Europe and the Middle East

240 Pages·1980·3.572 MB·English

by  Albert Hourani

EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

EUROPE AND THE
M IDDLE EAST
Albert Hourani
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles
©Albert Hourani 1980
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
without permission.
First published 1980 by
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
ISBN: 0 -5 2 0 -0 3 7 4 2 -1
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78—059452
Printed in Great Britain
To ODILE

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction xi
1 Western Attitudes towards Islam 1
2 Islam and the Philosophers of History 19
3 Muslims and Christians 74
4 Volney and the Ruin of Empires 81
5 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and the Revival of the
East 87
6 H. A. R. Gibb: the Vocation of an Orientalist 104
7 Toynbee’s Vision of History 135
8 The Present State of Islamic and Middle
Eastern Historiography 161
Notes 197
Index 217
Vll

Acknowledgements
Of the essays in this collection, that on Volney and the Ruins of
Empires has not previously been published. I am grateful to the
editors and publishers who have given permission to reprint the
others:
Western Attitudes towards Islam: 10th annual Montefiore Lecture,
given at the University of Southampton, 5 March 1974, and
published by the University, 1974.
Muslims and Christians: Frontier, vol. 3 (1960).
Islam and the Philosophers of History: Middle Eastern Studies,
vol. 3 (1967).
Blunt and the Revival of the East: Middle East Forum, vol. 38
(1962).
Toynbee’s Vision of History: Dublin Review, vol. 119 (1955),
reprinted in A Vision of History, Khayats, Beirut, 1961.
H. A. R. Gibb: the Vocation of an Orientalist: Proceedings of the
British Academy, vol. 58 (1972), Oxford University Press, 1974.
The Present State of Islamic and Middle Eastern Historiography:
L. Binder (ed.), The Study of the Middle East, John Wiley and
Sons Inc., New York, 1976. © 1976 by John Wiley and Sons
Inc.
I must also acknowledge with thanks permission to publish
quotations:
Presses Universitaires de France, for the quotations on p. 20 and
p. 38 from L. Massignon, Opera Minora, ed. Y. Moubarac.
Editions du Cerf, for the quotation on p. 41 from J. Jomier, Bible
et Coran.
Macdonald and Jane’s Publishers Ltd, for the quotations on
p. 102 and p. 103 from the Earl of Lytton, Wilfrid Scawen
Blunt.
IX
Acknowledgements
X
University of Chicago Press, for the quotations on p. 53
and p. 119 from H. A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam.
Copyright 1947 by the University of Chicago.
Professor Bernard Lewis, for the quotation on p. 128 from a letter
written to him by H. A. R. Gibb.
I am deeply indebted and grateful to those who helped in
various ways towards the publication of this book: Sarah Graham-
Brown for her editorial work, Patrick Seale my literary agent, and
John Winckler and Allan Aslett of Macmillan.
The essays were selected and prepared for publication during a
month spent at the Villa Serbelloni on Lake Como in 1975. I must
thank the Rockefeller Foundation for making it possible for me to
enjoy perfect working conditions at the Villa, and Bill and Betsy
Olson for the warm and sensitive friendship and hospitality which
turned a study centre into a home.