A History of the Arab Peoples

By: Albert Hourani

Narrated by: Nadia May

Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Despite the turmoil of Arab nationalism and fundamentalism, Middle Eastern wars, and oil crises, the history of the Arab world has been little known and poorly understood in the West. One reason may be that, for more than half a century, there has been no up-to-date single volume work that chronicles the story of Arab civilization - until now. Albert Hourani, distinguished historian and interpreter, has written a masterwork, a panoramic view encompassing twelve centuries of Arab history and culture. He looks at all sides of this rich and venerable civilization: the beauty of the Alhambra and the great mosques, the importance attached to education, the achievements of Arab science - but also internal conflicts, wide-spread poverty, the role of women, and the contemporary Palestinian question.

(P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.

inadequate substance

It is a bad book.

I bought this tape in the hope of hearing what actually "happened" in the history of Arabic people. Instead, the author spends majority of time on what various Arabic figures had "said" / "written" on a number of issues, and most of those Arabic people quotations / opinions are to the effect of depicting an idealized good society. Aha, but that is NOT what had happened at ground level, and the author did not talk about what had happened anyway.

This is probably another example of that their deed does not match up to their talk.

A waste of my hard earned money, as well as the genuin curiosity of a student from China.

Dull

The reader does the best she can with the material, but it is as if she were reading a textbook. As far as the material is concerned, it presumes that the listener will be familiar with places and naming conventions based on a brief disclaimer in the preface. I really wanted to finish this book, but only got about half way through the second part of the three part download before giving up.

Partial and limited

Mr. Hourani, does the arab peoples a disservice by placing their origen at the 7th century. A rich and distant heritage should not be ignored. This book would be more aptly titled A History of the Islamic Faith. It is shallow and without the slightest color attributed to its cover. Mostly a long disertation on lineage of leadership. Difficult to get excited about.

Too Euro-centric

Africans are only referred to as slaves and eunuchs. No mention of the Moors of the Maghreb.

Not a history of arab peoples

This is an uncritical history of Islam. It entirely ignores the pre-islamic Arabs. They had a fascinating culture; so why is all that history ignored?