Eugene Rogan offers illuminating answers to this question in his elegant and learned new book, ?The Arabs: A History? (Basic Books, 2009). The Arabs, Rogan states, ?are one people and many peoples at the same time.? This is the starting point for his study of the remarkable journey of Arabs in history. Eugene Rogan, who spent his childhood in Beirut and Cairo, is a Faculty Fellow and University Lecturer in the Modern History of the Middle East at Saint Antony?s College, Oxford, where he serves as Director of the Middle East Center. He follows closely in the footsteps of eminent Oxford historian, Albert Habib Hourani (1915-1993), author of the classic book, ?A History of the Arab Peoples? (Harvard University Belknap Press, 1991). Rogan?s previous book is ?Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire? (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Rogan traces the Arab narrative through four historical periods: the Ottoman era, European colonialism, the Cold War and finally, US global hegemony. ?Arab history,? Rogan writes, ?in the modern age has been enormously dynamic, and the Arab peoples are responsible for their successes and failures alike. They have worked with the rules when it suited them, subverted the rules when they got in the way, and suffered the consequences when they crossed the dominant powers of the day. Indeed, the Arabs were always most empowered when there was more than one dominant power to the age.? The emergence of Islam in seventh-century Arabia was the pivotal moment in Arab history. Madinah served as the first Islamic capital, but it was replaced by successive ruling empires in Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo. Power over the Arab world shifted to the Ottoman Turks in 1516. ?From 1517 onward,? Rogan writes, ?the Arabs would negotiate their place in the world through rules set in foreign capitals, a political reality that would prove one of the defining features of modern Arab history.? The Ottoman Empire crumbled in 1918, but Arab hopes for independence were dashed by European colonial masters. It would be a long and challenging road ahead for Arab independence. Rogan recounts the fascinating story of the birth of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The vast country was united under one flag by the brilliant efforts of Abd Al-Aziz ibn Abd Al-Rahman Al-Faysal Al-Sa?ud (1880-1953), and his daring achievement is celebrated annually in Saudi Arabia. In Rogan?s assessment, ?Not only had Ibn Saud succeeded in establishing his kingship over most of the Arabian Peninsula, but he had managed to preserve his independence from all forms of British imperial rule. In this he was assisted by a critical British miscalculation: they did not believe that there was any oil in Saudi Arabia.? British blunders in foreign policy were more consequential in Palestine, most notably its support for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. This was a complete disaster, according to Rogan. ?Palestine,? he writes ?would prove Britain?s gravest imperial failure in the Middle East, a failure that would condemn the whole of the Middle East to conflict and violence that persist to the present day.? A strong movement toward Arab unity emerged after the Second World War. ?Most people in the Arab world, ?Rogan states, ?believed they were united by a common language, history, and culture grounded in the Islamic past, a culture shared by Muslims and non-Muslims. They wanted to dissolve the frontiers drafted by the imperial powers to divide the Arabs and build a new commonwealth based on the deep historic and cultural ties that bound the Arabs.? These were impossible dreams as Arab countries became the battleground between the competing superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, especially in Egypt. The power of oil dominated international relations in the closing decades of the twentieth century. The rise of extremism in some Islamic countries also fueled global uncertainty and fear. Iran?s Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran served as fluorescent advertisements for the spread of political Islamism ? a real threat to the stability of the Middle East and the world. The threat of religious fundamentalism manifested itself in brutal acts of terrorism and violence all over the globe, especially on Sept.11, 2001 by Osama Bin Laden and his criminal Al-Qaeda network. US President George W. Bush retaliated by launching wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ostensibly to defeat international terrorism. His successor, Barack Obama, was left with the difficult task to repair America?s tarnished image abroad, especially among Arabs. As Obama declared in his famous Cairo speech in June 2009, ?I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect.? Perhaps, as Rogan notes, ?a new and better age? is dawning for Arabs. Eugene Rogan deserves considerable praise for his splendid book. It is a major accomplishment in the field of Arab history. Rogan?s book is a reminder of the importance of history, and a display of how a gifted historian tells it. - SG Joseph Richard Preville is an American writer living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. __
