Desert Arabs Bestride The World

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 4

Desert Arabs Bestride The World

The Empire of the Arabs. By John Bagot Glubb. Hodder and Stoughton. 348 pp.

In his book “The Great Arab Conquests," General Sir John Glubb described how, in the brief space of twenty-five years, the desert Arabs, inspired by the religious fire of Muhammad, carried a wave of conquest far beyond their original territories and become one of the world’s Great Powers. In his latest book, after summarising the story of the conquests in his first chapter, he takes the story of the Arab Empire forward for over two hundred years, covering the period from the flight of Muhammad to Medina in 622 A.D. to the year 861 when Mutawakkil, the last of the Abbasid Khalifs, was assassinated, and internal divisions were reducing the empire of the Arabs to a number of squabbling states. Probably no other European possesses such an intimate knowledge of the Arabs as Sir John Glubb and he enlivens his historical survey with descriptions of his own analogous experiences.

Sir John Glubb’s style is, as one might expect from such a man, straightforward and direct He may in his enthusiasm pack too many facts and names into too few pages but he is always readable. Indeed, he tells his story of the rise and expansion of this mighty empire, of the culture and lift of the Arab rulers, and of the humour, the courage, and the other characteristics of the Arabs, with such understanding and sympathy that he successfully carries his reader along with him. His military background and training have apparently left him with the conviction that an abundance of maps is necessary for the intelligent appreciation of the writer’s narrative. At any rate, no fewer than 45 maps, most of them drawn with the express purpose of illustrating some point and with routes of opposing forces marked, are given. He also has a somewhat oldfashioned faith in the importance of dates and events: at the end of each chapter he gives a list of important happenings, such as the foundation of Quairawan, (sometimes spelt Kairouan), with the appropriate date. Certainly this unusual care over dates and names, serves to keep the reader clear on the chronology of these eventful centuries.

In his preface, the author has given his purpose in writing this history. After expressing regret that in the teaching of history in schools there has been a “deliberate boy- ' cott of Arab history” which I has “made the history of I Europe incomprehensible,” he claims he has sought to remedy this state of affairs. Perhaps the neglect of Arab history has not been so complete as Sir John Glubb has feared, but he is right in assuming that there has been an unnecessary carry-over of hostility between Christians and Muslims. His book does much to realise his aim of enabling us to view more correctly the historical development of the human race by examining the contribution of the Arabs to that development. “The Empire of the Arabs” certainly makes clear how speedy were the Arab conquests and how extensive was the resulting Arab Empire. Sir John Glubb points out that the Arab empire was really greater in size than the Roman but the latter was more compactly sited round the shores of the Mediterranean. The Roman Empire’s “greatest length was 2600 miles, that of the khalif’s dominions 4250 miles.” But Rome had expanded through a period of centuries and had reached it fullest extent. “The Arab Empire reached its greatest dimensions in 70 years, a period quite inadequate to produce, out of an ignorant and illiterate society, an imperial ruling class, with minds wide enough to consider world policies.” Sir John Glubb shows that while religion was a major factor in originating this vast empire it was also the most important factor in producing the internal divisions which spelt an end to its unity and greatness. Islam early became divided into four facttions. First, there were the orthodox Muslims or Sunnis, the supporters of Beni Umaiya. In opposition from 1680, the year of the massacre at Kerbela, were the Shia (or Shi-ites), the party which claimed that the legitimate succession from the Prophet Muhammed was limited to the descendants of Ali ibn abi Talib (the cousin and virtually the adopted son of the Prophet). Next in time came the supporters of the descendants of Abbas, an uncle of the Prophet. Finally, in the religious field, came the Kharijites, the “Puritans” or “Calvinists” of Islam, who professed themselves disgust-

ed with the vices and ambitions of princes and recognised the equality of all Muslims, irrespective of race. Other sources of division were geographical, political and racial. For example, the northern and southern Arabs, Qais and Yemen, developed a lasting feud but this was not of such consequence as the division between the eastern and western halves of the empire, the Iraqi and the Syrian, the former being through marriages half-Per-sian and the later half-Byzan-tine. Although nationalism, as we know it, did not exist in the eighth century, the comquered peoples such as the Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Berbers and Spaniards often resented their treatment by the Arabs and worked against them. But it was the Turks who had acquired considerable importance as mercenaries, who played the most notable part in overthrowing the Abbasid empire and in reducing the khalifs to puppets. Arab culture, science and industry continued to advance, but Sir John Glubb is content to close his story at the year 861. An empire which stretched from Spain and Morocco in the west to Turkestan in central Asia in the east was, like empires of other ages, too large to continue indefinitely as one unit. But before it disintegrated it had exercised a powerful influence on the course of history. For example Muslim naval command of the Mediterranean inflicted a grave injury on Europe and thus exercised an influence the importance of which has not always been recognised.