A review by rfinch
A History Of The Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani

4.0

A broad sweep of an entire region and its people and the dominant religion. Well written and engaging, the book begins with the advent of Islam and its remarkable and rapid expansion out of the central Arabian peninsula through northern Africa and Spain, the Middle East, and as far east as the Indian subcontinent (although Hourani focuses on the Arabic-seaking peoples, he includes the influences of and on the Islamic cultures further east). Hourani delves into the social, economic, political, religious, and cultural influences that helped shape the intricacies of Islam and Arab identity, as well as the roles of other cultures, religions, and regions. First published in 1991, Hourani's book ends just after the horrific Iran-Iraq War but just before the first Gulf War that followed the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. The afterward for this edition was published in 2012, following the upheavals commonly referred to as the Arab Spring, and provides an excellent update to this excellent history.