A History Of The Arab Peoples: Albert Hourani, c. 1991

A History of the Arab Peoples: Albert Hourani, c. 1991

Some terms, some still used, some not:

• Maghrib: northwest Africa
• Mashriq: Middle East
• Andalus: the Muslim parts of the Iberian peninsula
• Syria: a modern day country, but also a larger physical, social region with common historical experiences
• caliphate = empire; caliph: successor

From the prologue to give an example of the unity and extension of the Arab peoples:

Mamluk sultanate: Cairo was the capital; one of the greatest Muslim states of the time 

Historians have traditionally broken the era of Mamlūk rule into two periods—one covering 1250–1382, the other, 1382–1517. Western historians call the former the "Baḥrī" period and the latter the "Burjī" due to the political dominance of the regimes known by these names during the respective eras. Contemporary Muslim historians refer to the same divisions as the "Turkish" and "Circassian" periods in order to stress the change in the ethnic origins of the majority of Mamlūks.

Timur (Tamerlane), 1336 – 1405: one of the great Asian conquerors;

created an empire which stretched from northern India to Syria and Anatolia; "islamized and iranized" his empire; born in Uzbekistan; Timur gained control of the western Chagatai Khanate by 1370. From that base, he led military campaigns across Western, South and Central Asia, the Caucasus and southern Russia, and emerged as the most powerful ruler in the Muslim world after defeating the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the emerging Ottoman Empire, and the declining Delhi Sultanate.[7] From these conquests, he founded the Timurid Empire, but this empire fragmented shortly after his death. 

Part I: The Making of a World, 7th to 10th centuries

Part II: Arab Muslim Societies, 11th to 15th centuries

Part III: The Ottoman Age, 16th to 18th centuries

Part IV: The Age of European Empires, 1800 - 1939

Part V: The Age of Nation-States, since 1939

Last chapter, since 1967 to the 1980s.

Text: 458 pages

Maps: twelve

Genealogies and Dynasties