The Arabs in history

"This is not so much a history of the Arabs as an essay in interpretation. Rather than compress so vast a subject into a bare outline of dates and events, I have sought to isolate and examine certain basic issues -- the place of the Arabs in human history, their identity, their achievement, and the salient characteristics of the several ages of their development. ... My special thanks are due to Professor H. A. R. Gibb, Dr. U. Heyd, and Dr. D. S. Rice for reading and critcising my manuscript ... and to Professor A. T. Hatto for many useful suggestions for the second edition." [ Extract from PREFACE by the author: Bernard Lewis, Professor of the History of the Near & Middle East, University of London.]