The Arabs

Arnold Hottinger

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9780520311657
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

This searching study of the Arabs is the work of a well-known Swiss writer and broadcaster, who has spent a large part of his life amont the people of the Middle East ans has acquired an intimate knowledge of their language, their history and literature, their beliefs, and their way of life. Written witha burning sincerity and based upon a profound understanding of the ideals, aspirations and achievements as well as the frailties, mistakes and tribulations of a complex people, Hottinger's book is without a doubt the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of Arabism to date.   It is divided into two main parts. The first of these traces the development of the Arab-Islamic culture from the poetic tradition of the Beduins, through Muhammad, the dynasties of the Umayyads and Abbasids, to its zenith as heir to the scientific spirit of the Greeks and its subsequent decline from that position. The second part of the book discusses the impact upon the Arabs of nineteenth-century European civilization and the machine age. The author's method here is to let the Arabs speak for themselves in their own words. Thus, the facts are vividly presented, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions. The second part also describes and analyses the political upheavals in the Arab world in recent years and the crises that have accompanied the transition from dependence upon the colonial powers to Arab nationalism in the shadow of the Cold War. It hus provides a most telling, objective assessment of modern Egypt under Nasser.   Published under the auspices of the Near Eastern Center, University of California, Los Angeles.  
This searching study of the Arabs is the work of a well-known Swiss writer and broadcaster, who has spent a large part of his life amont the people of the Middle East ans has acquired an intimate knowledge of their language, their history and literature,

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• FOREWORD
• I The Knights of the Desert
• The Arabs in the Koran
• 3 Muhammad in Mecca and Medina
• 4 A Changing Culture
• 5 Conquests
• 6 The Armed Camps
• 7 The Rightly Guided
• 8 The First Rift
• 9 The Umayyads
• 10 Disorders in Mesopotamia
• 11 The Abbasids
• 12 The Zenith of Islamic Civilization
• 13 The Heritage of Greece
• 14 Unsuccessful Attempts at Revolution
• 15 Sufism
• 16 Mystic Piety
• 17 New Cultures and Ruling Classes
• 18 Decadence?
• 19 The End of ‘Muslim Civilization'
• 1 Al ̷ Jabarti
• Dependence on the West
• Emancipation
• Reform in the Ottoman Empire
• Particular Developments on the Fringes of the Empire
• 6 The Humanists of Beirut
• 7 Pan Islam
• Reform of Islam
• 9 Conservative Reformers
• 10 The Hour of the Minorities
• 1 The Founding of the Arab States
• International Policy in the Years between the Wars
• Mandate Mentality
• Palestine
• The Second World War and the Post ̷ War Years
• The Egyptian Revolution
• Nasser and the British
• Internal Politics and Economy
• Pan ̷ Arabism
• 10 The Suez Crisis
• 11 The High Tide of Nationalism
• 12 The Ebb of Nasserism
• The Yemen
• 14 The Kurdish Question
• 15 A Second Pan ̷ Arabic Upsurge
• 1 The Parties of the ‘Third Generation' and the Reaction to them
• The Danger of Communism
• The Nationalists Faced with the Danger of Communism
• The Problem of ‘Humanism'
• Documents illustrative of Present ̷ day State of Mind
• Hope
• Postscript
• INDEX