The Arabs In History - Softcover

Review from previous edition clear, fascinating and valuable (The Guardian)

stimulating ... The continuous regard paid to the development of trade and economy deserves partucular praise. (History)

Professor Lewis has admirably achieved his object, notably bringing out broad economic trends (International Affairs)

He writes concisely and clearly, ... a useful account of the challenges and crises both faced and precipitated by the Arabs in their long history. (Veronica Sen, Canberra Times)

... enormously influential history ... after reading 'Gibbon on Muhammad', it is tempting to speculate that Lewis's long-standing interest in the eighteenth-century historian may have influenced his own ambition to scan grand horizons, his taste for irony and his unmistakably elegant literary style. (Robert Irwin, Middle Eastern Studies)

`Whoever lives in our country, speaks our language, is brought up in our culture and takes pride in our glory is one of us.' Thus ran a declaration of modern leaders of Arab states. But what exactly is an Arab, and what has been their place in the course of human history?

In this well-established classic, Professor Lewis examines the key issues of Arab development - their identity, the national revival which cemented the creation of the Islamic state, and the social and economic pressures that destroyed the Arab kingdom and created the Islamic empire. He analyses the forces which contributed to that empire's eventual decline, and the effects of growing Western influence. Today, with the Arab world facing profound social and political challenges, it constitutes an essential introduction to the Arabs and their history.