A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani

Author:Albert Hourani
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780571265596
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART IV

THE AGE OF EUROPEAN EMPIRES

(1800–1939)

The nineteenth century was the age when Europe dominated the world. The growth of large-scale factory production and the changes in methods of communication – the coming of steamships, railways and telegraphs – led to an expansion of European trade. This was accompanied by an increase in the armed power of the great European states; the first major conquest of an Arabic-speaking country was that of Algeria by France (1830–47). Muslim states and societies could no longer live in a stable and self-sufficient system of inherited culture; their need was now to generate the strength to survive in a world dominated by others. The Ottoman government adopted new methods of military organization and administration and legal codes modelled upon those of Europe, and so did the rulers of two of the virtually autonomous provinces of the empire, Egypt and Tunisia.

In the capitals of these reforming governments, and in the ports which grew as a result of expanding trade with Europe, a new alliance of interests was formed between reforming governments, foreign merchants and an indigenous élite of landowners and merchants engaged in the trade with Europe. It was an unstable balance, however, and in due course Egypt and Tunisia fell under European control, followed by Morocco and Libya. The Ottoman Empire also lost most of its European provinces, and became more of a Turkish–Arab state.

While the religious and legal culture of Islam continued to be preserved, a new kind of thought emerged, trying to explain the reasons for the strength of Europe and show that Muslim countries could adopt European ideas and methods without being untrue to their own beliefs. Those who developed this new kind of thought were to a great extent graduates of schools created by reforming governments or foreign missionaries, and they could express their ideas through the new media of the newspaper and the periodical Their dominant ideas were those of the reform of Islamic law; the creation of a new basis for the Ottoman Empire, that of equal citizenship; and – at the end of the nineteenth century – nationalism. Apart from rare moments of upheaval, the new ideas scarcely touched the lives of people in the countryside and desert.

The First World War ended with the final disappearance of the Ottoman Empire. Out of the ruins of the empire a new independent state of Turkey emerged, but the Arab provinces were placed under British and French control; the whole of the Arabic-speaking world was now under European rule, except for parts of the Arabian peninsula. Foreign control brought administrative change and some advance in education, but also encouraged the growth of nationalism, mainly among the educated strata of society. In some countries agreement was reached with the dominant power on the extension of self-rule within limits, but in others the relationship remained one of opposition. The encouragement given by the British government to the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine created a situation which was to affect nationalist opinion in all Arabic-speaking countries.

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