https://archive.org/details/AHISTORYOFTHEARABPEOPLESALBERTHOURANI
A History of the Arab Peoples
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A History of the Arab Peoples
Author Albert Hourani
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject History of Arab countries
Publisher Faber and Faber
Publication date February 18, 1991
Media type Print (hardcover)
Pages 576
ISBN 978-0-674-39565-7
Dewey Decimal 909.0974927
LC Class DS37.7.H67
A History of the Arab Peoples is a book written from 1991 by the British-born Lebanese historian Albert Hourani.[1][2]
The book presents the history of the Arabs from the advent of Islam (although some pre-Islamic history is included) to the late 20th Century. More recent editions contain an afterword by Malise Ruthven bringing the history up to the present day including the Invasion of Iraq.
See also[edit]History of the Arabs by Philip K. Hitti
The Arabs in History by Bernard Lewis
References[edit]
^ HUP - Harvard University Press A History of the Arab Peoples info
^ Librarything data sheet
External links[edit]Albert Hourani; Malise Ruthven (30 November 2010). A History of the Arab Peoples: With a New Afterword. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05819-4. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
This about a non-fiction book on Middle Eastern history article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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History of the Arab Peoples: Updated Edition: Updated Edition Paperback – 2 January 2013
by Malise Ruthven (Introduction), Albert Hourani (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 156 ratings
Following the Arab Spring, a fully updated new edition of this ever popular classic of modern history.
In a bestselling work of profound and lasting importance, the late Albert Hourani told the definitive history of the Arab peoples from the seventh century, when the new religion of Islam began to spread from the Arabian Peninsula westwards, to the present day. It is a masterly distillation of a lifetime of scholarship and a unique insight into a perpetually troubled region.
This updated edition by Malise Ruthven adds a substantial new chapter which includes recent events such as 9/11, the US invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath, the fall of the Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and the incipient civil war in Syria, bringing Hourani's magisterial History up to date.
Ruthven suggests that while Hourani can hardly have been expected to predict in detail the massive upheavals that have shaken the Arab world recently he would not have been entirely surprised, given the persistence of the kin-patronage networks he describes in his book and the challenges now posed to them by a new media-aware generation of dissatisfied youth.
In a new biographical preface, Malise Ruthven shows how Hourani's perspectives on Arab history were shaped by his unique background as an English-born Arab Christian with roots in the Levant.
Publisher : Faber Paperback; 1st edition (2 January 2013)
Language : English
Paperback : 640 pages
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 156 ratings
https://archive.org/details/AHISTORYOFTHEARABPEOPLESALBERTHOURANI
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Benjamin
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful WorkReviewed in the United States on 8 August 2022
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An exceptional and scholarly overview of Arab history.
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George Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant, scholarlyReviewed in India on 13 November 2020
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One of best written books that I have read. Scholarship and sensitivity is obvious in every elegantly written chapter. The description of the life of the people, the nature of the cities and the different currents underlying events makes this a work of rare quality
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Aamir Rashid Najar
4.0 out of 5 stars Must read!!!Reviewed in Germany on 11 June 2018
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For a beginner this is a good book . But their is room for critical take on some historical events that could be interpreted more profoundly .
But nonetheless Albert Hurrani was a great historian, particularly of middle eastern history. I rate him above Bernard Lewis for more honesty and humility.
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湯豆腐好き
4.0 out of 5 stars アラブ・中東史を人々の生活の視点で書いているReviewed in Japan on 17 January 2019
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Michael HaagのThe Templars（テンプル騎士団）を読んで、あまりに面白かったので、「今度は、敵側のイスラム側の歴史書はないか」と思ったら、The Templarsの本の中で、この本が紹介されていたので買って読んだ。イスラム世界（オスマントルコの事もかなり書いてあって、アラブ史と言うより中東史になっている）で次々に現れる帝国の栄枯盛衰の物語、戦いや事件やなどの記述を期待していたら、そうではなくて、時代時代の中東・イスラム・アラブの人々の生活史が描かれているから、所謂「中東史」を期待する人には向かない。例えば、オスマントルコの時代に800あったアラブ部族は、コーランの教えを中心に共同社会を形成していて、貧しい人々に対して助け合いを行う文化があったが、近代に入って西洋の社会システムに影響を受けると、貧しい人々はより孤立し、益々貧しくなる、みたいな話であるとか、イスラムとキリスト教徒、ユダヤ教徒とどの様に関係し生活ていたか、女性はどんな地位にあったか、オスマントルコはどの様にアラブ部族を掌握していたが、などが中心に展開される。Albert Houraniは、1993年に亡くなっている為に、Malise Ruthvenが、9/11以降のアラブ社会の変遷、アラブの春の意味なども含めて書き加えている
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Alvaro
5.0 out of 5 stars ExcelenteReviewed in Spain on 25 April 2013
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Me lo dejó un amigo en papel, en español, y me resultó muy interesante, tanto que decidí comprarlo. Me atraía especialmente la descripción de las distintas corrientes filosóficas y religiosas dentro del mundo islámico (se habría agradecido mayor atención al islamismo en países no árabes, pero es obvio que queda fuera del objetivo general de la obra).
