The Arabs: A History [Paperback]

In one of the many programmes about the decision to go to war with Iraq there was an interview with a middle east policy expert who was called upon to advise Tony Blair. He explained Iraq's history, emphasising the historical differences between Sunni, Shiite and Kurds and was taken aback when Blair replied, "But he's evil isn't he?" The comment reminded me of the 1956 Suez Affair when Anthony Eden misread President Nasser's intentions by portraying him as a postwar Hitler. Both errors of judgement support Eugene Rogan's observation that, "Western policymakers and intellectuals need to pay far more attention to history if they hope to remedy the ills that afflict the Arab World today."

Samir Kassir, a Lebanese author and journalist, suggested Arabs view the history of the first five centuries after the emergence of Islam with pride. Islamists, in particular, use the international dominance by Arabs at that time as proof that "Arabs were greatest when they adhered most closely to their Muslim faith". While this view may represent an idealised picture of the past it is apparent that Arabs have long since discounted Western claims of liberating them from oppression. Rogan traces centuries of resentment against foreign domination in a broad sweep of Arab nations, which by it very nature, has to be selective. However, by concentrating on political and military history, he identifies the main sources of Arab discontent in the region.

Rogan starts with the Ottoman conquest in 1516 and provides a fascinating history of personalities, conflicts and internal divisions which characterised the Arabs under Ottoman rule. It's a history with which many Britons are unfamiliar. Although the colonial administrations of the nineteenth century laid the foundations for nationalism, the crucial turning point came with the creation of Arab States in the aftermath of World War 1. France and Britain established control and influence over various new States. As a result Arabs became a community of nations rather than a national community. This focused anti-colonialism into nationalist movements at the expense of a broader Pan-Arab political movement. Rogan provides separate chapters on French and British rule and explanations of the rise and fall of Arab nationalism all of which are integral to an understanding of the region.

In 1948 the foundation of the State of Israel provided a common enemy against whom all Arabs could unite. While Britain had opined the creation of a national home in Palestine for Jews would not be at the expense of Arabs living there, they could not provide guarantees. Rogan paints a picture of the determination of successive Israeli leaders to expand their borders each time Arab nations were beaten on the battlefield. It's easy to see why Arabs depict Israel as an aggressor in wars which were actually started by Arabs. At either side of the secular debate extremists lurk ready to assassinate leaders in the name of religion. Failure to reach a political accommodation, fueled by fear and racial hatred, remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict. In that respect Rogan does an excellent job in reminding us of the importance of events which may be history to us but are ever present obstacles to a lasting settlement. Although Rogan occasionally allows opinion to interrupt facts, by and large he lets the evidence speak for itself.

Rogan suggests that while Arabs have "a common identity grounded in language and history, (they) are all the more fascinating for their diversity". What comes out of this work is a recognition that whatever their common identity and history may be it resonates at grass roots level rather than within the ruling elites who control States in their own interest. Radical Islamists are as repulsed as much by corrupt Arab regimes as they are by Western interference. Rogan has written an excellent introduction for anyone interested in understanding how Arabs view their past, see their present and think of their future. It is impossible to finish the book and not feel better informed as a result. Although Rogan's treatment of the most recent history tends to be rushed and, possibly because the book tries to cover so much ground, there are times when reading it is heavy going, it deserves five stars as a starting point for anyone interested in the Arab World.

Provided that you want to understand the historical background for the current political situation in the Middle East and Arab world, this book is a very good choice. I have read it following the Arab spring, as it has provided me with very valuable background information and source of questions. There has been several uprisings in Egypt. What makes this one different? Excluding Libya, the countries where we have witnessed revelutions are poor, agriculture economies with a lïmited military backing from the geopolitical players. Why? Rogan can give you an introduction to why they are poor and how they have ended up with limited backing.

Because Rogan has written a book about the political situation in the Middle East and not really a history about the Arabs, it is a mistake to include so little about Iran. What is included is some basic info about Iran's role of the Islamic revial in the Arabilc world from the 80s and the negative impacts that the USs terrible mistakes with its relations to Iran has had to the whole Region. Both of them could be covered in more depth. The important role that Iran plays in Syria also needs to be covered. Turkey is another important country in any book about the current political situation in ehe Middle East. On the other hand the Ottoman period has a rather limited importance to understand the current political situation, more than 100 pages about the subject is hardly necessary. The book would become even better with a more throughout coverage of Saudi-Arabia. And what happened to the Chapter about the Kurds? Ok, the Kurds, Iranians and Turks are not Arabs, but the Israelis is not either...

