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Arabs
- 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.
- 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.
160 pages, Paperback
First published July 10, 2006
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Mark Allen
7 booksSir Mark John Spurgeon Allen CMG is a British former spy, turned businessman and academic lecturer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Al...
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Al...
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 6, 2021
The book offers some waymarkers for the key social and cultural pillars which distinguish the Arab psyche. These are of value. Having said that, I'm not sure exactly what the target audience was for this book, but as someone knowing very little about "Arabs" I found it quite inaccessible. There were occasional anecdotes but fewer insights. At the end of the book I had gained very little empathy or understanding for "Arabs", except for an appreciation that we "Europeans" and they are made very differently. That was a little disappointing.
On the plus side, the book is admirably concise.
On the plus side, the book is admirably concise.
May 1, 2012
An awful book.
Nothing more than an Orientalist rag written by a washed-up former spy who thinks he has insight into those 'Orientals of the Arabian Desert.' Nothing more than simple-minded, essentializing, broad platitudes supported by unrelated anecdotes from his time among the tribes.
If you are looking for a good book to read, use this one as a coaster for your coffee while you read a better piece of literature or non-fiction.
Nothing more than an Orientalist rag written by a washed-up former spy who thinks he has insight into those 'Orientals of the Arabian Desert.' Nothing more than simple-minded, essentializing, broad platitudes supported by unrelated anecdotes from his time among the tribes.
If you are looking for a good book to read, use this one as a coaster for your coffee while you read a better piece of literature or non-fiction.
January 29, 2016
This slim book contains Mark Allen's observations about Arabs and Arab life from many years of involvement and encounter from being a diplomat, falconer, and speaker of Arabic, although he modestly says he didn't get to master it.
This modesty is an appealing part of the book, as he recounts his experiences, making comments about how Arabs go about their lives whilst saying that many may disagree with his observations. He thinks for instance that they they are gregarious with no concept of privacy as the western world knows it, but there are things not to be discussed. Institutions and nations do not have the same relevance as in the west, and there are family and community requirements that appear supreme (my interpretation of his observation).
Allen tells insightful stories about his Arab friends and acquaintances in various parts of the Arab and European world. The theme is that these are a group of diverse people (although they are not Syrians) whose perspective is theirs, not what outsiders might presume or want, in government for instance, calling into question by implication recent western interventions, not that that's a difficult task if your interest is in history.
This was a very interesting book: easy to read and with some fascinating information. I found it in a remainders catalogue I have mailed to me every month, although it appears to have sold well when it was published in 2006.
This modesty is an appealing part of the book, as he recounts his experiences, making comments about how Arabs go about their lives whilst saying that many may disagree with his observations. He thinks for instance that they they are gregarious with no concept of privacy as the western world knows it, but there are things not to be discussed. Institutions and nations do not have the same relevance as in the west, and there are family and community requirements that appear supreme (my interpretation of his observation).
Allen tells insightful stories about his Arab friends and acquaintances in various parts of the Arab and European world. The theme is that these are a group of diverse people (although they are not Syrians) whose perspective is theirs, not what outsiders might presume or want, in government for instance, calling into question by implication recent western interventions, not that that's a difficult task if your interest is in history.
This was a very interesting book: easy to read and with some fascinating information. I found it in a remainders catalogue I have mailed to me every month, although it appears to have sold well when it was published in 2006.
March 27, 2015
Looks like Mr. Allen's companionship of the region's oil tycoons has perpetuated his one-dimensional outlook of Arabs.
As much as the author was trying to show his in-depth knowledge of Arabs and their diversity, it seemed that he always fell back into the narrow-minded look of a neo-colonial orientalist about Arabs; bedouins, obsessed with honour and women.
As much as the author was trying to show his in-depth knowledge of Arabs and their diversity, it seemed that he always fell back into the narrow-minded look of a neo-colonial orientalist about Arabs; bedouins, obsessed with honour and women.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews