A history of the Arab peoples

In a bestselling work of profound and lasting importance, the lateAlbert Hourani told the definitive history of the Arab peoples from theseventh century, when the new religion of Islam began to spread fromthe Arabian peninsula westwards, to the present day. It is a masterlydistillation of a lifetime of scholarship and a unique insight into aperpetually troubled region.This updated edition by MaliseRuthven adds a substantial new chapter which includes recent events suchas 9/11, the US invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath, the fall ofthe Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and the incipientcivil war in Syria, bringing Hourani’s magisterial history up to date. Ruthvensuggests that while Hourani can hardly have been expected to predict indetail the massive upheavals that have shaken the Arab world recentlyhe would not have been entirely surprised, given the persistence of thekin-patronage networks he describes in his book and the challenges nowposed to them by a new media-aware generation of dissatisfied youth.Ina new biographical preface, Malise Ruthven shows how Hourani’sperspectives on Arab history were shaped by his unique background as anEnglish-born Arab Christian with roots in the Levant.