Page 78 - EducationWorld August 2022

Books

Tragic history THE ARABS: A HISTORY munities in Palestine…”.
This inherently contra-
Eugene Rogan dictory declaration opened
LTHOUGH AN PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE the floodgates of mass
estimated 7.6 Rs.899 emigration of European
Amillion Indian Jews who had suffered
citizens and people of Pages 718 continuous discrimina-
Indian origin are employed tion and persecution in
throughout Middle East European countries for
countries, especially in the centuries, into Palestine.
Gulf Emirates and Saudi but conclude that never in The deep yearning Especially after the Second
Arabia, in India there is global history have a peo- for unity, justice World War during which
hardly any awareness or ple united by one religion and freedom of Arab Germans attempted mass
knowledge of the history of and a common language, people united by extermination of European
the Arab world. Syllabuses been so wronged. religion has invariably Jews. As a result, a non-
and national curriculum Even if during the past been thwarted Arab essentially European
frameworks designed half century, providence nation was established in
by faux academics have has compensated them ter the war, the victorious the Middle East and as
ensured that despite our — or at least their rulers — European allies — Britain recounted in considerable
geographical contiguity with vast fortunes flowing and France in particular — detail in this rigorous his-
and commerce and intel- from crude oil reserves recklessly redrew bound- tory, native Arab Palestin-
lectual linkages dating buried beneath burning, ary lines and lorded over ians have been driven out
back several millennia with unyielding desert sands, old and newly created Arab of that country.
Arab countries, there’s the essential tragedy of the sultanates of the Middle The consequence has
almost no real sense within Arab people is that their East and North Africa. been persistent warfare
the general populace of deep yearning for unity, The imperious reckless- and instability in the Mid-
the tumultuous history of justice and freedom has in- ness with which colonial dle East where the Jewish
this volatile region, despite variably been thwarted by powers of the early 20th state of Israel, armed to
the God-gifted crude oil the machinations of 20th century redrew regional the teeth by the US and the
reserves of the Middle century European colonial boundaries and established West, has won three wars
East being of vital im- powers, and also by their monarchies and govern- and the issue of awarding
portance for growth and own narrow-minded clergy ments in the Arab world, even a sliver of territory to
development of the Indian and autocratic leaders. have had repercussions for native Palestinians to call
economy. The golden age of Arabs over a century and have their own is yet to be re-
Therefore this book, was the five centuries after kept the Middle East and solved. Meanwhile follow-
first written in 2009 by establishment of Islam as Arab people in a state of ing weaponisation of the
Eugene Rogan, professor the dominant religion of disequilibrium ever since. immense crude oil reserves
of Middle Eastern history Arabia in 700 CE (current In 1921, the British of Saudi Arabia and several
at Oxford University (UK) era). But the golden age carved Jordan out of Arab countries grouped
and updated in 2018, is of Arab empires ended Palestine to reward Sheikh under OPEC (Organisation
highly recommended to in 1453 when the Otto- Faisal who had been a of Petroleum Exporting
students of geopolitics, man Turks of Balkans and loyal anti-Turkish ally in Countries), globalisation of
economists, businessmen central Asian ethnicity World War I. Worse, with- the complex struggle for a
and media pundits who captured Constantinople, out adequate debate and Palestinian state through
often make ill-informed the last major Christian deliberation, in 1917 the terror networks, and the
references to Arab politics stronghold in Asia. After British government made futile struggle of the Arab
in lectures and essays. that, Turks who renamed the Balfour Declaration in masses to free themselves
After reading this bril- Constantinople as Istan- “favour of the establish- of their oppressive clergy
liantly researched history bul, ruled Arabs for “four ment in Palestine of a state and dictatorships, has pro-
drawn from a bibliography of the past five centuries”. for the Jewish people… it foundly impacted global
rich with Arab sources, Turkish rule over Arab being clearly understood geopolitics.
documentation and nar- satrapies came to an end that nothing shall be done The merit of this wide-
ratives — the author is when the Ottomans chose which may prejudice the ranging narrative is that it
evidently fluent in the to ally with Germany in civil and religious rights of includes concise histories
language — one can’t help World War I (1914-18). Af- existing non-Jewish com- of all nations of the Arab

78 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022