The Arabs: A History

Short and quick: I'm an armchair historian, with a focus on American history. I am 57 years old. The "Middle East" has been "background noise" (please, I am not minimizing anything here) my entire life--noise, because I had no understanding about why anything that was happening there was happening. I knew the Ottoman Empire had existed. I knew that Britain and France had established colonial regimes across North Africa and through the Middle East. I knew about Zionism and the establishment of Israel. I knew vaguely about Nasser, the B'ath Party, that there'd been a "United Arab Republic" that strangely joined Egypt and Syria. I knew about terrorism and the wars and the calamities. But it was all noise because it made no sense to me because I didn't know the history of the Arab peoples. Well, now I know their history, at least as well as one can learn it from a 500 page book, and it's no longer "noise." I have some basic sense for why what has happened did and why what is happening now does. This book is essential reading (I paired it with Laquer's magisterial "A History of Zionism" to get a fuller knowledge base) for anyone who wants the "noise" to make some sense. Rogan writes thoughtfully and easily. His chapter on the rise of Arab nationalism in the years after Nasser's revolution in Egypt is a tour de force. His explication of the rotten legacy of imperialism and the insanity of the Cold War as it played out in the Middle East is compelling/ Some of the book is difficult reading: the Israelis have never claimed to be saints and his chapter on Palestine, the British Mandate and the Partition will not go down well with many people. But nothing in the Middle East goes down well and the book, overall, is a balanced, articulate and well-written history of the ARAB peoples, from the ARAB peoples' perspective. Read this book.

I learned from Rogan's sympathetic and well-written history political history of the Arabs, and I am glad to recommend it --- but with one small and one more serious reservation. This is a fine historical survey that emphasizes the political organization and dimension of what we now consider "Arab" nations, commencing in roughly 1500 CE up to the present. This is not a history of Arab tribes, of the foundations or development of Islam, or of Arab culture more generally, either contemporary or historical. But what it does, it does very well. Rogan manages the challenge of providing a scholarly account, including much that is original (at least to this non-specialist), while writing in a consistently interesting and readable style --- no small thing. The book's particular strength, I think, is Rogan's detailed telling of the story from an Arab perspective, drawing from a wide range of Arab sources and with what one reviewer called many "lively vignettes" well-chosen for the light they shed. Perhaps inevitably, this strength is also the source of an arguable weakness, in as much as the strong focus on the Arab perspective at times overstates that view and produces a less-than-balanced picture, especially of more recent history. Although this makes the book less satisfactory as a general history of the region, it seems to me mostly a reasonable trade-off for the benefit gained, and Rogan provides a perspective that I learned from and that many readers will appreciate. My more serious reservation, and I view it as a real defect in Rogan's historical account, is the almost comprehensive neglect of the political implications (as well as reglious and cultural) of the conflict among Sunni, Shiite and other elements of Islam. Granted that this is an avowedly "political" history, not a theological history, the near-exclusion of this dimension is baffling. It is rather as if one wrote a history of Western Europe between 1500-1800 that mostly ignored the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and the Catholic/Protestant conflict flowing from these differences, which while reglious in their foundation, but were profoundly political in their consequence. The exclusion of this dimension in Rogan's treatment is so complete that one presumes it is the result of a considered decision by the author. I decline to speculate on the rationale, but it is much to be regretted. Despite the serious reservation expressed above, I repeat my recommendation: This is both serious scholarly history and a compelling read. I think most readers will benefit from and enjoy Rogan's book.

A well written book that used chronicles of Middle Eastern writers rather than western academics to bring a new perspective to Arab history. Nicely accomplished. A bit light on Saudi Arabia but other players given good, long historical explanations.

This is an excellent book to start understanding the high complexities of the Arab world. So many lives lost, so much pain and so much fighting. This book makes you wonder what our truly nature is as humans.

First, I met the author at an Oxford conference last year and was impressed by his knowledge of Arabs and the Middle East. Also his sense of humor. So when I saw his book listed, I promptly bought it. I'm still in the midst of reading it. But it is everything I expected. A readable history of the Arabs and the Muslim influences. Certainly, more up to date than Anthony Nutting's work of forty years ago and a companion to Mark Allen's Arabs. Starting in pre-Islamic days, through the Ottomans, the French and the Brits, and now into today's political scene, he thoroughly covers the Arab efforts to achieve self esteem. Well written; well researched. Highly recommended.

Mr. Rogan has written a masterful account of the turmoil that has existed in the Middle East for the last 1400 years. His experiences living among the Arabs has no doubt enabled him to have a point of view that is not what is customarily heard in the Western countries. I was, however, greatly disappointed in this book as history because of Mr. Rogan's unnecessary bias in favor of Islam and the Arabs. To my way of thinking, historians need to be objective -- present the facts, pro and con, and allow the reader to come to his own conclusion. As an example, Mr. Rogan calls the removal of the Palestiians from Israel "ethnic cleansing" (Page 205 of the hardcover edition), a statement that is not just ludicrous but unnecessarily inflammatory. Mr. Rogan uses words to further his extreme liberal point of view. For example, Arabs are graceful, thoughtful, far-seeing, penetrating, dignified, eloquent, and so on, Westerners, especially the U.S., are aggressive, oil-hungry, imperialistic, flawed, shrill, tricky, etc. Mr. Rogan makes it clear that it is his belief that the Arabs have been more sinned against than sinners. While describing some of the horrific attacks by Islamist terrorists, he never comes right out and denounces them, taking the same tack as Arab organizations here in the U.S. and worldwide. Another area that Mr. Rogan could improve his readability is in his spellings of Arabic names. He seems choose those spellings that are unfamiliar to the typical reader. Sheik is Shaykh, Hussein is Husayn, Faisal is Faysel and Faysal, and on and on. When describing the Barbary Pirate episode in American history, Mr. Rogan fails to mention that these were not typcal pirates but were the first Islamic terrorists encountered by the United States. In the years of 1783-1815 the North African Arab states raided American shipping near their coasts, stealing the cargos and enslaving the sailors and holding the officers for ransom. In his book From Colony to Superpower, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (Oxford History of the United States) historian George C. Herring quotes a letter written to Adams and Jefferson "that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority [the Arabs] were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found and that every [Muslim] who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise." Mr. Herring describes an incident where, in order to get the release of several American sailors, Jefferson was forced to write a letter stating that the U.S. was not a Christian country. This was easily America's first confrontation with Islamic Jihad. This incident was nowhere to be found in Rogan's book. Still, all in all, the book is worth reading.

Never has there been a more necessary time to understand the history of one of the world's great people, the Arabs, than now. The troubled state of the Middle East, so visible on the front page of every newspaper in the world, is not a lonely era in the long history of the Arabs. Quite the contrary; the Arab world has been long governed and occupied by foreign powers. First, Turkey for centuries ran most of the major countries in the Middle East and then faded from power during the late 19th century, only to be replaced by the British and French. These European powers, accustomed to the organization of their colonies, were ultimately spectacularly unsuccessful in restraining the rapid development of the national states in the Middle East during the 1940's and 1950's. The Arabs tells this story with a wonderful sense of pace and shifting momentum; this reader was swept along at an increasing pace as the book neared the present, even more dangerous, time. I found the complexity of the Arab world, with all the strangeness of its magnificent language, to be initially confusing but Professor Rogan helps us along our way through a dense and, to this reader, totally new subject. As the book nears the present day, it becomes more absorbing and urgent. The final section of this very useful book consists of a full discussion of the emergence of the Israeli state and its increasing confrontation with the Arab nations that surround it. The force of the Israeli confrontation grows as the new Jewish state becomes increasingly powerful and self-assured. There is no way to escape the fact that this discussion, such an important part of the book, can be viewed as slanted, either from the Israeli point of view, mindful of the basic reason for the establishment of this remarkable nation: to provide a secure haven for the hunted Jews of Europe in the heart of Judaism's earliest history, or from the Arab point of view, with the wrenching loss of much of the lands that were called Palestine for the past two millenia. One reads of this conflict with a sense of sorrow for both sides. Nevertheless, the resolution will probably have something to do with the renaissance of Arab learning, industry, charm and intelligence. These are strong societies; their contributions to the knowledge of the world has been extraordinary and it can happen again. I liked this book enormously. It tells of the history of a great people and informs about the present state of affairs in the context of the longest view. It is, in the end, a book of hope.

The Arabs: A History - is a delightful read from cover to cover. Engaging, insightful, concise, easy to understand. One of my favorite history books. Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in Arab history. I purchased the updated edition as my hardcover version was published in 2009 and I was eagerly looking forward to having what I thought would be up to 166 additional pages of updates for the ensuing 11 years from 2009 to 2020. However, this new version is paperback and measures just under 5"x8" causing the same hardcover text to be spread over smaller pages. Hence, 497 pages of my hardcover book consumes 617 pages of the paperback version. The epilogue of the 2009 version becomes final chapter of the updated 2018 chapter entitled "The Arabs in the Twenty-First Century" and the bulk of the updated text begins on page 617 and ends on page 646 resulting in fewer than 29 pages of updated material to cover those 11 years. A disappointment for sure; however still, "The Arabs: A History" is a must read for everyone, including young people.

