Author: Bernard Lewis
Publisher: Goodword Books
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187570598
Description
This work seeks to isolate and examine certain basic issues - the place of the Arabs in human history, their identity, their achievements, and the salient characteristics of the several ages of their development.
What is an Arab? Ethnic terms are notoriously difficult to define, and Arab is not among the easiest. One possible definition may be set aside at once. The Arabs may be a nation; they are not as yet a nationality in the legal sense. A man who calls himself an Arab may be described in his passport as of Syrian of Lebanese, Jordanian or Egyptian, Iraqi or Saudi-Arabian nationality, but not Arab. There are Arab states, and indeed a League of Arab states, but as yet no single Arab State, of which all Arabs are nationals.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
I Arabia Before Islam
II Muhammad and the Rise of Islam
III The Age of the Conquests
IV The Arab Kingdom
V The Islamic Empire
VI The Revolt of Islam
VII The Arabs in Europe
VIII Islamic Civilization
IX The Arabs in Eclipse
X The Impact of the West
Bibliography
Index