haidar rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

in the present escalation of teh so called war between the islamic and teh weatern countries this your' base book ' to deveopl a soun understanding of teh arsb world.

History of Arabs people, a comprehensive outlook.

a reference book without any doubt for anyone touching on the subject.

To start the discussion, you need to know this is a textbook. I like reading textbooks, so that's okay with me and I knew in advance what it was. But, I fully understand not everyone does. At times, this one is pretty bone dry. Kind of appropriate considering the topic and even the cover photo. I would merely speed read through those parts. My interest in this book is twofold. First, I'm currently working in Saudi Arabia as a professor at a private university (through June 2017) and wanted to kn...more

Jun 04, 2019Jarek rated it really liked it

Some notes:
- this isn't pop history - it's fairly academic, dense, long, and at a few times dragging (covering over a thousand years in 750 pages you are going to get a lot of 'and then this happened', and the structure interspersing political/military developments with cultural developments help avoid the worst)
- nevertheless with some breaks for Wikipedia lookups this was approachable to me despite basically no prior knowledge
- most of the focus (size/length wise) is on the initial efflorescen...more

Aug 20, 2019- added it · review of another edition

أجد إعطاء كتاب بهذا الحجم حكما إجماليا أمرًا عسيرًا، ولكن الملاحظ على أية حال أن الكاتب مطلّع اطلاعا واسعا على التاريخ الإسلامي -السياسي على الأقل- وبذل جهدا كبيرًا في كتابه هذا، ويمتاز الكتاب أيضا بعرضه لجوانب مختلفة من التاريخ الإسلامي غير مقتصر على التاريخ السياسي، إذ تحدث عن التاريخ الثقافي والاقتصادي في كل حقبة تناولها، وميزه عدم اكتفائه بالتأريخ للعلوم الشرعية فتحدث عن الطب والفلك والرياضيات وغيرها، وإن بشيء من الاختصار في بعض الأحيان، وللأسف فإنه لا يكاد يذكر شيئا عن تاريخ الهند الإسلامي،...more

Aug 02, 2019حسان الحمدان rated it liked it · review of another edition

كتاب مفيد ومستفزّ :)
أكثر ما أفادني به:
- تفاصيل الحالة الاقتصادية للدول، المداخيل والمصروفات.
- تفاصيل الحالة العلمية وتطورها في الحقب السياسية..
- بيان شيء من أنماط الحياة الاجتماعية.
- ربط النخب العلمية والثقافية بالحقب السياسية، وتوضيح العلاقة بينهم وبين النخب الحاكمة.
- صقلية! لأول مرة أقرأ عن صقلية بهذا البيان المختصر والجميل.

Mar 19, 2018Afriza Hanifa rated it really liked it

Sejarah Arab dari sudut pandang orientalis Barat. Tapi di banyak bagian dia sangat objektif. Buku ini menjadi literasi wajib di salah satu mata kuliah prodi Arab UI loh. IMHO, Hitti adalah salah satu pakar hebat di bidang sejarah Timur Tengah.

A very brilliant recap and a neutralist point of view especially with reference to the shisms that appeared among the Musilm Ummah.

Aug 06, 2013Obinpercussion rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Inilah buku fenomenal. Saya pertama kali melihat tumpukan buku Prof.Hitti ini di Toko Buku Gramedia Depok. Saya tertarik untuk membeli, tp seperti biasa saya melihat-lihat dulu buku yang lain kemudian saya pulang dan lupa untuk membelinya. Seminggu kemudian saya kembali lagi ke TB tsb dan kaget, tumpukan buku itu hilang!! saya bertanya kpd petugasnya 'Pak kemana tumpukan buku di sini? apakah cacat produksi sehingga bisa hilang hny dlm waktu seminggu? Dan ketika saya mencari di TB Gramedia lain t...more

