Book Review

Oiled wheels of Eastern power

The Arabs: a history

ooking out on the Middle East, where culture and politics seem to have serious difficulties with change, it is hard not to wish that we knew a bit more about the past, the roots of these dismaying problems. There has been no shortage of quick comment, hazard-warning signs about terror, Saddam, Islamists and energy, but depth has been less easy to come by. So it is a relief to turn to a substantial new book, written by a serious scholar who lays out the background to a region which threatens to make itself more, rather than less, felt in the years ahead.

Eugene Rogan does not offer us an easy ride, but, as with all good journeys, we feel better for having made it. Rogan is head of the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College, Oxford, the principal centre of excellence in this country for the study of the modern Middle East. His book initially struck me as mid-Atlantic (the spelling is American) and mildly anti-British, but I turned back to his introduction: “I believe Western readers would view Arab history differently were they to see it through the eyes of Arab men and women who described the times through which they lived.” It was an important corrective. The imperial British and French who had so much influence on the region from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, do well to consider how their exploits must have seemed to those at the other end of the bayonet or, indeed, to the Americans. Rogan doesn’t spare the home truths; robust readers will cope.

He starts in 1516 with the Ottomans’ victory over the Mamluks who ruled Egypt, Syria and Western Arabia. He ends in early 2009 with the latest Israeli operation against Gaza and the departure of President Bush. The principal themes of empire, nationalism, modernity, religion, oil and the Arab- Israel dispute are set out and related to each other with great skill and pace. Vivid cameos from contemporary sources are balanced by summary passages which distil and present the significance of these in the narrative.

The great modern work in English on Arab history also came from St Antony’s, Albert Hourani’s A History of the Arab Peoples, published in 1991. Hourani’s great interest was in societies, culture and the lives of cities. He describes the intellectual traditions and social preferences which have given the Arab world such a notable character. Rogan’s history more than stands comparison, although it is very different in style and purpose, for Rogan is primarily interested in the narrative of power. He leads on the personalities of regimes and movements, the rulers and activists who drove political events.

This distinction between two historians by no means intends exclusive categories, but is an attempt to suggest where the centre of gravity in each book lies. Their differences of approach are matters of personal inclination and also formation. Both are needed and it is good that those asking for background on today’s Middle East can now be recommended two guides, Hourani and Rogan, to get the best possible picture.

Rogan’s political emphasis complements Hourani, and to good purpose. The political drama of the Middle East affects us too – energy security, finance, demography and violence will see to that. Rogan tells a story of power which is fast-moving, and we can scarcely fail to be moved by its thread of passion. Some of this derives from frustration: the Arabs care about their problems, but are unable to treat them. And the fault does not entirely lie with the outsiders.
Until the story reaches today’s nation states, the reader may well feel that the Arabs themselves are secondary actors in the plot. We recognise the geography as the Arab world, but the main players are Turks, their non-Arab viceroys and imperial Europeans. Later, even under the banner of Arab nationalism, Arab men of power remained elite and authoritarian. And, actually, so it has continued. The rulers of the new nation states and their revolutionary successors, even the dynasts of the monarchies which are still in place, have played popular aspiration and modernising ambition, but they have kept power tightly to themselves. Outsiders, with their strategic interests, have had great influence, it is true, but they have also been manipulated by local regimes: the costs paid by ordinary people have been grave.

In consequence, a popular temper of disability, even victimhood, suffuses an authoritarian region and is a driver in today’s upswing in religious sentiment and observance. Ordinary Arabs have little say in policy and direction. This deficit in broad political experience partly explains why the Iraqis reacted to the coalition invasion in 2003 as they did, and why prospects remain so opaque.

Personal power and a lack of institutions entail the ugly conclusion that “it takes a strongman to rule”. Bolstering the status quo then seems a foregone policy imperative. Bush’s striving for freedom for the people of the region may have been well intentioned but, as was the case with earlier outsiders, the policy and strategies he chose lacked depth of understanding. There is depth in Rogan’s History. He has done his generation a great service.

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