Eugene Rogan's The Arabs - A History is a remarkable tour de force. Drawn almost exclusively from Arab sources, it covers the period from the rise of the Ottoman Empire over the Arab World in the 16th century to the American invasion of Iraq and its "war on terror" (for which read, "Arab terror") in the 21st century. Excellent in its detailed description and analytical incisiveness, I personally found the chapters dealing with the first decade of the 20th century and how the European powers in real malevolent, brutal and Machiavellian fashion brought the Arab world to submission especially rich. Also very powerful is the whole section on the British in Palestine and the cruel chaos of their legacy. The history of this entire period, to today, is one of Arab subordination to external forces. Occasionally glimpses of sunlight appear, whether Naaser's pan-Arabism or the power of oil, only to evaporate. As the author insists, the failure of the Arab world - for failure is the appropriate operative term - derives in part from the malignancy of external forces - the Ottomans, the Europeans, then the Americans - but also from the inability of the Arabs to properly get their act together or to evolve respectable and legitimate forms of governance. As the review in The Economist (14 Nov 2009) pointed out, this is very much of a political history. Those wishing to know more about the economics, sociology or culture (both highbrow and lowbrow) will be disappointed. Rogan at the end cites the Arab Human Development Report and how it laments the low level of education in the Arab world, yet in his own volume there is virtually nothing about education. Perhaps this could be a future tome! Even those who might claim to be reasonably familiar with the history of the region (including the present reviewer) will stand to gain a lot more insight on the whole mess of the West's imposition of and subsequent support for Israel in the region. There can be no doubt whatsoever that the Arabs, of course primarily the Palestinians, were dealt a very humiliating and cruel series of blows, from which they continue to suffer. Rogan's The Arabs should be made required reading for policy makers, especially in the US and also for the UK entourage of Tony Blair. Had the Blair/Bush intellectual midget duo read Rogan's book, the history of the region and the world in the early 21st century could have been very different. The fact that Tony Blair was appointed Middle East Quartet Representative adds immense insult to the long-standing injuries of the Arab people. Of course American and British policy makers may not read the book. You can bring a donkey to water, but you can't make it drink! But I would very strongly recommend this book also to the much wider public. I strongly recommend this book as a means for a much clearer understanding of the Arab world, but also of the world more generally.

Put the book on shelf for sometime and just started to read .. history is just fascinating!!!

アラブの歴史を理解したい…という思いは以前からありましたが、これまで、日本語の書物を手にするたびに挫折を繰り返していました。その点、本書はページ数（分量）にやや圧倒されましたが、中世からのアラブの歴史につき、とても整理されており、大変わかりやすく、また、時に臨場感溢れる感じで、読者を引き付けるスタイルで書かれております。中身が濃いだけに「一歩一歩」といった感じでしたが、最後まで読み遂げることができました。とても参考になりますね。

This is an excellent, highly readable study which covers the whole history of Arab peoples and their region but focuses on the "modern" history since around 1800. Highly readable and well digestable for laymen, it still gives valuable advide to the expert and, above all, a superb overlook of the topic, giving various clues and drawing on a broad variety of sources. - The Kindle Edition does not offer the best paper quality, so looking at my 20 year old paperbacks on my shelves, I wonder what it will look like in 10 or 20 years. Still, I suppose it will keep a better shape than the paperback edition (which is considerably cheaper).

The Arabs: A History, by Eugene Rogan is a scholarly, detailed and oustanding (but eminently readable) review of Arab history from the time of the founding of the Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire in the early 1500s. The detail is never tedious and Rogan's prose moves very rapidly. The endnotes are appropriate. As for more recent history, President G. W. Bush and his administration are roundly criticised where appropriate, but Rogan leaves history itself later to judge the corollaries of 9/11. The book is sympathetic to the Arab past and outlines directly and indirectly paths to a better future. This is the sort of book that should be required reading for US State Department senior people, and with any luck President Obama might have time to read it. It is more scholarly than The Arabs: A Comprehensive History by Peter Mansfield, but doesn't cover quite as much ground, starting as it does in the summer of 1516.