A world where a family from South Arabia could move to Spain and after six centuries return nearer to its place of origin and still find itself in familiar surroundings, had a unity which transcended divisions of time and space; the Arabic language could open the door to office and influence throughout the world; a body of knowledge transmitted over the centuries by a known chain of teachers, preserved a moral community even when rulers changed; place of pilgrimage, Mecca and Jerusalem, were unchanging poles of the human world even if power shifted from one city to another . . . . Albert Hourani, A HIS TORY OF THE AR AB PEOPLES
VIE W F ROM INS ID E
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View From Inside Wendy Watriss in this quote from his classic book — A History of the Arab Peoples—Albert
Hourani writes about the Arab world of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is a time of course that has changed but it is also about a part of history that defined a key region of the world for four hundred years—a history which continues to this day in unexpected ways. In reading Professor Hourani’s book, one marvels at the sheer density and multiplicity of civilizations, religions and communities of people who have occupied, re-occupied and moved across lands that lie between Asia, the Russian steppes, western Europe and Africa. They brought into the region and then fought over Buddhism, Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and many forms of Christianity. It is a permeable region, more open to the movements of people west, east and south than most. It has few natural barriers against conquest—no vast oceans, impassable mountains or broad dry steppes. Even the Arabian Peninsula, distanced by desert from the centers of ancient civilizations for many years, is itself easily approachable from the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea. Hazem Harb (Palestine) Me and the Other Half (Series #3/3), 2012 Silver Gelatin Print Courtesy of the Artist and Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
These are lands of trade and commerce, pathways from west to east and vice versa, marked by great caravan routes. Palmyra, an ancient Arabic city at the western end of the Silk Route in what was Greater Syria, was larger than Rome in 300 BC. Its gold-hued columns, temples and amphitheater still bear witness to many civilizations—ancient
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