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The Middle East A brief history of the last 2,000 years By: Bernard Lewis
As the Birthplace of three religions and many civilizations,
the Middle East has for centuries been a center of knowledge and ideas,
of techniques and commodities, and, at times, of military and political
power. With the historical - and still growing - importance of the
Middle East in modern politics, historian Bernard Lewis's cogent and
scholary writing brings a wider understanding of the cultures of the
region to a popular audience. In this immensely readable and broad
history, Lewis charts the successive transformations of the Middle
East, beginning with the two great empires, the Roman and the Persian,
whose disputes divided the region two thousand years ago; the development
of monotheism and the growth of Christianity; the astonishingly rapid
rise and spread of Islam over a vast area; the waves of invaders from
the East and the Mongol hordes of Jengiz Khan; the rise of the Ottoman
Turks in Anatolia, the Mamluks in Egypt and the Safavids in Iran;
the peak and decline of the great Ottoman state; and the changing
balance of power between the Muslim and Christian worlds. Within this
narrative, Lewis details the myriad forces that have shaped the history
of the Middle East: the Islamic religion and legal system; the traditions
of government; the immense variety of trade and the remarkably wide
range of crops; the elites - military, commercial, religious, intellectual
and artistic - and the commonalty, including such socially distinct
groups as slaves, women and non-believers. He finally weaves these
threads together by looking at the pervasive impact in modern times
of Western ideas and technology, and the responses and reactions they
evoked. Rich with vivid detail and the knowledge ofa great scholar,
this brilliant survey of the history and civilizations of the Middle
East reveals the huge Islamic contribution to European life, as well
as the European contribution to the Islamic world. In this award-winning book, Bernard Lewis ("a historian of unrivaled skills, authority, and literary grace" -- The New York Times) traces the rapid evolution of the identities of the Middle Eastern peoples, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 to contemporary clashes between old and new allegiances. Lewis shows how, during the twentieth century, imported Western ideas such as liberalism, fascism, socialism, patriotism, and nationalism have transformed Middle Easterners' ancient notions of community, their self-perceptions, and their aspirations. From the Publisher:
Examining religion, race and language, country, nation, and state, Lewis traces the rapid evolution of the identities of the Middle Eastern peoples, from the collapse of the centuries-old Ottoman Empire in 1918 to today's clash of old and new allegiances. He shows how, during the twentieth century, imported Western ideas such as liberalism, fascism, socialism, patriotism, and nationalism have transformed Middle Easterners' ancient notions of community, their self-perceptions, and their aspirations. To this fascinating historical portrait, Lewis brings
an understanding of the region and its peoples, as well as a profound
sympathy for the plight that the modern world has imposed on them.
The result is an invaluable tool in our understanding of an area that
is of increasing global importance and concern today. US (British-born) historian of Islam, the Ottoman Empire, and the modern Middle East Over a 60-year career, Bernard Lewis emerged as the most influential postwar historian of Islam and the Middle East. His elegant syntheses made Islamic history accessible to a broad public in Europe and America. In his more specialized studies, he pioneered social and economic history and the use of the vast Ottoman archives. His work on the premodern Muslim world conveyed both its splendid richness and its smug self-satisfaction. His studies in modern history rendered intelligible the inner dialogues of Muslim peoples in their encounter with the values and power of the West. While Lewis’ work demonstrated a remarkable capacity for empathy across time and place, he stood firm against the Third Worldism that came to exercise a broad influence over the historiography of the Middle East. In Lewis’ work, the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies reached its apex. (More...)
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