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Arabs : a 3,000-year history of peoples, tribes and empires / Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

Mackintosh-Smith, Tim, 1961- author.
2019
909.04927 M158a 2019
Available at 2nd (Main) Floor
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Title
Arabs : a 3,000-year history of peoples, tribes and empires / Tim Mackintosh-Smith.
Author
Mackintosh-Smith, Tim, 1961- author.
ISBN
9780300180282 hardcover
0300180284 hardcover
Published
New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]
Copyright
©2019
Language
English
Description
xxvi, 630 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (color), maps (black and white) ; 24 cm
Call Number
909.04927 M158a 2019
System Control No.
(OCoLC)1048940075
(OCoLC)1048940075
Summary
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.
Note
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.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 559-608) and index.
Formatted Contents Note
Foreword : the wheel and the hourglass
Introduction : gathering the word
Emergence : 900 BC- AD 600
Revolution: 600-630
Dominance : 630-900
Decline : 900-1350
Eclipse : 1350-1800
Emergence : 1800-now
Afterword : in the station of history
Chronology.

Foreword: The wheel and the hourglass
Introduction: Gathering the word
Emergence: 900 BC-AD 600. Voices from the wilderness: earliest Arabs
Peoples and tribes: Sabaeans, Nabataeans, and Nomads
Scattered far and wide: the changing grammar of history
On the edge of greatness: the days of the Arabs
Revolution: 600-630. Revelation, revolution: Muhammad and the Qur'an
God and Caesar: the state of Medina
Dominance: 630-900. Crescaders: openings-up
The kingdom of Damascus: Umayyad rule
The empire of Baghdad: Abbasid sovereignty
Decline: 900-1350. Counter-cultures, counter-caliphs: the empire breaks up
The genius in the bottle: the hordes close in
Eclipse: 1350-1800. Masters of the monsoon: Arabs around the Indian Ocean
Re-emergence: 1800-Now. Identity rediscovered: awakenings
The age of hope: Nasserism, Ba'thism, liberation, oil
The age of disappointment: autocrats, Islamocrats, Anacharchs
Afterword: In the station of history.
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