As the birthplace of three religions as 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 scholarly 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 Anatoia, the
Mamluks in Egypt and the Safavids in Iran; the peak and decline
of the great Ottoman states; 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 commonality, 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 of a 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.
