Youssef M Choueiri

By the turn of the twentieth century, the future of the Arab World was being pulled in different directions by three forces: the major European powers, the Ottoman state, and various Arab organisations and movements, based in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula. As for the European powers, their choices had become more defined by the end of the nineteenth century, with the aim to occupy advanced positions as a prelude to inherit the bulk of Ottoman territories. This policy was premised on an almost unanimous European consensus as to the imminent collapse of the Ottoman empire or the necessity of speeding up its disintegration in order to make possible the redistribution and re-partition of its territories. The only European power that deviated from this unanimity was Germany, for reasons connected with its strategy and interests. In fact, Germany used its diplomatic, military, and financial weight to rejuvenate the Ottoman state. It did so by investing in new economic enterprises, dispatching military missions to strengthen its armed forces and turn them into viable partners in any future confrontation, or by supporting the Ottoman government at the international level in its opposition to the demands of other European powers. 1 The period between the turn of the twentieth century and the eve of the First World War witnessed new multilateral political alignments. One of the most significant was the growing friendship between Great Britain, France, and Russia politically and militarily. By and large, these new bonds of friendship were woven to counter the growing power of a new Germany brimming with an ever-expanding industrial capacity, military capability, and political ambitions to change the balance of power in its favour and rein in the expansionist drive of the British Empire, be it in Europe, Asia, or Africa. It is worth bearing in mind that the British empire at the time was, through its naval power, military bases, colonies, and bilateral treaties, in control of the main world trade routes and capable of conquering new spheres of influence by its mere presence and demonstrable ability to threaten the potential use of military power, as it did in Aden in 1839, Egypt in 1881, and the Sudan in 1899. 2 France, on the other hand, became increasingly anxious to gain Greater Syria as a new prize to add to its substantial North African imperial domains in Algeria and Tunisia. This was all the more apparent in the wake of its occupation of Morocco in 1912. Both Beirut and

... SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1989. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0415031133 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): SUBJECT(S): Arab countries; Historiography; Nationalism. DISCIPLINE: No discipline assigned. LC NUMBER: DS37.4 .C46 1989. HTTP: LANGUAGE: English. ...

Page 1. Reviews 343 AKBAR S. AHMED, Living Islam: From Samarkand to Stornoway (accompanies the TV series) (London: BBC Books, 1993). Pp. 224. REVIEWED BY YOUSSEF M. CHOUEIRI, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter ...

This most impressive book is a worthy addition to recent fundamental works in the fields of Byzantine-Arab relations and the Arab conquests in the Near East by such scholars as Irfan Shahld, Michael Morony and Fred Donner. Like Shahid, Kaegi is fully conversant with the ...

A HISTORY OF PALESTINE 634–1099. By Moshe Gil. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. 968 pp. ARABIC HISTORICAL THOUGHT IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD. By Tarif Khalidi. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, xiii+ 250 pp.£ 35.00 (hb). ...

The philosophical roots of Islamic fundamentalism are largely the result of a conscious attempt to revive and restate the theoretical relevance of Islam in the modern world. The premises of Islamic fundamentalism are rooted in an essentialist world view whereby innate qualities and attributes apply to individuals and human societies, irrespective of time, historical change or political circumstances. Hence, an immutable substance governs human existence and determines its outward movement

The discourse of Contemporary Islamist radicalism derives its inspiration from the writings of three Muslim thinkers and activists.This article is devoted to an initial exposition of the main themes of their texts as the unique founders of this particular  'discursivity'.

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