The result of a life time's study, it concisely encapsulates the last millenium or so of Arab history in the Middle East. It's a great introduction and also contains a few useful lists. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1048242.ht...

It's an interesting survey - I have been reading a bit about the origins of Islam (both Rogerson's books and this piece by Patricia Crone) but Hourani's book starts from there and takes the narrative up to the late 80s. (The 2002 afterword, by someone else, suffers from not saying enough about Iraq.)

What I most liked about the book was the emphasis on social and economic as well as political history - and that is a big admission for me, because normally I only like the political history bits. Hourani modestly claims that in this he is following the example of the great Ibn Khaldūn, but I'm sure he brings an extra six centuries of historiography to bear as well (I am sorry to say that I have read only extracts of Ibn Khaldūn; I see the Muqaddimah is on-line here though.) By concentrating on philosophy and culture he makes a good implicit case that currents of Islamic thought had a greater direct impact on local politics than perhaps the equivalents for Christianity.

Which links neatly to my only grounds of dissatisfaction with the book; which are (rather unreasonably of me, since he covers a pretty large chunk of the world) that it doesn't look widely enough. Iran and Persia are barely mentioned; likewise India, the Balkans and Cyprus, all of which are important interfaces between Islam and other faiths. Turkey proper, because of the longevity of the Ottoman Empire, gets a bit more coverage, as does Al-Andalus, but sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia, Central Asia and Afghanistan are basically invisible. OK, the book is technically about Arabs rather than Muslims, but it concentrates so much on Islam (and correspondingly less on Arab Christians, except in Lebanon) that I felt the non-Arab Muslims got rather short shrift.

Anyway, well worth reading. ( )

An expert exposition on the history of the Middle-East. While it is not about Islam per se, Islam was the catalyst which unified the previously tribal people of the Arabian Peninsula and galvanized their rise to become a player on the world stage. Thus Islam plays a predominant role in the book, and it is a good resource for an understanding of many modern Islamic issues. He also explores in depth the era of European imperialism and its impact on modern Arabian social movements. The writing strikes a nice balance; a scholarly work, it is still not forbidding for a non-academic reader. ( )

Tenth century dynastic succession is just not my cup of tea, I guess, so I quickly got lost and disinterested, but a friend who has actually studied Islamic history says this is an excellent survey book, so I'll take her word for it.

Desde a Segunda Guerra Mundial, os povos árabes estão no centro das questões mais turbulentas de nossa época. No entanto, sabemos muito pouco deles e de sua história. É esta lacuna que Albert Hourani, durante décadas professor em Oxford, vem sanar, apresentando de forma clara e suscinta um enorme volume de informações. Partindo do aparecimento do Islã, no século VII, até a recente reafirmação da identidade islâmica e disseminação dos grupos fundamentalistas, Hourani proporciona uma rara e equilibrada visão de todos os aspectos da história das sociedades árabes. Tudo isso sem deixar de fazer um exame completo das instituições sociais, da literatura e outras formas artísticas, da situação da mulher, dos deslocamentos demográficos e da multiplicidade de movimentos religiosos e intelectuais.

A solid, readable, informative book. It encompasses the history of the Arabs and Islam in the middle east and does not include the history of Islam in other regions such as Indonesia or non-Arab Muslims such as those who live in modern day Iran and Pakistan.

The book does not focus on "Great Men" and instead describes demographic, economical, ideological and other processes. For example, Suleyman the Magnificent and Salah ad-Din are mentioned only fleetingly.

To people who are not familiar with the basics of Arab history, I would recommend reading up on it on wikipedia before starting with this book, since the writer tends to assume that the reader is familiar with it and almost skips the major events. For example, the Sunni-Shia split is described in a few sentences and can be easily missed leaving the reader confused for the rest of the book. ( )

Hourani usefully pulls together the varied strands of Arab / Muslim history filling in (for me) hazy gaps. There's some pre 7th century scene setting, but it mostly covers the period from the first arab conquests to the present day in a careful even handed way. Overall it's an interesting book about a loose but real cultural/religious identity. ( )

A history of the Arab peoples. El autor, Hourani, es un estudioso del mundo árabe y de Oriente. El pensador Edward Said considera que es una obra libre de prejuicios.