The Arabs: A Short History

by Philip Khuri Hitti

THE ARABS

A SHORT HISTORY

BY

PHILIP K. HITTI

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SEMANTIC LITERATURE

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Fourth Edition

LONDON

MACMILLAN & CO LTD

1960

This book is copyright in all countries which

are signatories in the Berne Convention

---

First Edition 1948

Second Edition 1950

Reprinted (with corrections) 1953

Third Edition 1956

Fourth Edition 1960

MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LIMITED

London Bombay Calcutta Madras Melbourne

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED

Toronto

ST MARTIN'S PRESS INC

New York

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

The events of the last war and the post-war period have made us realize as never before the importance of the Arab world, the world that lies athwart the great international highway of trade and transit connecting the three historic continents. The military operations in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, the use of the supply route through Persia to Russia and the holding of historic inter-Allied conferences at Casablanca, Cairo and Teheran called attention to the region's strategic position. More recent events relating to Zionism and the East-West conflict are making it clear that the establishment of a firm peace may depend to some extent on the solution of some of the region's political problems. These problems involve potential conflicts between all of the larger European countries, and they cannot be dealt with without affecting the politics of a much larger area in Africa, Asia and south-eastern Europe, where 420,000,000 Moslems form an important part of the population.

Oil in Arab lands has in recent years loomed higher and higher as a factor in the life and economy of the people and in international affairs. The greatest known store of this liquid energy lies in that soil. Its proved reserves are estimated at about two-thirds of the total known to exist on earth. Millions upon millions of pounds sterling and of American dollars are invested in its industry.

Our interest in the region is not merely political or economic. We have long had significant cultural tics with the Near East, through the British and American schools and colleges which have played a leading part in its intellectual development and through the work of large numbers of missionaries.

Until the first World War almost the entire Arab Asia was in the embrace of the Ottoman Empire. Now Iraq and Jordan, after a period of tutelage as British mandates, arc independent states. Syria and the Republic of Lebanon have been freed from the French mandatory. Most of the Arab peninsula is today under two native potentates: Saud in the north and al-lmam Ahmad in the south. Egypt, which aspires to the headship of the Arab world, became an independent sovereign state in 1922, and Libya in 1951. All those states are now represented by ambassadors or ministers in London and Washington. All have found admission to Western comity through various doors. Ten of these states, of which eight were born after the second World War, have joined to form the League of Arab States. They extend from Morocco to Iraq, including the Sudan, and their influence is mounting in world affairs. Their problems and aspirations, national and international, cannot be fully understood unless projected against the background of the past.

The following pages are addressed not to the scholar, but to the general reader. They tell, very briefly, the story of the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages, its conquests, its empire, its time of greatness and of decay. The story of the Arabians and the Arabic-speaking peoples unrolls before us one of the truly magnificent and instructive panoramas of history. It is hoped that this brief history of the Arab world will suggest how intimately a part of our own history it is.

CONTENTS
		PAGE
PREFACE		V
ARABS AND MOSLEMS		1
THE ORIGINAL ARAB, THE BEDOUIN		7
ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM		17
MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET OF ALLAH		23
THE BOOK AND THE FAITH		32
ISLAM ON THE MARCH		42
THE CALIPHATE		53
CONQUEST OF SPAIN		61
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE MAKE A START		73
THE GLORY THAT WAS BAGHDAD		81
THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE		94
SCIENCE AND LITERATURE		108
THE FINE ARTS		118
CORDOVA: JEWEL OF THE WORLD		124
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WEST		133
THE CROSS SUPPLANTS THE CRESCENT		147
THE CRUSADES		168
THE LAST DYNASTY		184
THE ARAB LANDS IN THE MODERN WORLD		196
INDEX		205

LIST OF MAPS
		PAGE
THE MOSLEM WORLD		3
ARABIA		9
EMPIRE OF THE CALIPHS		55
THE IBERIAN PENINSULA		63
SICILY AND SOUTHERN ITALY		159
CRUSADING STATES OF SYRIA		171
ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY		177
THE MAMLUK KINGDOM		187