The Arab World has, for some time, been attracting the attention of a growing public throughout the world. The strategic position of the Arab countries, the oil they produce, their sudden emancipation and emergence as independent states, their revolutions and coups d’état, have been the special concern of statesmen, politicians, businessmen, scholars and journalists, and of equal interest to the general public.
An appreciation of the present-day problems of Arab
countries and of their immediate neighbours demands a
certain knowledge of their geographical and social
background; and a knowledge of the main trends of their
history political, cultural and religious-is essential
for an understanding of current issues. Arabs had existed
long before the advent of Islam in the seventh century
AD, but it was with Islam that they became a world power.
Arab civilization, which resulted from the contacts the
Arabs had with other peoples and cultures, especially
after the creation of this world power, and which reached
its height in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries,
was, for a few centuries that followed, the guiding light
of a large part of the world. Its role cannot, thus, be
ignored.
The Arab Background Series provides the English speaking,
educated reader with a series of books which attempt to
clarify the historical past of the Arabs and to analyse
their present problems. The contributors to the series,
who come from many parts of the world, are all
specialists in their own fields. This variety of approach
and attitude creates for the English-speaking reader a
unique picture of the Arab World.
N. A. ZIADEH