Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

Overview

A SUNDAY TIMES AND TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Masterly and brilliant"—Simon Sebag Montefiore

"A book of vast scope and stunning insight."—Anthony Sattin, Spectator   

“Commanding erudition and a swashbuckling style define this history of the Arabs”—Justin Marozzi, Sunday Times

This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia.
 
Mackintosh-Smith reveals how linguistic developments—from pre-Islamic poetry to the growth of script, Muhammad’s use of writing, and the later problems of printing Arabic—have helped and hindered the progress of Arab history, and investigates how, even in today’s politically fractured post–Arab Spring environment, Arabic itself is still a source of unity and disunity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300251630
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	02/04/2020
Pages:	656
Sales rank:	478,756
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is an eminent Arabist, translator, and traveler whose previous publications include Travels with a Tangerine and Yemen. He has lived in the Arab world for thirty-five years and is a senior fellow of the Library of Arabic Literature.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps ix

Foreword: The Wheel and the Hourglass xii

Introduction: Gathering the Word 1

Emergence: 900 BC-AD 600

1 Voices from the Wilderness: Earliest Arabs 19

2 Peoples and Tribes: Sabaeans, Nabataeans and Nomads 46

3 Scattered Far and Wide: The Changing Grammar of History 70

4 On the Edge of Greatness: The Days of the Arabs 88

Revolution: 600-630

5 Revelation, Revolution: Muhammad and the Qur'an 115

6 God and Caesar: The State of Medina 147

Dominance: 630-900

7 Crescaders: Openings-Up 177

8 The Kingdom of Damascus: Umayyad Rule 223

9 The Empire of Baghdad: Abbasid Sovereignty 262

Decline: 900-1350

10 Counter-Cultures, Counter-Caliphs: The Empire Breaks Up 305

11 The Genius in the Bottle: The Hordes Close In 348

Eclipse: 1350-1800

12 Masters of the Monsoon: Arabs around the Indian Ocean 381

Re-Emergence: 1800-Now

13 Identity Rediscovered: Awakenings 413

14 The Age of Hope: Nasserism, Ba'thism, Liberation, Oil 459

15 The Age of Disappointment: Autocrats, Islamocrats, Anacharchs 488

Afterword: In the Station of History 527

Chronology 537

Notes 559

Bibliography 602

Index 609

Editorial Reviews

Although Mackintosh-Smith’s book is perfectly scholarly, it is not a dutiful plod through a succession of slaughtered sultans and viziers or a tallying of gains and losses in forgotten battles in unpronounceable places. On the contrary, Arabs keeps throwing out brilliant insights, like sparks from a Catherine wheel.”—Robert Irwin, Literary Review

“A fascinating and richly detailed chronicle of Arab language and culture offers some thought-provoking historical parallels”—Ian Black, The Observer

“Commanding erudition and a swashbuckling style define this history of the Arabs”—Justin Marozzi, The Sunday Times

"Sweeping book [. . .] It addresses vital questions of Arab identity and nationhood. There can hardly be a better guide than Mackintosh-Smith, who has near- mythical status among western observers of the Middle East"—Richard Spencer, The Times Ireland

"[Mackintosh-Smith] is ideally positioned to make the tangled past vividly present. . . . [He] handles his complex account with great aplomb."—Eric Ormsby, Wall Street Journal

“A long time in the making, Tim Mackintosh-Smith’s erudite study, Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires was worth the wait”—Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard (Best summer holiday reads)

“[An] extraordinary new survey” —Shiraz Maher, New Statesman

“A marvelous journey brimming with adventure and poetry and narrated by a keen, compassionate observer.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This new history of the Arabs is not the usual fact and date textbook tale but unfolds as a thoughtful and philosophical historical essay that analyzes the evolution of Arabic-speaking peoples, the Arabs and the Arabized, and the powerful role of their language in unity and diversity. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice

“A significant and rewarding book.”—B. Harris Jr., Choice

"This brilliant and fascinating history book will change the way we analyze the happenings in the Arab world."—Washington Book Review

“Superb. What really distinguishes this book from others is the sheer number of its insights into Arab history, all of which are tantalizing. There is also a poignancy to the telling of the complex story of the Arabs because of the circumstances Mackintosh-Smith finds himself in while writing, in virtual lock-down in Sana’a during the ongoing civil war and invasion of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”—Steven C. Caton, Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies at Harvard University

“This controversial new work by Mackintosh-Smith strips away centuries of erroneous myth-making and returns the turbulent history of the Arab peoples to the secure bedrock of their language. Anyone hoping to understand, let alone write about the Middle East, will need to read and inhale this profound, witty and scholarly achievement.”—Barnaby Rogerson, author of The Last Crusaders

“Arabs is a refined and pleasing tour through the history of a remarkable people, civilization and language. It’s in touch with the poetry of the desert a millennium and a half ago and the trauma of war in the mountains today"—Jonathan A.C. Brown, Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University

"Masterly and brilliant. Arabs is a beautifully written narrative and acute analysis, both fresh and original, filled with fascinating characters and ideas, with as much depth before Islam as after and a true feeling not just for the Arab experience in history and faith but also for its language and culture. This book could only be written by a writer with a knowledge of the geography of the Arab soul as well as the Arab land."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem

"Quite brilliant. Arabs is well written with personal touches of someone who has experienced the last thirty years of Arab history at the very centre of things.  I am full of admiration for this inspiring book, with its quite original and timely view of Arab historical identity, and cannot wait to see it on the shelves."—Philip Kennedy, author of Recognition in the Arabic Narrative Tradition

From the Publisher

★ 2019-03-03

An engaging history of the Arab world by a Yemen-based Westerner thoroughly versed in Arabic.

One clarifying theme runs throughout this extensive, illuminating narrative of the Arab people from ancient to modern times: language. Long before the writing of the Quran, the language that "evolved on the tongues of tribal soothsayers and poets…has long, perhaps always, been the catalyst of a larger Arab identity." Arabist and translator Mackintosh-Smith (Yemen: The Unknown Arabia, 2014, etc.), a senior fellow at the Library of Arabic Literature who has lived in the Arab world for 35 years, structures his study around "three waves of unity" in Arab history that originated from the "momentum of 'arabbiyyah, the high language par excellence." These included the slow, ancient tribal agitation of self-awareness; the "tsunami" of conquest inspired by Muhammad's Quranic recitations; and the 19th-century nationalism awakened by Napoleon's conquest. "That last wave," writes the author, "is still breaking now." Throughout this impressive book, Mackintosh-Smith grapples with coexisting "rationalities" of Arab history: the "settled" society, or the civil polity where people lived together in a town; and the Bedouin or nomadic tradition. The rugged, dry terrain and lack of fresh water kept the people of the Arabian subcontinent in perpetual mobility (another theme) and imparted the masterful pairing of two beasts of burden—the camel and horse—that enabled the Arabs' transformation from "plodding hauliers into dashing warriors." The author demonstrates the power of rhetoric by the orator-leaders who "gathered the word"—of the people, recorded battles, etc.—even before Muhammad channeled that energy in disciplined Quranic teaching and embarked on his state-building years in Medina. Over the course of an extensive, consistently fascinating history, Mackintosh-Smith expertly picks and chooses his details and analyses, providing an admirably complete picture of a consistently misunderstood part of world history and culture. In addition to illustrations and maps, the author includes a useful chronology delineating both "events" and elements of "language, culture, society, identity."

A marvelous journey brimming with adventure and poetry and narrated by a keen, compassionate observer.

Kirkus Reviews