A History of the Arab Peoples

Rating:
Summary: Worth the read.
Review: A classic of modern lit. At some times a bit long winded but the text is unbiased and accurate.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent survey
Review: Albert Hourani provides an excellent survey of Arabic and Islamic history beginning with the onset of Islam during the early seventh century and ending at the 1980's, before the first Gulf War. In each epoch, Hourani not only covers the political history in question, but also social, philosophical and religious developments.

Although the book is entitled "A History of the Arab Peoples," it also covers a great deal of Persian and Turkish/Ottoman history. Despite the tremendous scope of time and space - over 1300 years and spanning from Spain to the East Indies - Hourani furnishes the reader with a solid view of the many currents that underlie modern Islam.

I hope that this book will help provide a more nuanced understanding of the Islamic and Arab world - a world that is often viewed as monolithic by the West. Aided perhaps by the survey nature of the text, the political bent of the book will be viewed as "balanced" by most non-partisan readers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent survey
Review: Albert Hourani provides an excellent survey of Arabic and Islamic history beginning with the onset of Islam during the early seventh century and ending at the 1980's, before the first Gulf War. In each epoch, Hourani not only covers the political history in question, but also social, philosophical and religious developments.

Although the book is entitled "A History of the Arab Peoples," it also covers a great deal of Persian and Turkish/Ottoman history. Despite the tremendous scope of time and space - over 1300 years and spanning from Spain to the East Indies - Hourani furnishes the reader with a solid view of the many currents that underlie modern Islam.

I hope that this book will help provide a more nuanced understanding of the Islamic and Arab world - a world that is often viewed as monolithic by the West. Aided perhaps by the survey nature of the text, the political bent of the book will be viewed as "balanced" by most non-partisan readers.

Rating:
Summary: Dry, dull, and suspect
Review: Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples is at best a long-winded encyclopedia recap of Arab history. Sorry, but there's no other way to express this. After reading books by Bernard Lewis and Philip Hitti, I'd hoped for as much insight and stylish historical narrative here. Particularly, I was hoping to fill in the historical gaps in my reading by getting information on the last couple centuries, something notably lacking in Hitti. Although Hourani does cover this later period, and these later chapters are the stronger ones in the book, he does so in a flat and uninspiring manner.

To try to explain more clearly, reading Hourani meant reading essentially a series of connected snapshots, detailing the political and cultural status of the various countries and peoples at various times. There is no real sense of history moving when reading this, and there should be. Another thought that came to mind late in the reading was that Hourani is not giving us names. Okay, he certainly does not leave them out. But no one seems to be doing anything. We get extended passages of "and then the (insert European country here) made a deal with the forces of (whatever) and later their influence decreased. By then events in country (fill in here) had proceeded to the point that..." and so on. The earlier chapters are similar, but even drier, as Hourani discusses theological movements and such, casually throwing around words and phrases that even if we've read them, could stand to be reviewed. It's confusing, boring, and took forever to reach the later chapters. It doesn't have to be this way (see my review of Hitti's History of the Arabs for an example of how a long and detailed survey book should be written).

Besides everything else, the book is choppy and I have to question its basic honesty in at least some areas. An example of the first point: Muhammad - obviously an indispensable figure in any Arab history survey - is dead and gone by page 21 (and the book starts on page 7). Fortunately there are any number of retellings of Muhammad mythology, but this is really rushing things. What else was glossed over? Actually, quite a bit, which leads me into my second point. Although Hourani has not written an overly political text, he had not disguised his emotions very well. One would be hard pressed to find anything critical about Islam or Arabs here. He describes Muhammad al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement that reigns today in Saudi Arabia, as just a religious reformer. The only 'reforms' he can think of to mention are ceasing the reverence given to dead saints and to certain Sufi ceremonies. The extreme brutality of that order somehow gets overlooked. Although the timeline extends at least to the end of the Iran Iraq war, Hourani never even mentions terrorism. I know many people think terrorism is only the work of a tiny number of Muslims, but to read Hourani one would think it doesn't even exist. And as far as Israel goes, I won't even go into it. Actually, he does keep a fairly tight lid on his opinions here, but some slip out indirectly. For instance, after the founding of Israel, many Jews in Arab countries emigrated there, in many cases leaving no Jews in their old communities. Somehow Hourani never mentions that they were forced to leave. In a similar manner, attacks on U.S. marines led to a pullout from Lebanon. But what kind of attacks? A massive suicide bombing, perhaps? You'd never know it from reading Hourani. The more recent the chapter, the worse it gets.

