The Arabs: A History
Eugene Rogan
Allen Lane 2009
£23.00
In 2005, Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir wrote “Its not pleasant being Arab these days … Feelings of persecution for some, self hatred for others; a deep disquiet pervades the Arab world.” Yet Kassir's description of Arab malaise is timeless. Eugene Rogan wisely chose to begin his modern historical account, The Arabs, with this reference as it captures a central issue addressed in his book: The modern history of the Arabs is one of perpetual adjustment to changing geopolitical circumstances, and, as a corollary, a continual redefinition of identity. While their capacity for reinvention has proven beneficial in their quest for sovereignty, it has also meant constantly negotiating between, elevating and suppressing different elements of their identity; and this is at the core of the Arab malaise described by Kassir. For those aiming to understand the complex history of the Arab people, The Arabs makes an important and largely successful bid to present the history of the Arab people as unified, a task not commonly accomplished with such success.
Rogan’s book is distinguished for its ability to situate the current circumstance of the Arabic speaking populations in the context of the past—both their own, and that of the groups and societies with whom they have interacted. Rogan contextualizes the Arab people in the changing hierarchy of global dominance throughout the period his work addresses—ranging from the 1500s through to the present day. In doing so, he provides important insights on the impact that outside domination, whether in the form of colonialism or its more subtle modern variants, had on the evolution of Arab identity.
Viewing Arab history through the prism of successive global orders allows Rogan to identify four eras that greatly impacted their development: the Ottoman era, the European colonial era, the Cold War, and the current domination of globalization and American power. This era-based taxonomy of foreign influence, or domination in most cases, allows the author to develop an important thesis: that the Arabs have been most powerful when more than one power dominated the age—when, for instance, playing the British against the French during the colonial era and the Soviets against the Americans during the Cold War. It was at such junctures that the Arab capacity for flexibility and reinvention was at its most prominent. However, Rogan equally acknowledges that “with each historic watershed, leading to the fall of the dominant power(s) and the rise of a new world order, the Arabs were driven back to the drawing board until they had mastered the new rules of the age.”
Yet in describing their repeated efforts to master the new rules of the age, Rogan does not seek to paint the Arab people as victims. It is, rather, their resilience that he seeks to emphasize with his accounts of their various efforts to solidify their independence from colonial powers and neo-colonial economic relationships. In forging the connection between Arab history and world history, Rogan makes the explicit claim that while the Arab people were often subject to other powers, they were never passive spectators in those circumstances. While the history of the Arabs was greatly affected by the contemporary global order of the day, the Arabs in turn impacted the development of that order. In illustrating this point, Rogan makes the reader increasingly aware of the Arab world’s importance as a coherent force throughout modern history.
The prevalence of struggle for sovereignty in the periods covered by Rogan's book is important in order to understand the role that Arab malaise played in defining Arab identity. In contrast with the 21 century, the first five centuries after the emergence of Islam, from the 7 to the 12 centuries, were the age of “the great Islamic Empires.” Rogan suggests that the collective memory of this Islamic golden age significantly determined the rise of nationalism and its rival, Arab nationalism, the decline of secularism and the resulting “Islamization” of national politics. This recollection of the age of the great Islamic empires as a period in history when Islam was upheld in its purest form by the ummah (the Muslim community), coupled with the inability of nationalism and later Arab nationalism to guarantee the Arab people the sovereignty they so desired, led to a continued coalescence between Islam and political sovereignty in the collective conscience of this community. This lesson is especially relevant for those interested in understanding the prominence of religion in Arab politics. More importantly it provides insight into why modern day equivalents of Arab struggles for independence—such as the Arab-Israeli conflict—have been characterized by a radicalization of Islam, or its use as a weapon of war.
While differing hierarchies in the global order greatly influence the structure of his analysis, Rogan also makes sure to dedicate significant attention to other trends that have created an interest in the Arab world. Among the most relevant perhaps are the importance of oil and Islam. What is striking about his presentation of these issues is his ability to link them with the overarching lesson of the book: the Arab people’s ability to employ identity construction in their attempt at securing sovereignty. As a result, his chapter on oil spends a great deal of time discussing Libya’s rise to independence, and most importantly the way in which Qaddafi managed to use his rise to power to counter what he considered the greatest threat posed to the Arabs by the West: their control of oil production and marketing. So while the chapter on oil addresses the nationalization of oil companies, these stories are told alongside Qaddafi’s promotion of the Arabic language, and other nationalist measures he considered crucial for guaranteeing Libyan sovereignty and independence.
In a similar light, Rogan manages to draw together the histories of each of the states of the Arabs in all of his chapters, providing a broad global snap shot as to what the Arab world looked like at a specific point in its modern history. Rogan’s use of lesser known personal accounts, coupled with rigorous research on the events of modern Arab history, allows him to accurately portray the most important events that have come to define Arab identity. The structure of the book however does require a great deal of attention from the reader as no single country’s history is recounted independently of that of other Arab states. A strategic decision, no doubt, which pays off in its ability to reinforce the notion that Arab identity is a coherent force that surpasses state boundaries.
Despite the books many achievements, The Arabs is mostly dedicated to exploring the tumultuous nature of Arab history. True, their legacy has been one ridden by conflict and domination, yet one is left wondering whether this portrayal only reiterates the idea that the conflicts that permeate the region to this day are inevitable. This setback, however, does not undo the value of Rogan's work, in particular its ability to address Arab identity as a single entity with history as a reference point.
The Arabs are a people whom both intrigue and confuse—characterized at once by wealth in resources and culture, recurrent conflict and religious fervor—and by drawing attention to the most prominent experiences of the Arab people, Rogan's book serves to clarify the paradox they often represent. For the West in particular, and those seeking to learn from its history in the Arab world, Rogan’s book is essential in distilling lessons of the past. More than that, The Arabs is able to highlight the similarities of a complex and diverse people, demonstrating the threads that hold them together and create a common entity.
