Moustapha Safouan, in this courageous and honest book, confronts head-on the problem of Arab despotism, examining it from the point of view of political philosophy, religious argument and linguistic history. Safouan's impassioned argument to his fellow Arabs is that if they wish to realise the potential of their great culture, they must follow the linguistic lead of the European Reformation and develop their currently despised vernaculars as written languages.