The Arabs: A Short History [Paperback]

Philip Khuri Hitti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0895267063 | ISBN-13: 978-0895267061

Hitti, one of the world's leading historians of the Arabic-speaking people, gives an ideal introduction to their history and culture.

Product Details

• Paperback: 273 pages
• Publisher: Gateway Editions (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895267063
• ISBN-13: 978-0895267061
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #551,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the place to start, August 6, 2002

By 

Glenn McDorman (Denver) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Arabs: A Short History (Paperback)

At just over two hundred pages, this book is the place to start learning Arabic history. Although it is certainly not the most detailed or precise account, its brevity ensures that a novice will not be overwhelmed with strange names and minute details of unfamiliar events.

Hitti's Short History will be quite useful to social studies teachers who want to give their students short articles on Arabic history to read. Each chapter in this book is short enough to serve that purpose. There are also eight nice maps that will help students of all levels develop a better understanding of how Islam changed the world.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to a wonderful people, April 12, 2001

By 

Chris (Washington state, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Arabs: A Short History (Paperback)

Philip K. Hitti, of Lebanese Christian descent, the father of modern Near Eastern studies in the United States originally published this book in 1943 as a service to U.S. government personel and others whose interest was becoming focused on the Middle East.

He portrays a people who had a very rich civilization, whose rulers were studying ancient Greek philosophy at the same time Charlemagne and his advisors in Europe were tyring to learn to write their names. The Arabs rescued the artistic and philosophical treasures of Ancient Greece and ancient Persia and developed standards in Medicine, biology, philosophy, architecture, agriculture that were unprecedented in their day. These achievements Hitti says spread into Europe through Spain and Sicily and were the major factor in sparking the European rennaisance. I particularly enjoyed his description of Abassid Baghdad at its heighth. Consider his description of the daily schedule of the "man of learning" or the institution of the "ghilman" the "beardless young boys" who .....well I won't get into that.

He describes the conditions of non-slave non-Moslems as equal though varying depending on the degree of liberalism of the reigning Caliph. At times Jews and Christians had to wear special clothing and fix devils to the fronts of their houses and could not testify against Moslems in court. But more than a few of them rose to high positions in government, in scholarship, in bootlegging. The Jewish community in Baghdad was very active and large and its chief Rabbi was treated with veneration.

What caused this relatively glorious civilization to die? The mongol hordes, unequal distribution of wealth, emergence of new competitors, epidemics, ethnic strife, rulers spending more time amassing personal wealth and fornicating with slaves than attending to pubilic affairs and finally the conquest of much of it by Ottoman Turkey.

Hitti a few times shows a slight chauvanism. I was dissapointed in his lack of treatment of one of the crucial problems in the Arab world, the sectarian feuds within Islam, particularly Sunni-Shia. If I'm not mistaken Shiism was born out of life of the Caliph Ali and his son Hussein. Hitti says absolutely nothing about this when talking about these two men. He only says that Ali, who ruled from 656 to 661, was very popular but was murdered and that his son Hussein was called "the great divorcer" as a result of his having ruined one hundred marriages by his omniverous fornicating which was his prefered activity in life and he had no interest in the caliphate so he ceded it Muawiyah in return for the payment of a lifetime subisidy.

At the end of the book Hitti writes that the Arab people "have thus taken their place among the forward-marching democratic nations of the world and promise to make further contributions to the progress of mankind." It's hard to pin down when exactly that was written but that's obviously a bit too optimistic a statement in todays terms with most of the Arab world dominated by Western backed corrupt and brutal oligarchies. But perhaps its best to keep in mind Hitti's last sentence of the book:"The achievement of the past is the promise of the present for the future."

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A short history long on avoidance., January 23, 2000

By 

Edgar De La Vega - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Arabs: A Short History (Paperback)

Surveying this work certainly confirms the general historical facts laid-out one night, by my Lebanese friends a few years ago during an after dinner conversation, regarding the current technological/cultural blight of the Arab world.

Their textured descriptions of traditional Arab ambivalence towards the greater social and material good of the community would probably leave a substantial number of listeners feeling melancholy and perhaps frustrated. As such, the classical and overly pondered question never fails to arise: Why does the latest chapter of the Arab condition in the Middle-east continue to deeply disappoint admirers of its history, Arab or otherwise? Well, needless to state, those scholars and regular enthusiasts have an obviously educated view and understanding of the problem. But for laymen, renowned scholar, Mr. Hitti is a blessing.

Within this particular work, he directly outlines the glorious rise and, glorious downfall of once-upon-a-time Arab/Islamic hegemony - with what seems to be somewhat unfortunately, a translucent, circuitous plea for public mercy from the Western reader and God above. Whether this tactic was premeditated or not, and why, is certainly a risk on the part of this well-respected author. Specifically, Mr. Hitti to his discredit, awkwardly maintains a tedious narrative on a constantly dithering tight rope of monotony - an unceasing, "listed" description of facts-and-figures, thereby insufficiently describing the sociological reasons for the historically uncooperative tendencies of pre-mediaeval Arab man and beyond.

There is the probability of Mr. Hitti trying to spare the lay audience, from frustration towards today's Arab civilization in light of a once existing and certainly progressive Pax Islamica. If so, could this be the clarified risk of unjust paternalization by the author? I would dislike to think so. A sufficient admission of Arab self-criticism was sorely needed in this book. It is the corollary in establishing a truly comprehensive presentation to those interested in basic Arab history, long or short version.

Perhaps for the next revised edition of this title, Mr. Hitti should also elaborate much more on the terribly negative and barbaric influences of the Ottoman Turks imposed on the Arabs furthering their state of eclipse. Overall, no doubt, and with just cause, the emotive aim by Mr. Hitti in declaring Arab history a subject of general inattention is accurate. Quite right he is.