Some comments to the other reviews about this book. Those who claim this is a book about the historical background for the current situation in The Middle East and the Arab world and not a book about the Arabs is in essence right. It is neither true that 1/3 of the book is about the Israel-Palestina conflict or that Rogan has any Anti-Israeli agenda.

Eugene Rogan's magisterial, though idiosyncratically selective, "The Arabs: A History" is a dense but worthwhile and illuminating read.

Rogan, who spent his childhood in Beirut and Cairo, teaches at Oxford and is Director of the University's Middle East Centre. He is a former student of Albert Hourani, whose seminal "History of the Arab Peoples," published in 1993, this book successfully complements.

"The Arabs" is densely packed with facts and dates. It is a plum pudding of a book rather than a crème brulee; it took me about fifty percent longer to read than most books of comparable length. It is not, however, in any way tedious. The narrative has strong forward momentum and is organized (unlike Churchill's celebrated Savoy pudding) around clear themes. While Rogan writes with a deadpan seriousness, he also enlivens his history with anecdotes (such as the story of the exasperated Algerian Pasha who could not resist striking the French Consul with his fly switch during a heated debate in 1827) and with quotations from contemporary diaries and memoirs. We thus hear directly from the likes of Budhari al Hallaq, an eighteenth century Damascus barber, Rifa'a al-Taktawi, an Egyptian imam who visited Paris in the early nineteenth century and was appalled to observe that "men are slaves to women here...whether they are pretty or not," and Leila Khaled, a female Palestinian terrorist of the late 1960s.

Rogan begins his history in 1516 (the first example of his selectiveness), with the Ottoman conquest. He then divides Arab history into several phases: the Ottoman reign, the period of Western Colonial intervention, Arab Nationalism, the Cold War, the Rise of Oil, the emergence of Islamism, and the War on Terror. For the Arabs, Rogan observes, history has been one continuous "cycle of subordination to other people's rules." The colonial powers' carve-up of the Arab map into ill-fitting states (especially the Jewish one) has had lasting consequences that will be difficult to untangle. This is his main theme, though he does recognize that "corrupt and authoritarian" indigenous regimes also play a role and that at some point Arabs need to assume greater responsibility for their own destiny if they are to overcome what Samir Kassir, the murdered Lebanese journalist, diagnosed as the "Arab malaise."

Rogan is not merely selective in the period that he chooses to cover (two thirds of his book focuses on the twentieth century), he also dwells almost entirely on political and military history. There is little sociological exposition of who the "Arabs" are - what, for example, other than Islam and language, have Algerians in common with Syrians; there is little discussion of Arab society, the schism between Sunni and Shia, or indeed the nature of the tribal loyalties that we have witnessed in the recent conflicts in Iraq. The coverage of Saudi Arabia - surely a major factor not only in the region but in the world - is quite perfunctory as is that of Iran, which while not an Arab nation, is a major player - as much as some of the despised Western powers - in the region' s military and political balance and also demonstrates a prototype of the type of Islamic State which would likely appear, as Rogan asserts, if free and fair elections were held today. He does not extrapolate either on how his adverse cycle might be extended by the putative (or Putinative) resurgence of Russia, the emerging geopolitical projection of China, or even, possibly, of Turkey which is slowly re-engaging on the scene.

Does Rogan have an axe to grind? A critical examiner might argue that the tone of disapproval he applies to Israel and the United States (at least pre-Obama) is stronger than that which he directs at Arab strongmen and Palestinian terrorists (or "fighters" as he generally calls them), or that his distaste for British and French colonialism stands in contrast to his mild nostalgia for the Ottoman empire, but this is surely no partisan polemic. Rogan's book is strongly fact-based, and he provides the reader with ample material and perspective from which to form his or her own judgment. It is part of his mission to explain the Arab point of view and he does this while upholding his professional objectivity.

If Rogan strikes any wrong note, it is surely in his conclusion. He claims to see grounds for hope, the "very beginnings of a virtuous circle." This optimism is hardly supported by his portrait of precarious authoritarian regimes holding down the lid on latent Islamist takeovers, with outside powers continuing to toss banana skins into the mix and the Arabs themselves still subject to a sort of Al Sod's law in their own efforts (witness the disaster of Dubai World). Nor is it consistent with his comment in his Introduction (admittedly some 500 pages previously) that "the Arab World views the future with growing pessimism." This is especially true if one defines the goal, as Rogan does in his Epilogue, as "human rights and accountable government, security and economic growth." Ha!