In short, you can do better than to read this. There are plenty of good books out there that are any of the following: longer (or shorter if you prefer), more accurate, more readable, livelier, more detailed, more honest, less opinionated (or more, if you prefer, and more upfront about it), and just plain better. I was personally hoping for better, but I'm going to just have to keep on looking.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, Reasoned, Well-Designed.
Review: As many of the other reviewers have noted, Hourani's book is comprehensive in scope. Some reviewers have called it "dry as the desert." I disagree somewhat. I found Hourani's writing style smooth and comprehendible. In the end, the extensive supporting detail he provides is what tired me out. For example, in chapter 26 he wrote about the renewal of heritage in 20th century and the various forms it took in the literary world. He then goes on to give four pages of detail about various writers. So you can expect lots of supporting detail and examples. At times I found myself quickly glossing over those details of no interest to me. On the other hand, like some other reviewers, I wish the book had more depth on a few topics that interested me (early life of Muhammad, origins and nature of Sufism, Palestine/Israel issues, etc.). However, these kinds of gripes are probably to be expected, since the editorial choices and cuts of such a broad topic are so difficult to make.

The book is also very well designed. It includes an index of terms like "hadith" and "mahdi", an extensive bibliography, notes, a general index, genealogical trees, lists of dynasties, 39 BW photographs, and most importantly -- plenty of maps.

Finally, the treatment and discussion of Israel seemed dispassionate and concise.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and learned a great deal.

Rating:
Summary: Not much history here
Review: Hourani provides a great deal of cultural, societal, and economic information; but does not present a time and event based history. The author suggests that his history provides knowledge from the "insider's" point of view. That may be true; but the view is accompanied with a sense of vertigo - something is not quite right. This is not a useful book for those seeking information about historical events. I recommend Sir John Glubb's "A Short History of the Arab Peoples".

Rating:
Summary: Good book for acquiring a background of the Middle East
Review: Hourani provides an excellent background of the history, culture and society of the Arab peoples. He succesfully combines these to provide the reader with a formidable picture of the life of of the peoples of the Middle Eastern and Maghrib Region during various periods in history, giving an excellent synopsis of how their history led up to the current events and problems of the region. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in studying this region, its people and its culture, as well as Islam more closely, as well as for those who are interested in understanding present day Arabia better

Rating:
Summary: Detailed and scholarly
Review: Hourani's book is not light reading because of its rich details and incredible depth and breadth. In it, the history of the Middle East from pre-Islamic times to the present is chronicled - the majority of the book covering the Islamic world.

To one previously only briefly familiar with the area, the book was a little overwhelming. The information came fast and furious; fortunately the book was well written and read easily. Much of it deals not with political history, but rather with broader social themes: rural life compared to urban life, the common man compared to the educated elite, women and their role in Islamic society.

The only issue I had with this otherwise wonderful book was its lack of explaination of the various legal philosophies. (I am still puzzled between the differences of Hanafi, Maliki and Shaf'i interpretations of shari'a - Islamic law.) The fact that this is such a minor point given the scope of the book is testament to its otherwise fabulous nature.

Rating:
Summary: Hourani Did It!
Review: Hourani's work on the Arab peoples is masterful. It is much deserving of its greater critical praise and many awards! Don't let other reviews full you. Hourani's work is considered one of if not the best histories of the Arab peoples. It is easy to read and can be enjoyed by beginners and even Middle East specialists. It gives a helpful understanding from the past of why things in the Middle East are the way they are today..

Rating:
Summary: Dry as the desert
Review: I don't mean to say this is a bad book, but if you like history to be about the interaction of personalities and events, as I do, this book isn't for you. Reading it was a very long slog that finally picked up in the last 100 pages or so when we got to the post-WWII era. I read this book, which had been on my shelf for a long time, because I saw in the NY Times that Bin Laden and many other radical Arabs are obsessed by their history. Unfortunately, this book did not help me understand that history, and I learned more in the 3 hour PBS "Islam" special the other night than in a month of reading this.

One other complaint: the book could have really used a glossary. There is an index of Arabic terms, but it is irritating to have to search through a page of text to try to glean a definition--that may or may not be buried in the referenced passage.