La addenda de 2012 (de la que carecía la versión en papel que leí) resulta también muy recomendable.
Lamento que no exista (o no haberlo encontrado) la versión e-book en castellano, pero que nadie se asuste por ese detalle; un nivel medio de inglés (con la ayuda del diccionario que incorporan muchos lectores electrónicos) es más que suficiente.
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Mike
519 reviews · 396 followers
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September 18, 2018
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 has exchanged hands innumerable times, resulting in a unique blending of cultures and peoples not seen anywhere else. I am not as well read or knowledgeable about the Arab portion of the story so I was eager to dive into this extensive book.
And extensive this book is. Hourani aims to provide the reader with a total understanding of how Arab (and later non-Arab Muslim) society was structured. From the early Arab tribesmen and (I kid you not) the type of poetry they created to cosmopolitan Damascus to the dry stretches of North Africa Hourani dives into the dynamics of how these societies operated and their relationship with the wider Arab speaking world. While this does get a bit dry at times (insert desert pun here) the reader gets an excellent window into how the people of the past lived.
For me the most illuminating part was all the interlocking interests that existed in the Arab speaking world. It wasn't as simple as the Shah/Caliph/King issuing an order and it being carried out, there were many layers of control, influence, and interests. For instance there is a pretty constant back and forth between the settled peoples of the land and the nomadic herdsman. Depending on political conditions (how strong or weak a central government was), the climate, and economic factors the settled folks might be dominant over the herdsman or the other way around. It was a relationship in constant flux and impacted the local balance of power.
Another fascinating relationship was between the religious leaders (the ulama) and secular authorities. On the one hand there were those who held that the religious and secular worlds should be separate ("In hell there is a valley uniquely reserved for 'ulama who visit kings.") while others who thought they could influence leaders and ensure that religious laws and customs were enforced in the land. Of course it didn't hurt that secular leaders would build and maintain mosques, endow religious colleges, and generally look to secure legitimacy from the religious leaders. This relationship, like all others across time, changed with the coming of modernity and the need for Arab states to modernize in the face of potential domination by the West.
I had also under appreciated the impact that the spread of Arab as a spoken language would have on societies. By conquering and holding such a vast stretch of land the initial Arab conquerors brought their language to a wider population and made it the official language of government. This also made it the unofficial language of trade across the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Sea as well as across the silk road trade routes. This common language and shared Islamic culture really helped facilitate long term trade and credit and drive the economic engine of the Arab world, which at the time far surpassed contemporary Western Christendom.
For me, though, the most compelling section dealt with how European powers came to dominate and occupy Arab states and how this dominance altered the traditional patterns of life in these states. Being conquered by unbelievers who were clearly organizationally, technologically, and economically more advanced than the Arab societies was a shock to those societies. One passage especially stood out to be regarding just how dominant the West had become economically:"British exports to the eastern Mediterranean countries increased 800% in value between 1815 and 1850; by that time beduin in the Syrian desert were wearing shirts made of Lancashire cotton."
The reaction to this dominance was a move by many states to emulate Western culture, from colleges, to governmental structures, to new economic relationships. As Western business interests expanded in these states, primarily driven by resource extraction and agricultural projects, there was a mixing of European migrants and the upper echelon of Arab speaking societies. This facilitated the further transfer of such Western ideas such as freedom, nationalism, and representative government to these states, but mixed with Islamic beliefs and sensibilities. While the base ideas were Western the Arab speaking states adapted them to their own history, circumstances, and culture.
All in all this was a very extensive and exhaustive examination and exploration of Arab speaking cultures from its beginning in the Arabian Desert through roughly 2002 (hence the New Afterward). If you are looking for an introductory book on Arab speaking and Islamic culture I would suggest Destiny Disrupted, it is a lot more accessible to a first time reader and shorter too. But if you are looking for a more complex and complete view, of Arab speaking societies and already have a pretty solid knowledge base of Islamic history, this is the book for you.
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Derek
78 reviews · 16 followers
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February 5, 2013
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 anything can be checked, and it makes it extremely difficult to follow his line of research, and engage in one own's research from his book. It's not a massive drawback, given the ease with one can access information about a subject or topic, but it would have been nice to have been able to see where he drew certain statistics/facts from.
As far as content goes, Hourani does an excellent job of mitigating the potential pitfalls of attempting to cover such a vast topic. He does well encompassing a variety of aspects, including political and social movements, culture and literature, economics, etc. There are many aspects of this which leave the reader hanging, however. Often, a revolt or uprising is mentioned, with no context and no other information. It is simply given by name or, sometimes, not even named at all. Since he doesn't cite his source, you cannot often go back and figure it out without an enormously frustrating amount of time shooting in the dark on the internet.