Nov 08, 2009Zico rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Luar biasa!!! Tebal hampir 1000 halaman, penuh analisa terhadap ribuan kitab klasik yang buat ukuran ulama sekalipun sangat rumit dan detil. prof. Hitti juga menampilkan edisi terjemah eropa untuk setiap kitab yang sudah diterjemahkan ke bahasa eropa dalam setiap catatan kaki. Padahal masa ketika beliau menulis (mulai 1920-an), kitab2 arab belum tersebar dan tercetak masal seperti sekarang. terlebih zaman itu kitab klasik edisinya banyak yg tidak lengkap. Belum ada gerakan tahqiq juga.
Buku ini j...more

Jul 07, 2015ThinkPol rated it it was amazing

honestly, a quite cool and informative shit, a compulsory read for well-read Muslims and Middle Easterners who want to know their history (I'm not the latter though so yea well haha). in this book, Hitti elaborately described (as its title implies) the history of the Arabs since the pre-Islamic kingdoms and tribal eras until 20th century, as well as their cultures, lifestyle.
My favorite one is the description of the riches of the Abbasid Caliphate. its like pulled out straight from an Arabian ni...more

Dec 06, 2013Mansoor Azam rated it liked it

Shelves: just-bought, azam-middle-east-challenge-2013

The book is not an encyclopedia of Arabs rather gives a broad brush on the land, the people and the dynasties till the start of twentieth century.
Anyone with out a knowledge of Arabs : this book gives u a comprehensive basic tour from the start. A good research though I felt some details, very important though, were left out to ensure a degree of brevity to this voluminous piece of knowledge on Arabs and their history

one of a great source of Arab history. written by a celebrated middle east scholar Philip K Hitti this book offer a comprehensive history of arab from pre-history time until early 20th century. come from Cristian community in Lebanon made Hitti an insider and applied this perspective into his book. but as a Christian he offer a balance story than any contemporary muslim historian in one side and orientalist historian in other side.

Apr 21, 2012Raja rated it it was amazing

I read this book because Hitti was quoted consistently in literature about the Middle East. He seemed to be a reference for many of today’s specialists in the field.
After reading it, I wasn't dissapointed. The book was informative and also a page turner. It shed light on details of Arab history that I have found nowhere else: politics, religion, family stories, science, literature, etc.... It's all in there.

Jan 18, 2016David K. Lemons rated it really liked it

1967 I was living on the corniche of Jeddah and for me this was required reading that I had assigned myself. I was teaching English at a missile training center to Saudi soldiers, who were mainly of Bedouin background. Dr. Hitti's insightful information on Arab culture was very interesting and useful.

Sayang sekali, buku yang pemaparannya sungguh bagus di bagian awal, justru mengambang di bagian akhir. Terutama ketika membahas Turki Ustmani; sejarah seakan-akan dilipat begitu saja berabad-abad, tanpa penjelasan, sekonyong-konyong kesimpulan.

Buku legendaris. Tebal tapi enak dibaca. Bahasa sederhana. Yang menerjemahkan juga bisa membahasakannya sehingga mudah dimengerti. Sebuah buku yang sampai sekarang paling lengkap membahas Arab dan Islam. Tiap babnya membuat penasaran untuk diketahui.

Feb 13, 2016Fais al-Fatih rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite, sejarah-kisah-biografi, milik-pribadi

Umat Muslim, khususnya bangsa Arab seharusnya bisa memberikan kontribusi bagi kemajuan peradaban dunia saat ini, karna mereka selain memiliki kekayaan yg melimpah juga memiliki sejarah dan warisan yg agung.

i want education

Not very readable but remains a must read on history of Islam and Arabs in general.

