The Missing Piece: Islamic Imperialism

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Muslim Responses, New York, 2001. Written a few years before 9/11 but published in its immediate wake, the book failed to anticipate the attacks, or for that matter any anti-Western terror offensive, yet somehow came to be seen as explaining the general social and cultural background of this momentous event. Lewis amplified this reactive perception of Middle Eastern history in a later article: ‘Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East’, Foreign Affairs (May–June 2005), pp. 36–51. For this standard version see also: George Antonius, The Arab Awakening, London, 1938; Arnold Toynbee, ‘The Present Situation in Palestine’, International Affairs (January 1931), p. 40; George Kirk, A Short History of the Middle East: From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times, New York, 1963, chapter 5; Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, London, 1992, especially chapters 1, 4; Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient, London, 1995. 2. Hamilton A.R. Gibb, Studies on the Civilization of Islam, London, 1962, pp. 38–39. 3. Muhammad ibn Umar al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi, London, 1966, Vol. 3, p. 1113. 4. Abdel Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun, Kitab al-Ibar wa-Diwan al-Mubtada wa-l-Khabar, Beirut, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 408. 5. Sura 9.111. See also sura 2.154, 195, 218; 3.157–3.158, 169; 4.56–4.57, 74–77, 94–95; 8.72; 9.14, 36, 68, 72–73, 83–84, 88–89; 19.72–19.74. 6. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-l-Muluk, Cairo, 1966, Vol. 7, p. 426. 7. From the reign of Peter the Great (1672–1725) to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Russia considered itself a European great power and played a key role in Europe's interactions with the Ottoman Empire. During the communist era (1917–1991), especially the Cold War years, the Soviet Union was removed from the West by an unbridgeable ideological opposition and hence is not treated here as part of ‘Western imperialism’. 8. Gibb, Studies, p. 22. 9. The only partial exceptions to this rule were the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian empires. 10. Hisham Sharabi, Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World, New York, 1966, p. 7. 11. General Nuri Said, Arab Independence and Unity: A Note on the Arab Cause with Particular Reference to Palestine, and Suggestions for a Permanent Settlement to which are attached Texts of all the Relevant Documents, Baghdad, 1943, p. 8. 12. T.E. Lawrence to His Biographers Robert Graves and Liddell Hart, London, 1963, p. 101. Additional informationNotes on contributorsEFRAIM KARSHEfraim Karsh is Professor and Chair of Mediterranean Studies at King's College, University of London.