One of the major drawbacks is his treatment of empire. He is far too lenient on the imperial powers, especially Britain (he seems to be harder on France, for whatever reason, perhaps because of his own location). The way his book presents empire, one imagines that the great imperial powers had their own interests, which they took care of, but were generally benevolent masters which simply made mistakes due to a lack of knowledge, bad choices, etc. I think, before engaging a book like this, one ought to read Michael Parenti's "Against Empire" or "The Face of Imperialism" just to have a primer on how imperialism works.
The next point, and this was a shock to me, Hourani completely whitewashes the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. He present it as, essentially, a war between two equal sides, in which the Zionist forces were better prepared and won the day. He mentions a few hundred thousand Palestinians become refugees, but doesn't mention any of the terror, the violence, the death brought about by Zionist policy, outlined, for instance, in Plan Dalet. I would suggest, as an antidote to this, one reads the alexipharmic book by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe titled "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine."
At any rate, if you want something to satisfy a basic desire to engage the Arab world, this is the book.
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Hadrian
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October 4, 2020
Starting with a biographical sketch of Ibn Khaldun, this History of the Arab Peoples starts with a brief description of the pre-Islamic era before through the caliphates, the Ottoman era, and "the age of European empires", concluding in 1990. The preface and afterword by Malise Ruthven from the more recent edition provide a biography of Hourani's own life and a summary of events up to the early 2010s, but much has happened since then.
This is primarily a book of social and cultural history, and concerns institutions or governing philosophers that have arisen from, or indeed reacted to, periods of instability. As a general reader, I found this was a useful guide to the region's history; a specialist may have a better response as to what Hourani chose to emphasize or leave out.
history nonfiction west-asia-middle-east
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Ashraf Faqih
11 books · 1,668 followers
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June 8, 2011
A general and very brief introduction to the history of the Arab nation. I specifically listened to the details of the twentieth century. The introduction is slow. An excellent reference for anyone who wants to learn the basics of Arab history.
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Michael Finocchiaro
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January 10, 2017
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 the sufis, and the various dynasties that culminated in the Ottoman caliphate.
Given the current political context of lies, lies and damn lies, it is a critical read to get a true version of the history of the Arab peoples and a better understanding of historical Islam to better contextualise the current world situation.
history non-fiction
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Tasneem
269 reviews · 337 followers
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February 5, 2021
It is one of the few books I have read that gives an almost comprehensive overview of Arab-Islamic civilization up to contemporary history,
but the writer has his own biases and some confusion, but the book is really beautiful.
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Sun of Consciousness
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April 6, 2013
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 relationship between pastoral nomads, rural farmers, and urban craftsmen, here's your book. If you want to know about the roots of Sunnism and different schools of Islamic thought, this is your book.
If you're a normal human being who expects to get through this monster in a few days, you probably shouldn't read this book. I am a fan of Islamic history and this is too hardcore, even for me. However, I did feel like I left with a better understanding of medieval Islamic society. For example, many people think that people converted to Islam directly because of the Muslim conquests, but the majority of the people living in Muslim territories were actually non-Muslims. There was an intricate balance between the conquerors and the conquered. All in all, it was a peaceful balance. After all, these people were valuable as government administrators, and there were various other instances where non-Muslims were actually important. For example, Jews were crucial in the trade with Byzantium during a time when Byzantine-Arab relations were extremely sour. In a more humorous example, Muslims are not allowed to produce or consume alcohol, but oftentimes, they would secretly buy bottles from Christians, and this happened frequently, apparently. In truth, medieval Islam was an incredibly complex, cosmopolitan, multicultural, multi-faith society. It was surprisingly urban (especially compared to medieval Europe, perhaps even comparable to medieval China), and it produced many great cities. It connected the world by linking the Indian Ocean trade with the Mediterranean.
That's what I got out of this book. This is a book about people and their societies. It's almost anthropological in nature, as opposed to what you might expect from other conventional history books. If this is what you're looking for, by all means, check this book out, but if you're looking for something more exciting, look elsewhere.
If you do decided to read this, try to approach it like you would an encyclopedia. Read certain selections and skim through others. Take it out of your bookshelf whenever you might need to use it as reference. You will have to be brave to read this thing in one go.
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Mohamed al-Jamri
175 reviews · 129 followers
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March 12, 2016
History of the Arab Peoples by the Lebanese-British researcher Albert Hourani.
The history of our nation and our civilization has always been vulnerable to falsification and use for political or sectarian purposes. This book is the result of impartial academic research that narrates the history of this civilization from its beginning with the emergence of Islam until the modern era.
The writer first discusses the circumstances of the era in which the religion of Islam came, and then addresses the history of the Islamic message and the circumstances of society, politics, and religion in detail. Then we reach the stage of the Ottoman Empire and its history, then to the era of European colonialism, and finally to the modern nation-states.
The book contains very precise details and does not ignore peoples and their aspirations, people’s ways of life, and the emergence of different sects. It also analyzes some events and presents different points of view. All in a beautiful neutral and academic style.
I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand their nation and civilization. Available in book format as well as in Arabic
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shakespeareandspice
349 reviews · 526 followers
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September 25, 2017
More like 3.5
nonfiction
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Erik Graf
5,068 reviews · 1,229 followers
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May 23, 2011
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.
history
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