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Philip K. Hitti 1886-1978 a lebanese Historian who had Helped in Bringing Arabic Studies to US.
Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Year At AUB: 1908
Education: AUB, BA 1908; Columbia University, PhD
Philip Hitti was born in the village of Shemlan in 1886. He graduated from the American University of Beirut with first honors in 1908, teaching there for several years as the University’s first Lebanes...more

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Preview — A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani

Encyclopedic and panoramic in its scope, this fascinating work chronicles the rich spiritual, political, and cultural institutions of Arab history through 13 centuries.
No region in the world today is more important than the Middle East: no people more misunderstood than the Arabs. In this definitive masterwork, distinguished Oxford historian Albert Hourani offers the most...more

Published April 1st 1992 by Grand Central Publishing (first published 1991)

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Nov 12, 2016Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, near-east, politics, religion, reviewed

For some reason unbeknownst to me I have a fascination with the history of the Middle East/Anatolia. From the Byzantines to the Ottomans I just find the history of the region of the people really interesting. I think it may be because there is such a unique mixing of people, cultures, and ideas in the region that more engaging to me than, say, Tudor England or Colonial America. This region has seen some of the greatest world empires, it is the birthplace of the major Monotheistic religions, and...more

First, a preliminary comment warranted by any book of this size and magnitude, there is something overwhelming about engaging in the entire history of a people in one book. It was a feat that Hourani should have been proud of.
The book is jam-packed with information. It is fairly readable, considering the length, but Hourani accomplished the readability by not including any footnotes, only general references at the end of the book. This means, essentially, that none of his facts or statistics or...more

This is not a book for the faint of heart. To be honest, I stopped reading the book halfway through the section on the Ottoman Empire. It's huge, dry, oftentimes boring, but it gets the job done. This book lacks many of the exciting details usually covered in history, such as battles, wars, biographies, etc. However, whatever it lacks in excitement it totally makes up for in raw information. If you want to know how peasants in medieval Syria lived, bam! Here's your book. If you want to know the...more

Oct 19, 2016Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing

For those interested in a factual and well-written account of the history of the middle east, Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples is extraordinarily good. There is no political grandstanding here, just facts. It is absolutely fascinating to see how the tribes in which the Prophet Mohammed became a major military and cultural force in only a few centuries conquering northern Africa to Malaysia. You learn about the split between the shiites and sunnites, the spin offs such as the dervishes and t...more

Jul 23, 2011Malcolm rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm always impressed by scholars who can write these grand synthetic histories that draw together vast spans of time and space. In this case, the project is made all the more difficult because there is a long middle period in Arab history about which we know very little. Understandably, Hourani treats his starting point as the emergence of the school of thought that has become Islam – sources for any earlier period are patchy – but it also causes a problem in that the period covered by the 11th...more

Feb 16, 2016Tim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Hourani acknowledges the challenges of his narrative in that his focus could be both “too large or too small” (preface, xvii). It’s a complicated matter to communicate a culture and people that have been shaped so foundationally by a particular revelation and Prophet made even more complex by the fact that their part of the world has rich meaning and value on many levels for everyone else. On top of this, Orientalism has inserted itself into the English language quite effectively, as have many o...more

An outstanding and thought-provoking book with some scarily accurate thoughts on how the situation in the Middle East might develop. The afterword by Malise Ruthven in 2002 discusses how the issues raised by Hourani's book have developed since his death a decade earlier and of course so much has happened since even that was written.
I found this a fascinating and highly readable work, with a wide-ranging investigation into the history of so many nation states and political and religious factions....more

Aug 16, 2018Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples gives an excellent background how the peoples of the Arab world got from the days of Muhammad to 1991, the year the book was published. There are many additional chapters to be written after September 11, 2001; the US invasion of Iraq; the so-called Arab Spring; the Syrian Civil War; the advent of ISIS; the downfall of Qaddafi in Libya; and the movement of peoples from the Arab world en masse to Europe. These would be hard chapters to write, as we a...more

Jun 16, 2010Erik Graff rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Erik by: A.M.

I believe this book was recommended by a secular Muslim friend who loaned me her copy. It was, remarkably, the first book about Arab history as a whole that I'd ever read and is designed for Anglo-Americans who aren't very familiar with Arab history.

Sep 23, 2018Lauren Albert rated it really liked it

As the title says, there are Arab people's'. There is no uniform group. Similarly, Hourani shows that the plural of the title would apply to Muslims as well. As with Christians, there have always been divisions and not just Sunni and Shia. Political differences, social differences, etc. divide both Arabs and Muslims just as they do other groups. Read this book if you want to get a sense of the diversity that has been almost nonexistent in the hate language of Western bigots.

