Analyses the political and socio economic processes that led to the rise and fall of the UAR, as well as the ramifications of this episode on the Arab world. This book tells the story of this important, yet neglected, episode in Arab history. It is based on the archiveal material located in the US, Britain, Canada, Israel, and sources in Arabic.
Arab Unity and Disunity emphasizes the significance of the historical perspective in arriving at accurate generalizations concerning the present social, economic, and political factors affecting the movement toward unity of the Arab states. Topics discussed in the book include Arab unity and disunity before, during and after Mohammed's time, the prime movers behind the Arab national movement after World War I, and the West's betrayal of the Arab cause. The book also analyzes the reasons for the inability of the Arabs to replace their local and narrow asabiyahs (solidarity, unity) with the wider, more comprehensive, Arab unity.
During the 1980s, Islamic activists in the Arab Middle East have challenged the definition of "legitimate authority" and provided the means and rationale for revolutionary change, hoping to pressure established governments to alter domestic and foreign policies. No nation-state has been immune. Fearful Arab nationalist leaders, unwilling or unable to abandon decades of ideological baggage, have begun a gradual, if erratic, process of melding the spirit and letter of Islamic precepts into existing national laws and political rhetoric. Whether it is adequate to the challenge, the state nevertheless bears the onus of accommodation, because Islam and Arabism will not soon disappear. They will assume new form and substance in the changing realities of the region. Dilemmas inherent to this century and the gauntlet delivered to hitherto unquestioned political caveats will continue to exacerbate the competition between Islam and Arabism, their quest for political platforms and supporters, and the credibility of all other claimants, including the state. Visions of the future, especially when they are sacred and apocalyptic, can never be entirely freed of historical, emotive baggage. Even if Islamic political activism and pan-Arabism diminish in their intensity, they will endure as subtle, formative forces in all aspects of life. Indigenous inhabitants are fully aware that these influences have profound resonance in their lives. At the same time, these forces act like invisible sentinels in the mind, standing ready to cast a long shadow as unconscious motivators of political behavior. Sections are as follows: Declaration of Crisis; Pluralism: Minorities in the Arab World; Stateless Nations and Nationless States: Twentieth Century Disunity; Search for Unity: An Arab Sunni Core; Arabs and Non-Arabs: The Myth of Equality; Fatal Wounds: Universal Islam Takes the Offensive; and The State: Visionary Futures.
British attitudes towards Arab unity have frequently been a source of controversy in the Middle East. From the Treaty of Versailles to the end of World War II, and the withdrawal of Mandates from the region, British involvement in Arab affairs has been well-documented from the British perspective. But here, Younan Labib Rizk provides a coherent Arab perspective. His analysis reveals not only how British government policy developed in this period but also the different influences on policy-making and implementation – from the changing situation on the ground to the state of Anglo-French relations and the concerns of the Cairo and India offices. He shows how all these factors coincided to produce a policy, repeated across several British administrations, which was consistently hostile towards the notion of Arab unity. While this conforms to traditional Arab views of British policy in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, the importance of Rizk's work lies in his extensive and meticulous research into British archives, through which he documents British attitudes and motivations. As he quotes the internal correspondence between departments and individual officials in the Foreign Office and its Eastern Department, the Colonial Office and several British Cabinets, Rizk shows that divisions within the Arab world – of which there were plenty – were initially exacerbated by British officials, and eventually acquired their own dynamic. This book enhances our understanding of how the international politics of the region evolved during a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East.
A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstone This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia. Mackintosh-Smith reveals how linguistic developments--from pre-Islamic poetry to the growth of script, Muhammad's use of writing, and the later problems of printing Arabic--have helped and hindered the progress of Arab history, and investigates how, even in today's politically fractured post-Arab Spring environment, Arabic itself is still a source of unity and disunity.
Ths book is one of the most important to explore the formation of Islamic thought and civilisation. William Montgomery Watt made an outstanding contribution to Islamic scholarship.
The fourteen original essays in this volume explore the psychological, political, and cultural bases of Arab nationalism since World War I and are arranged around broad themes of study: academic constructions of nationalist history, nationalist presentations of Arab histories, conflict among competing nationalist visions, and more.
Chronicles the history of Arab civilization, looking at the beauty of the great mosques, the importance attached to education, the achievements of Arab science, the role of women, internal conflicts, and the Palestinian question.
