Product Description

Western civilization began in the Middle East: Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam, were born there. For over a millennium, the Islamic empires were ahead of the West in learning, technology and medicine, and were militarily far more powerful. It took another three hundred centuries for the West to catch up, and overtake, the Middle East. "A Brief History of the Middle East" enables us to see the past in its proper perspective, giving the Middle East its full due in creating the world in which we live today. Iraq is at the heart of Middle Eastern history, a place where Jews, Muslims and Christians lived for over a thousand years in harmony. Why does it seem different now? What is the place of Jews in the Middle East? Why does Osama bin Laden see 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, as the year everything changed? These issues are explained in historical detail here, in a way that deliberately seeks to go behind the rhetoric to the roots of present conflicts. "A Brief History of the Middle East" is essential reading for an intelligent reader wanting to understand what one of the world's key regions is all about.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #304126 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

The Bookseller, May 26
A comprehensive history illustrating the roots of the present conflict in the Middle East.

About the Author
Christopher Catherwood is a Cambridge historian and the author of several books including Churchill's Folly: Winston Churchill and the creation of Iraq and Christians, Muslim and Islamic Rage.

Customer Reviews

Essential reading
I recently read "The West's last chance" by Tony Blankley (avoid, unless desperately in need of a good laugh). What a pleasure it was to turn to a genuinely even-handed approach, instead of a polemic trying to score points and promote a cause! This is a scholarly, yet completely approachable, history of the Middle East by a noted authority, starting `way back with the Sumerian Empire and coming forward to the present day (it's a recent as the election of Ehud Olmert as Israeli Prime Minister). Dr. Catherwood makes his own positions clear, but doesn't hesitate to point out alternative views and why he differs from them, the way a good historian should. It is full of insights as to why the Middle East is the way that it is, notably how the Western countries have so completely messed it up (and who, of course, are continuing this tradition). His final chapter on the alleged "clash of civilisations" is especially thought-provoking, making the point that the USA is under attack by Islamic militants mainly because it is a supporter of the corrupt, and in their eyes unIslamic, regimes of the Middle East, which are their real targets. Anyone who wants to understand the Middle East could do a lot worse than starting with this excellent slim volume.

Engaging read with unique insights
For such a large subject, the author succeeds quite well in providing a concise history of the region. Starting with the ancient Sumerians, Hittites, Phoenicians, Assyrians and Babylonians, he deals with the history of the Middle East up to 2006. In this journey through time, Catherwood discusses the origin of monotheism, Akhenaten, Abraham, Judaism, Jesus, the early church and the council of Nicaea.

Two chapters are devoted to Islam: Muhammad And the Dawn Of Islam and The Golden Age Of Islam, where subjects like inter alia Jihad, the Sunni-Shia divide, the Fatimid dynasty and the arrival of the Turks are dealt with. The author frequently references great historians like Bernard Lewis and offers original insights. For example, he points out the significance of the Battle of Manzikert near Lake Van in 1071 where the Byzantines were defeated by the Seljuk Turks.

Then followed the Crusades and the terrible Mongol incursion of 1242. Next he deals with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, its expansion into the Balkans, Asia and Africa, and its fall. He discusses the significance of the end of the khalifate with this event and chronicles the Iranian revolution, the hostage crisis and the first and second Gulf wars in reasonable detail. A chapter is devoted to the creation of Israel and the Arab-Israeli wars.

The final chapter focuses on 9/11, the clash of civilizations, Sayyid Qutb, Arab regimes in the 20th century, Pan-Arabism, Islamism, transnational terrorism and the ideas of Francis Fukuyama and Samuel Hungtington. There are 4 maps and the book concludes with a Selective Chronology from 3500 BC to the present, a glossary of terms, bibliography and index.

Overall the book provides a balanced history of the region where Western civilization began, providing an engaging link between ancient history and the problems of the 21st century. Many of Catherwood's observations are unique and valuable, and the book is an engaging read. For more comprehensive and scholarly studies, I recommend the work of Bernard Lewis and Efraim Karsh.

If you love book directories you'll love this
I bought this book, with a hope to learning a little a bit more about the back ground of the middle east, and to gain an insight to the political and religious unrest that we see from them today.
However, this book was bitterly disapointing, and could not be further removed from the review on its flysheet, it refers to other books and authors far too frequently and reads like a telephone directory, I feel no further informed on the subject than I did when I first picked it up, and feel horribly cheated out of the money it cost not to mention the 4 evenings of my life I can never get back!
My advice is don't bother, you'll learn more from wikipedia.
Very disapointing