Jul 21, 2017Daniel rated it really liked it

The Ottomans, Europeans, Americans etc come and go yet Hourani is far more interested in the development of Arab poetry than the conquerors. In short, the book does what it says on the tin. Personally, I would have liked to see more on the development of Wahhabism and political Islam/the Muslim brotherhood than Sufism, but I can see that their influence hasn't (yet?) reached the longevity of Sufism.

Aug 30, 2013Alice rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, asia, middle-east, non-fiction, religion

A very comprehensive history not only of the political/military campaigns, but most importantly (to me) the actual lives of the people. Unlike many history books, this concentrates on linking the larger movements in society to the lives of all classes of people in not only the arab states, but the larger Muslim world, including north Africa, Turkey, and Iran. It's not, however, a book for those casually interested in the area - it's huge and quite dry at times. I actually had to put it aside a f...more

Jan 27, 2009Derek rated it really liked it

An expert exposition on the history of the Middle-East. While it is not about Islam per se, Islam was the catalyst which unified the previously tribal people of the Arabian Peninsula and galvanized their rise to become a player on the world stage. Thus Islam plays a predominant role in the book, and it is a good resource for an understanding of many modern Islamic issues. He also explores in depth the era of European imperialism and its impact on modern Arabian social movements. The writing stri...more

Nov 10, 2012Jordan Bradford rated it it was amazing

What I loved about this is how it gives valuable insights and answers to a Western audience while covering a broad swath of history while still being readable. Highly recommended .

I probably learn more about the Arabs from one reading of this book then from 65 years of reading newspapers.

Hourani's systematic explication of Arab civilization is superb. Rather than being merely a chronicle of events, it is also a history of ideas. His analysis is predicated upon a 'Khaldunian' approach, which derives from the philosopher Ibn Khaldun's theories of cyclical renewal and asabiyya, 'a corporate spirit oriented towards obtaining and keeping power.' Hourani's academic modus operandi is thus both durable and insightful. Though published in 1991, this work provides readers with a comprehen...more

Some good insights here and there but it's ultimately a shallow work. The problem is in the title. The author never defines 'Arab peoples' and what transpires is a shallow account of Islamic history in the Levant, Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, or roughly the area of Arab speaking peoples. Perhaps it seems to me that the 'Arab' character is artificial and conceals more than it illuminates about 1500 years of history, even if the Arab conquests and the Arab language's importance in Islam is...more

Particularly good when discussing the Palestinian tragedy. Somehow he managed to stay clinically unbiased which I think is rare. Also makes the intriguing point that as urbanization proceeded in the 20th century, cities may have undergone some kind of cultural 'ruralization' as migrants poured into cities and 'brought their own political culture and language.' Thus by the 1980's 'Islamic language had become more prominent in political discourse.' Perhaps this got the ball rolling to where the Mi...more

Apr 18, 2018Markus Christoph schneider rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

No more complete history of the Arab world from the foundation of Islam through 2002 exists. This book is as dense with information as this region of the world is with history. A sober, factual account that leaves nothing out and little unanswered.

Apr 24, 2018Maria El rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

An important book to start exploring the complex history of the arab peoples

Dec 17, 2013Caracalla rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the best works of non-fiction I have ever read. Hourani covers the history of Arabic speaking peoples from Muhammed to the mid-80's, right after America occupies Lebanon. Little time is wasted on personalities or the idiosyncracies of the many pro-Ottoman governments that post-date the power of the Abbasids; Hourani's main interests are history's great structural forces, sociology, intellectual history, geopolitics and economics; one of the best chapters is on the geography of the Middle...more

Sep 04, 2018Steve Middendorf rated it it was amazing

Never have I changed the status of a book from 'reading' to 'read' with such a sense of relief (and some accomplishment.) In the end, I was able to plough through the final sections from the Ottomans onward due to some familiarity with the periods and a growing comfort with the author's framing and authority.
What happened to the great expectations raised by the rise of Islam? Hourani has answered many questions for me. From the great Caliphates to modern nation states, from 700 to 2018 these ins...more

