History of the Arab Peoples

630 Pages·2005·5.07 MB·English

by  Albert Hourani

A HISTORY OF THE ARAB PEOPLES
Albert Hourani
To my colleagues and students at
St Antony’s College, Oxford
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
List of Maps
Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on Spelling
Note on Dates

Prologue

PART I THE MAKING OF A WORLD (SEVENTH–TENTH CENTURY)

1 A New Power in an Old World
The world into which the Arabs came
The language of poetry
Muhammad and the appearance of Islam

2 The Formation of an Empire
The succession to Muhammad: the conquest of an empire
The caliphate of Damascus
The caliphate of Baghdad

3 The Formation of a Society
The end of political unity
A unified society: the economic bases
Unity of faith and language
The Islamic world

4 The Articulation of Islam
The question of authority
The power and justice of God
The shari‘a
The Traditions of the Prophet
The path of the mystics
The path of reason

PART II ARAB MUSLIM SOCIETIES (ELEVENTH–FIFTEENTH CENTURY)

5 The Arab Muslim World
States and dynasties
Arabs, Persians and Turks
Geographical divisions
Muslim Arabs and others

6 The Countryside
Land and its use
Tribal societies

7 The Life of Cities
Markets and cities
The city population
Law and the ‘ulama
Slaves
Muslims and non-Muslims in the city
Women in the city
The shape of the city
Houses in the city
The chain of cities

8 Cities and Their Rulers
The formation of dynasties
The alliance of interests
Control of the countryside
Ideas of political authority

9 Ways of Islam
The Pillars of Islam
The friends of God

10 The Culture of the ‘Ulama
The ‘ulama and the shari‘a
The transmission of learning
Kalam
Al-Ghazali
11 Divergent Paths of Thought
Islam of the philosophers
Ibn ‘Arabi and theosophy
Ibn Taymiyya and the Hanbali tradition
The development of Shi‘ism
Jewish and Christian learning

12 The Culture of Courts and People
Rulers and patrons
Poetry and story
Music
Understanding the world

PART III THE OTTOMAN AGE (SIXTEENTH–EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)

13 The Ottoman Empire
The limits of political power
Ottoman government
The Ottomans and Islamic tradition
Government in the Arab provinces

14 Ottoman Societies
Population and wealth in the empire
The Arab provinces
The culture of the Arab provinces
Beyond the empire: Arabia, the Sudan, Morocco

15 The Changing Balance of Power in the Eighteenth Century
Central and local authorities
Arab Ottoman society and culture
The world of Islam
Changing relations with Europe

PART IV THE AGE OF EUROPEAN EMPIRES (1800–1939)

16 European Power and Reforming Governments (1800–1860)
The expansion of Europe
The beginnings of European empire
Reforming governments

17 European Empires and Dominant Élites (1860–1914)
The limits of independence
The partition of Africa: Egypt and the Maghrib
The alliance of dominant interests
Control of the land
The condition of the people
The dual society

18 The Culture of Imperialism and Reform
The culture of imperialism
The rise of the intelligentsia
The culture of reform
The emergence of nationalism
The continuity of Islamic tradition

19 The Climax of European Power (1914–1939)
The supremacy of Great Britain and France
The primacy of British and French interests
Immigrants and the land
The growth of the indigenous élite
Attempts at political agreement

20 Changing Ways of Life and Thought (1914–1939)
Population and the countryside
Life in the new cities
The culture of nationalism
Islam of the élite and the masses

PART V THE AGE OF NATION-STATES (SINCE 1939)

21 The End of the Empires (1939–1962)
The Second World War
National independence (1945–1956)
The Suez crisis
The Algerian war

22 Changing Societies (1940s and 1950s)
Population and economic growth
The profits of growth: merchants and landowners
The power of the state
Rich and poor in the city

23 National Culture (1940s and 1950s)
Problems of education
Language and self-expression
Islamic movements

24 The Climax of Arabism (1950s and 1960s)
Popular nationalism
The ascendancy of Nasirism
The crisis of 1967

25 Arab Unity and Disunity (since 1967)
The crisis of 1973
The predominance of American influence
The interdependence of Arab countries
Arab disunity

26 A Disturbance of Spirits (since 1967)
Ethnic and religious divisions
Rich and poor
Women in society
A heritage and its renewal
The stability of regimes
The fragility of regimes

Afterword 2002

Maps
Tables
The Family of the Prophet
The Shi‘i Imams
The Caliphs
Important Dynasties
Ruling Families in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Bibliography
Index of Terms
Index
About the Author
Copyright
List of Maps
1 The area covered by the book, showing main geographical features
and names frequently used.
2 The expansion of the Islamic empire.
3 The ‘Abbasid caliphate at the beginning of the ninth century.
4 The Middle East and Maghrib towards the end of the eleventh century.
5 The Middle East and Maghrib towards the end of the fifteenth century.
6 Muslim Spain.
7 The Ottoman Empire towards the end of the seventeenth century.
8 The expansion of European empires until 1914.
9 The post-war settlement, 1918–1923:
(i) the Sykes–Picot agreement, 1916.
(ii) the Mandates.
10 The partition of Palestine:
(i) the partition plan of the Royal Commission, 1937.
(ii) the armistice lines, 1949, and the Israeli occupation, 1967.
11 The Middle East and Maghrib in 1988.
12 Pilgrimage routes, shrines and centres of learning.
Preface
The subject of this book is the history of the Arabic-speaking parts of the
Islamic world, from the rise of Islam until the present day. During some
periods, however, I have had to go beyond the subject: for example,
when I consider the early history of the caliphate, the Ottoman Empire,
and the expansion of European trade and empire. It would be possible to
argue that the subject is too large or too small: that the history of the
Maghrib is different from that of the Middle East, or that the history of the
countries where Arabic is the main language cannot be seen in isolation
from that of other Muslim countries. A line has to be drawn somewhere,
however, and this is where I have chosen to draw it, partly because of the
limits of my own knowledge. I hope the book will show that there is
sufficient unity of historical experience between the different regions it
covers to make it possible to think and write about them in a single
framework.
The book is intended for students who are beginning to study the
subject and for general readers who wish to learn something about it. It
will be clear to specialists that, in a book with so large a scope, much of
what I say is based upon the research of others. I have tried to give the
essential facts and to interpret them in the light of what others have
written. Some of my debts to their work are indicated in the bibliography.
Writing a book which covers such a long period, I have had to make
decisions about names. I have used the names of modern countries to
indicate geographical regions, even when those names were not used in
the past; it seemed simpler to use the same names throughout the book,
rather than change them from period to period. Thus ‘Algeria’ is used for
a certain region in North Africa, even though the name came into use
only in modern centuries. In general, I have used names which will be
familiar to those who read mainly in English; the word ‘Maghrib’ is
probably familiar enough to be used rather than ‘North-west Africa’, but
‘Mashriq’ is not and so I have used ‘Middle East’ instead. I have called
the Muslim parts of the Iberian peninsula Andalus, because it is simpler