Arabs

Sir Mark Allen

. Essential reading for anyone interested in the Middle East today.
. The perfect antidote to prejudice, ignorance and racial injustice.

The level of noise about the Arab world has been steadily rising. In the pastfifteen years outsiders have twice sent armies to war in the Middle East-to liberate Kuwait from Saddam and then to overthrow him in Iraq. Chronic strife has also afflicted Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon and, by extension, Syria. Palestinians and Israelis have seen long periods of violence. The disaster of 9/11 has precipitated "The War on Terror" and scarcely an Arab country since has been free of terrorist attacks or the tension of retaliatory operations against terrorist groups.
Futurologists forecast that by 2025 the European Union will need up to a hundred and ten million new migrant workers, if European populations are to maintain today's proportions of workers to pensioners. Many of these migrants are expected to come to Europe from Arab countries. Yet a rising level of general migration, a sub-trend of globalization, has already made immigration a hot issuein elections in European countries.
Among the consequences of all of this has been an appalling amount of ignorance, prejudice and hatred of Arab people everywhere. Sir Mark Allen's Who is an Arab?is a passionate and highly informed attempt at an antidote. The book looks at what defines the Arab as a person, the influences and conditions which tell us what the Arab is like and, perhaps, why. The book is more concerned with the people themselves than with history, battles and dates. Also, entering into the spirit of the conviction that we can easily miss the personal dimension, the author shares much of how his own experience shapes his point of view. His knowledge of the Middle East and Arab world today is matchless

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"In Arabs, Mark Allen has written a gem of a book.... In addition to his analytical expertise, Allen's skills as an avid and accomplished falconer provided him a window onto Arab culture and societal values like no other.... Using anecdote and analysis, Allen reduces much of the confusion and misunderstanding that so frequently burden attempts by Westerners to fathom the nuance-laced interactions between cultures and societies."- John Duke Anthony, Middle East Journal, Vol. 61 No. 2 Spring 2007
"a sympathetic analysis of the forces shaping contemporary Arab society. He does not patronise or presume; simply, he tells it the way it is." John Townsend, Asain Affairs, July 2007
'This short book mixes personal anecdote, historical detail and academic insight in an engrossing exploration of Arab identity....Allen attempts a concise sketch of the essence of being Arab. First he clears away some common cultural misconceptions. Western ideas about Arab culture are, he contends, dominated by a fictional Arabia and anchored in the fundamental assumption that it is both romantic and pardoxical. Arabs is engagingly written and whets the appetite for more information about its subject.' Thomas Kollmann, Tribune Books, 7 July 2006
'a slim volume by one of Britain's leading diplomatic Arabists, Mark Allen, is an amiable and...useful guide....[Allen] offers a thoughtful pot-pourri of observations on the Arab psyche and identity.' ~ Economist, 22 July 2006
"Intriguing book... Allen is much better qualified than most to supply... His aim is not to criticize but to understand." Times Online, August 6, 2006
"In Arabs, Mark Allen has written a gem of a book... Allen's skills as an avid and accomplished falconer provided him a window into Arab cultural and societal values like no other"
Book article in The Morning Star, by Geoff Simons
"Had this excellent little book been available to American policy makers in 2002, say, it might have provided a usefully sobering corrective to the exuberance of the neocons." "The flood of books that followed 11 September has tended to focus on politics and terrorism. Arabs offers a much more personal view" "thoughtful, sometimes whimsical, invariably elegant prose" "an illuminating discourse on what it means to be an Arab"
'This is one of the more important short books to have appeared in English in recent years....this books arguments are allusive and elusive. Allen may know a lot, but he is the last person to be impressed by his own knowledge. He is always searching for the unknown.' ' The flavour and excitement of this book is captured in an analogy which the author draws with bird-watching. "An ornithologist would say that I am interested in the jizz of the Arab. That is his jargon for the overall and essential impression a bird makes...the jizz is the spirit of the thing...a compound which unlocks an intensity from the memory in a flash of inspiration." This book will be essential reading for those interested in the Middle East, But it will provide enjoyment for anyone who would like to indulge a little curiosity while savouring fine prose.' ~ Bruce Anderson, Sunday Times, 16 July 2006
Book discussion in Sunday Times online 06/08/2006
'There are 22 members of the League of Arab States, going from Algeria to Yemen, but including the Conorros Islands...What is the common factor uniting these states? Is it blood/ethnicity, religion or power? Who in fact are Arabs? This is the question that Mark Allen trues to answer-and he admits that no easy answer can be given. Allen provides no simple answer to his question, but illustrates, in a lively, entertaining manner, all its complexities.' ~ Michael Fitzgerald, The Tablet, 8 July 2006

Arabs

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