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Syria: a Short History: Being a Condensation of the Author's 'History of Syria Including Lebanon and Palestine'
ex library d/w bound in
282 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
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39 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Hitti
45 books50 followersPhilip K. Hitti (1886-1978) was a Lebanese historian who was instrumental in establishing the field of Near Eastern Studies in the United States.
Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Year At AUB: 1908
Education: AUB, BA 1908; Columbia University, PhD
Philip Hitti was born in the village of Shemlan in 1886. He graduated from the American University of Beirut with first honors in 1908, teaching there for several years as the University’s first Lebanese professor. He departed for the US, where he studied at Columbia, becoming the first Lebanese, and the first native-born Arab speaker, to receive a PhD in the US in 1915. In 1926 he moved to Princeton, founding the first program of Middle Eastern Studies in the US, which he chaired until his retirement in 1954. Under Hitti’s leadership Princeton became the premier center for Islamic studies in the West and was one of the pioneers of the concept of area studies. He was also a prolific writer, and his seminal book, History of the Arabs, published in 1937, is in its 11th edition. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of AUB, the recipient of innumerable awards from the governments of the Arab countries, and received numerous heads of State in his home including the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Year At AUB: 1908
Education: AUB, BA 1908; Columbia University, PhD
Philip Hitti was born in the village of Shemlan in 1886. He graduated from the American University of Beirut with first honors in 1908, teaching there for several years as the University’s first Lebanese professor. He departed for the US, where he studied at Columbia, becoming the first Lebanese, and the first native-born Arab speaker, to receive a PhD in the US in 1915. In 1926 he moved to Princeton, founding the first program of Middle Eastern Studies in the US, which he chaired until his retirement in 1954. Under Hitti’s leadership Princeton became the premier center for Islamic studies in the West and was one of the pioneers of the concept of area studies. He was also a prolific writer, and his seminal book, History of the Arabs, published in 1937, is in its 11th edition. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of AUB, the recipient of innumerable awards from the governments of the Arab countries, and received numerous heads of State in his home including the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 21, 2025
A Syrious Work
I bought this book many years ago, as an undergraduate, but never got around to reading it till now. That's a shame because I could have learned what I should have learned long ago. By `Syria', the author means the area known by that name throughout most of human history, an area which would include today Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan as well as the modern Republic of Syria. As such, we are talking about one of the core areas of world civilization, linked to Egypt and Iraq since ancient times. The story of Syria, after a brief exploration of geography, starts in prehistoric eras and via archaeological research, moves up through the ancient Semites, into Greek and Roman times. As Hitti published this book in 1961, a lot of modern data are missing---information gleaned from further archaeological work plus DNA research and use of techniques not available fifty years ago. Byzantines, Arabs, and Persians all left their mark on the era before the rise of Islam. Syria was the first major conquest of the new religion, which took a long time to absorb the majority of the local population. Dynasties came and went for many centuries, but the greatest for Syria were the Umayyads, when Damascus was the capital of a huge empire stretching from Spain to China. The Umayyads did not last very long, giving way to the Abbasids, based in Iraq. After the latter came many petty dynasties. The Crusaders invaded from Europe in the late 1000s and roiled the waters of the area for a couple hundred years at the same time as Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Mongol invaders battled over the land as well. Syria's population declined. From the beginning of the 1500s, all of Syria became an Ottoman province and remained so until 1918, when the British and French divided Syria into its present parts. For most of the Ottoman period, Syria lay outside the circle of human development and change, stagnating and scarcely growing. The creation of a Zionist homeland for the Jews, no matter how good for the former, was another disaster for the inhabitants of long-suffering Syria. The book finishes at 1958, but in the terms of thousands of years of civilization, wars, sea changes from one religion, language, and culture to another, fifty-odd years are as nothing. The direction to be taken by Syria and its modern components is yet to be seen.
I can't say that the style of this volume is original, but the work is definitely thorough. Hitti not only covers kings, dynasties and battles, but also trends in economy, literature, philosophy, architecture, art, and religion. The book is well-written, if somewhat densely packed with facts. Given the immense time span, this was inevitable. For an introduction to the history of a pivotal part of the modern world, you could very well turn to SYRIA: A SHORT HISTORY.
I bought this book many years ago, as an undergraduate, but never got around to reading it till now. That's a shame because I could have learned what I should have learned long ago. By `Syria', the author means the area known by that name throughout most of human history, an area which would include today Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan as well as the modern Republic of Syria. As such, we are talking about one of the core areas of world civilization, linked to Egypt and Iraq since ancient times. The story of Syria, after a brief exploration of geography, starts in prehistoric eras and via archaeological research, moves up through the ancient Semites, into Greek and Roman times. As Hitti published this book in 1961, a lot of modern data are missing---information gleaned from further archaeological work plus DNA research and use of techniques not available fifty years ago. Byzantines, Arabs, and Persians all left their mark on the era before the rise of Islam. Syria was the first major conquest of the new religion, which took a long time to absorb the majority of the local population. Dynasties came and went for many centuries, but the greatest for Syria were the Umayyads, when Damascus was the capital of a huge empire stretching from Spain to China. The Umayyads did not last very long, giving way to the Abbasids, based in Iraq. After the latter came many petty dynasties. The Crusaders invaded from Europe in the late 1000s and roiled the waters of the area for a couple hundred years at the same time as Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Mongol invaders battled over the land as well. Syria's population declined. From the beginning of the 1500s, all of Syria became an Ottoman province and remained so until 1918, when the British and French divided Syria into its present parts. For most of the Ottoman period, Syria lay outside the circle of human development and change, stagnating and scarcely growing. The creation of a Zionist homeland for the Jews, no matter how good for the former, was another disaster for the inhabitants of long-suffering Syria. The book finishes at 1958, but in the terms of thousands of years of civilization, wars, sea changes from one religion, language, and culture to another, fifty-odd years are as nothing. The direction to be taken by Syria and its modern components is yet to be seen.
I can't say that the style of this volume is original, but the work is definitely thorough. Hitti not only covers kings, dynasties and battles, but also trends in economy, literature, philosophy, architecture, art, and religion. The book is well-written, if somewhat densely packed with facts. Given the immense time span, this was inevitable. For an introduction to the history of a pivotal part of the modern world, you could very well turn to SYRIA: A SHORT HISTORY.
April 5, 2018
If you need a starting point for the history of Syria you might as well start with this short history. The book begins with pre-historic times and runs up to the publication date of 1959. It is dense and, considering the time span covered, necessarily brief, but in the 260 pages of this book you’re presented with a clear moving picture of Syria. Obviously there is much to be updated but if you’re looking for a good history of Syria, especially the early history (pre-Napoleon), then look no further. If you’re looking for the Napoleanic and subsequent era’s you might find this book a bit too brief.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews