The Arabs

What is an Arab? It an Arab is identified by Islam then what about the Christians and Jews living in the Fertile Crescent, or for that matter the Indonesians at the other end of the world? If by region what about the Mahgreb? If by race, are the Berbers to be included, and if so how can the Iranians be excluded? The question is far more politically charged than the corresponding one of the identity of the European, and also more difficult to answer. There are, for example, Maronite Christians in Lebanon who deny they are 'Arabs' at all.

In the five lectures reprinted here, Maxime Rodinson discusses the issues of unity and diversity in the Arab world. As one would expect from the foremost materialist historian of the region, he concentrates on the economic and social systems from the village in Algeria to the oil cities of the Gulf. This approach enables him to pass on a mass of useful information including a gazetteer of the number and location of Arabs in the world, without the reader becoming lost or overwhelmed in the process.