Palestine | Middle East | Books | Who are the Arabs?

Who are the Arabs?




(click for larger photo)	Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq
	by Tariq Ali 'Why are otherwise intelligent people in Britain and the United States surprised on learning that the occupation is detested by a majority of Iraqi citizens? Empires sometimes forget who they are crusading against and why, but the occupied rarely suffer from such confusions.'



History Repeats Itself by a Reader from Maryland, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 If there is any truth to the adage "history repeats itself", its in the modern history of the Iraq. One of the most brilliant living writers, Tariq Ali, takes us on a tour de force study of the history of that war-torn country, from the first British invasion during World War I, to the latest Anglo-American occupation. Ali's piercing intellect dissects Iraq's history in an attempt to understand why things have happened the way they are, providing a critical understanding not only of Western imperial policies but also of the causes for Arab weakness. Written in June 2003, only 3 months after the invasion, this book demonstrates considerable prescience about the outcome of events in Iraq, predicting an intensification of the resistance and a Shi'a uprising, among other things. Those in the West who are tired of contradictions in the official justifications for the war will do well to pick up a copy of this book and learn more about how this 'liberation' of Iraq is really no different from the first British occupation at the turn of the 20th century, down to the very rhetoric used in the West to gain support for the war. Apart from the remarkable wealth of accurate information, this book enjoys a style of writing that is unsurpassed in modern historical writing. Once into the book, I could not resist the urge to continue, laying the book down only reluctantly at the end of two sleepless nights spent enjoying it. Excellent reading!




(click for larger photo)	The Arab Awakening
	by George Antonius



The classic on Modern Arab History! by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This is definitely the classic account of the rise of the Arabic people and the making of the modern Middle East. It covers the critical periods of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, when most of the Arab countries went through radical change from being part of the Ottoman Empire, to being colonized by Western powers, to becoming independent again. Learn about the history of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine, from an Arab perspective. Though written more than half a century ago, this book is indispensable and offers fundamental insights on Middle East affairs, and is packed full of historical facts that withstood the test of time. A primary advantage of this book is the part about Palestine, which was written before the formation of Israel in 1948 and therefore reflects the intricacy and complexity of that crucial first half of the century from a unique perspective. A Palestinian himself, George Antonius is not afraid to put his thoughts on Palestine in the open, describing his vision for coexistence between the Palestinian and the Jewish people in one democratic and constitutional state. The only weakness I find in this book is the author's tendency to give too much credit to the Hashemites, overplaying their role in forming Arab events at the turn of the century, and underplaying their role in collaborating with th British and the Zionists to the detriment of their Arab brethren. Of course some of those secret deals were not known at his time, but he could have been a less forgiving historian. Still, there still is no comparable text that treats the pre-1940 history of the Arab Middle East in such detail as "The Arab Awakening".




(click for larger photo)	History of the Arabs, Revised: 10th Edition
	by Philip Hitti




(click for larger photo)	A History of the Arab Peoples
	by Albert Hourani



Interesting and concise by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This is a concise introduction to the history of the Arab people. It is fairly easy to read, yet comprehensive; interesting, yet dispassionate. Albert Hourani does an excellent job presenting an overall picture of Arab history and society. I particularly enjoyed how this book considers history as more than a mere collection of events and dates or the conquests of kings. Rather, for every historical period, it attempts to paint a picture of the lives of ordinary people. Thus we learn about education, religion, law, marriage, and other aspects of society. This is a major strength of the book. Naturally, in a book about Arab history, a great deal of emphasis is put on Islamic religion, which is perhaps the most potent force shaping Arab history and culture. In a way therefore this book also offers an excellent introduction to Islam and Islamic history. Nevertheless, I would have liked to see more material about pre-Islamic times. Furthermore, while the title "Arab peoples" acknowledges the fact that most of the modern-day "Arabs" are descended from non-Arabs who at some point adopted Arab language and culture, this point is not made explicit in the text, and the pre-Arab history of these peoples is ignored. Having said that, I admit that it is impossible to include any more information about Arab history in the same number of pages (500), making this book a definite accomplishment. It is an excellent and readable introduction to Arab history, and a lead to other more specialized books (listed in the 27-page bibliography). The index alone reads like a who's who in Arab history.




(click for larger photo)	Qasr al-Shawq
	by Naguib Mahfouz 2nd volume of Naguib Mahfouz's 'Palace Walk' trilogy




(click for larger photo)	Bayn al-Qasrayn
	by Naguib Mahfouz 1st part of the Mahfouz's "Palace Walk" Trilogy - follows the lives of a typical Egyptian family through the pains of Egypt's independence




(click for larger photo)	Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
	by Michael Moore



The Greatest Moment in Cinema by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 Explores the events and the connections that led to, and followed from the Sep. 11 attacks on the USA. Even the die-hard news freak like myself has much to learn by watching this film. His exposure of the alarming Saudi connection is eye-opening. The best part, in my opinion, is how he places us in the shoes of the victims of the attacks, right from the start. Never before did I imagine that a black screen can express so much. We hear much today about "supporting our troops", and Michael Moore does that in the most brilliant way: by listenting to them and their families. Are we also willing to listen to their message which he carries to us?




(click for larger photo)	The Arab World Today
	by William R. Polk



Interesting and to the Point by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This is a well-written introduction to the intricacies of the modern history of the Arab world. Without a doubt, the Arab world has become an important and hotly contested region during the past century in which many wars were fought and in which the United States is becoming more and more enmeshed. This book traces the origin of the modern-day conflicts and the complex ways by which the Arab world (united at the beginning of the book under the Ottoman Empire) reached the level of fragmentation that characterizes it today. The author is a great dispassionate yet interesting narrator of the many events and plots that effected this change. Polk does a very good job in this book of including a large number of interesting details without losing sight of the big picture. The writing style is so interesting that the 500 pages seemed much shorter. The book further contains many useful maps and tables. "The Arab World Today" is of relevance for more than just the Arab world. For example the description of the process by which Egypt was brought under British occupation due to mounting debt from the construction of the Suez canal, itself a Western project, has many parallels in the third world today, particularly in the US domination of Iraq and in the relationship of the World Bank with most African countries. The book also has an extensive bibliography that I found very useful thanks to the author's comments about every item therein. In such a fast-changing region, this book can benefit from an update. The 5th edition ends with the first Iraq-US war. Obviously much has happened in the Middle East since then. However books about contemporary history can never be complete. Another problem with this book is the author's unhesitating acceptance and use of one-sided terminology. For instance he labels Palestinian freedom fighters in particular as "terrorists" while he labels the freedom fighters of all the other countries studied in the book as "nationalists". This is obviously a judgmental issue and a book striving for objectivity should avoid such irrelevant inflammatory labels.




(click for larger photo)	Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
	by Jack G. Shaheen

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