History of the Arabs (book)

History of the Arabs is a book written by Philip Khuri Hitti and was first published in 1937. Hitti spent 10 years writing this book ^[1]

According to Hitti's own account, in 1927 the editor Daniel Macmillan, the brother of Harold Macmillan, wrote to Philip Hitti asking him to write a history of the Arabs.^[1] Hitti agreed, estimating that it would take him three years to complete the book, but the task actually took him 10 years.^[1] Although its editor originally hesitated to publish even a hundred copies of this book, the book has gone through ten published editions since then.^[1]

In his History of the Arabs, Philip Hitti denies the idea of an Arab army destroyed by Charles Martel, stressing that the caliph had just died and that these Arabs preferred Spain to more northerly areas. For him, it is not the defeat of the Arabs which enabled the possibility of the Occident, as if the Arabs had to be defeated so that the Occident could exist. Instead, it is the transmission of the knowledge of the Mediterranean basin and beyond, and thus the dialogue between the two banks of the Mediterranean, which enabled the foundation of the Occident.

References

1. A Talk With Philip Hitti

• Philip Khuri Hitti, History of the Arabs, Revised: 10th Edition, Palgrave Macmillan; (September 6, 2002) ISBN 0-333-63142-0