Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923 [Paperback]

A readable, scholarly re-examination of a long and complicated Middle Eastern history...The Karshes provide useful historical backgrounds to the emergence of independent countries in Egypt, Greece, the Balkans and former Danube principalities like Serbia and Romania. But the main purpose of this very detailed and broad-shouldered history is to revise many of the standard interpretations that have been given to Middle Eastern history over the last two centuries. Most generally the Karshes dispute the idea that the main events and developments in the region stem from the machinations of the great powers, especially Britain and France. The 'main impetus behind regional developments,' they write, was 'the local actors'...The authors write clearly and authoritatively and with great geographical sweep. They provide crisp and informed accounts of the main events involving the Ottomans and the rest of the world...Those who do not know much of these events will learn a great deal from this book, while specialists with views differing from the Karshes' will face a robust challenge to their interpretations. -- Richard Bernstein New York Times A provocative new history of the Middle East that in important respects is different from any one had read before...The Ottomans were around for a thousand years, the European portion of their empire for about half of that time. That the ramifications are still with us--so soon afterwards in the long view--should not surprise. The Karshes' important book throws new, in places probing, light on many of those ramifications. -- Colin Walters Washington Times Contrary to the supposition, popular with historians from the East and the West, that the Ottoman Empire was slowly bled to death by the great powers of Europe who later fed upon its imperial remains, Efraim and Inari Karsh argue that the great powers repeatedly bolstered the toppling empire, that the Ottomans played a considerable part in their own demise, and that 'the main impetus for the developments of this momentous period came from the local actors'...All in all, the Karshes make a strong case that 'greed rather than necessity drove the Ottoman Empire into the First World War.' -- Charles M. Stang Boston Book Review In a tour de force that offers a profoundly new understanding of a key issue in modern Middle Eastern history, Efraim and Inari Karsh review the relations between Europe and the Ottoman empire in the final century-and-a-half of the latter's existence, and in the process nearly reverse the standard historical interpretation...Drawing on a wide range of original sources, and writing in a clearly organized fashion and in fast-paced prose, the Karshes make a very compelling case for their revisionist position, establishing it point by point and in elegant detail...In all, I can hardly remember last reading so important and daring a reinterpretation of Middle Eastern history, or one so laden with implications. -- Daniel Pipes Commentary According to most accounts, the British sold dreams of Arab unity and sovereignty down the river with the Sykes-Picot Agreement. But in their revisionist history The Empires of the Sand, Efraim Karsh and Inari Karsh argue that this tale of betrayal and Western culpability is itself a mirage...Efraim and Inari Karsh will not escape the cloud of controversy that surrounds them with this new history...Whatever the historical record yields on [their] points, one thing is clear: Pan-Arabism, despite its decline as an active political agenda in the region, remains a live wire. Karsh and Karsh, with their blunt contention that the allies 'generously rewarded' the Hashemites 'in the form of vast territories several times the size of the British Isles,' are likely to spark a maelstrom of debate. -- Anna Secor Lingua Franca A complex and challenging revision of Middle Eastern political history. -- Anthony Sattin Sunday Times This is a fascinating book. -- Geoffrey Wheatcroft Sunday Telegraph In this striking reinterpretation of the modern history of the Middle East, the authors discard the traditional view of Middle Eastern rulers and peoples as passive, near helpless victims of Western imperialist machinations. Rather, they convincingly portray both Ottoman and Arab leaders as active players in the game of power politics...The authors have superbly integrated an interesting cast of characters with broad historical forces. The result is an original and provocative reexamination of the recent history of this vital region. -- Jay Freeman Booklist The authors assault the prevailing wisdom that the decline of the [Ottoman Empire] was inevitable; they claim, rather, that it resulted from a series of poor choices made by its leaders. This approach is both provocative and productive, as the authors, relying on an impressive array of archival and secondary sources, demonstrate how the Ottoman leaders sealed their own fate--their decision to play cat-and-mouse with both sides during WWI was only the final error in a series of blunders. Publishers Weekly [The Karshes'] ambitious aim in Empires of the Sand is threefold. Firstly, they want to show that the Ottomans, even in decline, were far from helpless, and used their diplomatic wiles with some success in a rearguard action...Secondly, the authors maintain that after the First World War, the boundaries of the new nation states were determined not by popular demand of the inhabitants, but by the ambitions of the local potentates. Finally, the Karshes blame Ottoman imperialism itself for its downfall, and discount the effects of the spread of European nationalist doctrines...The Karshes make their case well, and their analysis of the events leading to Turkey's entry into the war is thorough and convincing...Empires of the Sand is an excellent and stimulating work that deserves a readership beyond the world of the professional historian. The Karshes have suggested interesting answers to hard questions, and are worthy of thanks. -- Ralph Ameian The Jerusalem Post 20000825 The chief goal of the authors of Empires of the Sand is to explain the volatility of the twentieth-century Middle East in terms of its origins in the nineteenth century In seeking to do so, they have presented a carefully-researched and well-written work. -- William Ochsenwald MESA Bulletin

Empires of the Sand offers a bold and comprehensive reinterpretation of the struggle for mastery in the Middle East during the long nineteenth century. Backed by a wealth of archival sources, the authors refute the standard belief that Europe was responsible for the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and the region's political unity. Instead, they argue that the main impetus for the developments of this momentous period came from the local actors. Efraim Karsh and Inari Karsh see not a "clash of civilizations" but a pattern of pragmatic cooperation and conflict between the Middle East and the West during the past two centuries. Such a vision affords daringly new ways of viewing the Middle East's past as well as its volatile present.