Apr 27, 2013Tom Meade rated it really liked it

As someone who is largely ignorant of most of Arab history, I found this book fascinating. It's long and dense and manages to provide an interesting overview of the Arabs from their ascension following the conquests of Muhammad and his affiliates, through the establishment of the caliphates, the wars with Europe, the rise of the post-colonial nation states, and right up to the close of the 1980s, stopping just before the Gulf War. There are a number of parts where Hourani has to skim or gloss-ov...more

Mar 20, 2010Don rated it liked it · review of another edition

Solid history of the Arab peoples since the Islamic period. Hourani works with very loose definitions with 'Arab' taken to mean Arabic language. The Berbers and under non-ethnic Arab groups therefore become subsumed into this history, as to the Sudanese. The Turks have an ambiguous position in that they assume the main responsiblity for the defence of Arab civilisation's most prominent contribution to culture - Islam - but without ever adopting Arabic as the main language of their culture (ditto...more

Sep 07, 2015Jeffrey Franklin Barken rated it really liked it

No question this book offers a good overview of Arab culture and Middle Eastern history. There are many names and it is difficult to keep track of the different timelines across different regions of interest. The studious reader will make good use of the various maps and notes included in the back of the text. Essentially what comes across is a notion that throughout history, Arab & Muslim societies have sought a status quo existence defined by relative peace and an ability to conduct necess...more

Jan 11, 2018Clay Kallam rated it really liked it

Given the pivotal role that Arab-speaking countries play in the world, 'A History of the Arab Peoples' is a valuable primer -- especially for Americans, whose education seldom gives more than a cursory look at Islam and the Arab world.
Albert Hourani's 1,400-year overview of Arab/Islamic history is bound to fall short, I'm sure, for serious students of the area, but for general readers like me, the broad strokes of this description of the crucial combination of religion and culture only adds clar...more

Nov 08, 2013Amjad Al Taleb rated it liked it

Generally the book is well constructed and covers a long period of the history concentrating on cultural and economic aspects rather than politics. The author tried to avoid details but it was not successful and commenting on the intentions of the imperial domination of Europe over the Arab world.
The author also tried to put all Arab countries since 1900 in the same historical destiny, commenting on few diplomatic disputes, which I think was not successful nor right, since albeit having common f...more

Sep 24, 2011Margo Johnson rated it liked it

This book is considered to be an important historical account of the people that inhabit that area of the world known as the Middle East. The author, Albert Hourani, begins with the 7th century A.D. and goes through til the 1980s. His account is jam-packed with all kinds of information concerning the culture, politics and religion of the Arab world.
Although I did find myself being overwhelmed by the amount of info in the book I did discover that the Middle East is not one united region where eve...more

Oct 02, 2009Greg Tatum rated it really liked it

This was a good basic survey of Muslim/Arab culture. It wasn't all inclusive but definitely broadened my understanding of that part of the world.
Pros: Not written from a western perspective, and provides a good look at the people who lived both in the past and currently in middle eastern countries.
Cons: Not exceptionally thorough, and a little dense to get through at times. It also for the most part ignored most of the political entities and movements. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

Jul 01, 2010Mo rated it liked it

Accessible narrative with a focus on cultural history. I could've done with more detail, especially regarding political history, and some chapters were a bit too repetitive. The recurring discussions of the development of Islamic law and the importance of law as a science in the Arab cultural sphere were quite interesting.

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Hourani was born the son of immigrants from South Lebanon. He studied Philosophy, Politics, Economics and History (with an emphasis on international relations)at the Magdalen College in Oxford. He graduated first in his class in 1936. During World War II, he worked at the Royal Institute of International Affairs and in the office of the British Minister of State in Cairo. After the war he helped p...more

“We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign people. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing if higher value than truth itself” — 8 likes

“In the seventh century the Arabs created a new world into which other peoples were drawn. In the nineteenth and twentieth, they were themselves drawn into a new world created in western Europe.” — 1 likes

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