A History Of The Arab Peoples - Hardcover

Hourani, Albert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571133789 ISBN 13: 9780571133789

Publisher: MJF Books, 1991

Synopsis

Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award

Despite the turmoil of Arab nationalism and fundamentalism, Middle Eastern wars, and oil crises, the history of the Arab world has been little known and poorly understood in the West. One reason may be that, for more than half a century, there has been no up-to-date single-volume work that chronicles the story of Arab civilization--until now.

Albert Hourani, distinguished historian and interpreter, has written a masterwork, a panoramic view encompassing twelve centuries of Arab history and culture. He looks at all sides of this rich and venerable civilization, including the beauty of the Alhambra and the great mosques, the importance attached to education, the achievements of Arab science--but also internal conflicts, wide-spread poverty, the role of women, and the contemporary Palestinian question.

About this title

About the Author

ALBERT HOURANI (1915-1993) was elected a Fellow of Magdalen and appointed Lecturer (later Reader) in the Modern History of the Middle East at Oxford in 1948. From 1958 until 1971 he was director of the Middle East Centre.

Review

''The wonderful Nadia May is her wondrous best in this outstanding production of Hourani's expansive history of Arab culture, history, and religion. The text is a curative to the general Western ignorance of Islam, its long and troubled history with Western nations and with Christianity and Judaism, and its sense of mission--cultural, historical, and religious--in challenging the West. It is in one volume an entry, like the storybooks of childhood, into a strange and miraculous realm. For all of this, May is the ideal reader. Her unfailing command of pace, nuance, and textual value has an authority that matches Hourani's own, and listening to this vast reconstruction, which stretches from ancient times into our own, is like hearing History's own voice, ageless and omniscient, high above the fray. As in her transcendent narrations of works by Barbara Tuchman, May validates here the claim of the audiobook not just to stand shoulder to shoulder with the text--but like theater or film--to stand apart as a unique genre and interpretation. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.'' --AudioFile

''This is a brilliant book, perhaps a landmark. It radiates the penetrating light of Albert Hourani's massive erudition upon what he calls the 'deeply disturbed societies' of the Arab world . . . Hourani is able to explain, concisely, matters of surpassing difficulty which must be understood in order to make sense of contemporary events . . . [A] rich and often gripping book.'' -- Washington Post Book World

''There is something deeply reassuring and even redemptive about this very fine book . . . It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this book for this time. Here at last is a genuinely readable, genuinely responsive history of the Arabs . . . [Hourani] completely controls the best in modern as well as traditional Western scholarship and often lets the Arabs, their poets, historians, sages and ordinary people speak along with, rather than against, that learning.'' -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

''A masterly summation . . . It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this book.'' -- Chicago Sun-Times

''A joy to read . . . Quite simply, the best general history of the Arab world a reader can buy.'' -- Boston Globe

''This book by one of the most distinguished scholars of the Arab world and the Middle East is a splendid achievement that can be read with profit by rank beginners and jaded specialists. It is, moreover, written with the grace and wisdom that those who know Mr. Hourani's works have come to expect . . .This is history in the grand style. It can lead to a better understanding of the Arabs, past and present.'' --New York Times Book Review

''[An] elegantly written study . . . [Hourani] delivers a grand story in a deceptively quiet and gentle tone of voice; a vision of the great journey of the Arab peoples.'' -- Times Literary Supplement

''Mr. Hourani is one of the few scholars capable of writing a worthwhile history of the Arabs . . . He covers not only political history but culture, society, economy, and thought; and this distillation of a lifetime's scholarship is the book's greatest virtue.'' -- Economist

''Written by a master historian, this work is now the definitive study of the Arab peoples.'' -- Library Journal

''[An] incomparable masterpiece of historical research and writing . . . Nadia May, and her melodious voice, compliments Hourain's writing style. In addition, her tongue effortlessly slides over the Arabic transliterations and names that dot this momentous book.'' --Large Print Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: MJF Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0571133789
• ISBN 13: 9780571133789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 551