The Arabs: a Short History

The history of Arabia is inextricably tied to the history of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad came from Arabia, and the most important religious centers for Muslims are located in the Arab cities of Mecca and Medina. However, Arabs already had a history reaching back over one and a half millennia when Muhammad entered the stage. Since the ninth century B.C.E. they had been an integral force in determining the fate of the Middle East, establishing themselves as a major power in the seventh century C.E. and with the rise of the caliphate expanding the borders of the Arab world far beyond the Middle East into North Africa and Spain, and even into France. Since that time, Arab history has been intimately connected with European history. Medieval European arts and sciences would have been unthinkable without the brilliant culture of the Arab empire. Only in the modern era has this relationship been marked by a growing European hegemony, which continues to encumber relations between the West and the Arab world to the present day. In this volume, Heinz Halm offers a compact and comprehensible overview of the history and culture of the Arabs from the first references in the inscriptions of Assyrian kings to the most recent developments of contemporary Arab nations.