A History of the Arab Peoples Albert Hourani Essay Example for Free

A History of the Arab Peoples Albert Hourani Essay Albert Hourani’s book â€Å"A History of the Arab people highlights the Arab history in general since the early beginning of Islam –and even before that-, till the modern ages in the nineteenth century. The book is great for westerners interested in the Arabs and for Arabs, who are not familiar with their history. The book is a good add to any interested reader. Back ground information Lebanese-American historian Albert Tourane represent this book as an addition to his previous works discussing Arab’s history and Arabian affairs such as, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789-1939,which was first published in 1962. It would be a mistake to deal with this book as a pure history book. It’s not depending only on dates and chronological extent of the Arabic people and civilization and this is a good point to build our review on it. Summary Hourani’s book begins with the story of Ibn-Khaldon, the great Arab socialist. The following chapter talks about the appearance of Islam and Muhammad and then his successors and the formation of the Islamic empire 3 . Next, the book talks about the Islamic society and its Koranic accounts 4 with the great revolution in translating science and Greek philosophy with the appearance of Sufism 5 . Islamic expansion and the description of minorities like Jews and Christians 6 followed. Life in countryside 7 and cities 8 and the rulers of the societies 9 were mentioned in later pages. † way of Islam† 1o and â€Å"The culture of the Ulema† 11 are two chapters talking about the faith in Islam with sense of community and low determination. The book also shows how culture was well represented 12 and how the following Ottoman empire 13 sustained the Arab world, with a brief description of Ottoman societies 14 . Chapter fifteen starts talking about the eighteenth century 15 and the European powers in the Arabic areas 16 like French intervention in Algeria. Opening of Suez Canal and Zionism arose with Jews settled in Palestine 16 and how the culture of Imperialism 17 started to have a loud voice in the area. Word War One 18 and its influence discussed in Chapter nineteen 19 with the modern life in Arabic societies 20 . Book show how the emergence of Israel started and the independent movements were held from French British and The tragedy of the triple attack on Egypt on 195621. Chapter twenty two 22 show a rapid change in Arabic societies and the Arabic culture extended 23 with the climax of Arabism started from 1950s 23 . Final chapters of the book discussed the difference between Arabs, the sudden death of Nasser and the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel 24. final chapter states some major problems in the area, including Kurds struggle for independence, Sudan problem and women issues. Number of twenty pages of maps followed, which make a great way to represent the places that was mentioned in the book. Evaluation of the book This book is well represented with all the illustration and maps introduced. The Index is well-written and helpful in finding any information directly. As mentioned before, the book couldn’t be categorized as a history book; its better described as Social-history book and starting with the life of Ibn-Khaldun is such evidence. It represents a vast look on the Arabic societies through history, describing the life style, science, different religion and civilization. Many chapters described the same period of time but dealing with different subjects, like chapters twenty 25 two and twenty three 26 in the (1950s and 1960s). From the other point of view, this book skims some important details such as, the detailed pre-Islamic era, the great empires of Umayyad and Abbasid which was represented with partly amount of pages that doesn’t exceed seven pages in some cases. Also the detailed life of Prophet Muhammad, which has a great impact on the Arabic societies. Also Crusaders wars weren’t well mentioned, although it has a very huge impact on Arabs in its time. Conclusion Dealing with the history of Arabs is such a great effort and a hard game to play. This book tried to do the most of the job with a different way, which is representing history from the social point of view. I would recommend this book if one already has a minimum knowledge and understanding of Arab history . Otherwise I recommend alternatives such as, History of the Arabs from the earliest times to the present, of Philip Hitti. It would be useful for a good specialized historical reading.

Mirror by Sylvia Plath, 789-790. :: English Literature

Mirror by Sylvia Plath, 789-790. Why Silvia Plath wrote a poem about a mirror? Sylvia Plath was born on 27 October 1932, at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital. She was an excellent student in high school. Her first poem appeared when she was eight. Once graduated from high school, She entered Smith College in 1950 on a scholarship. On 24 August 1953, she attempted suicide swallowing sleeping pills. Sylvia was readmitted to Smith College for the spring-semester 1954 after receiving electro shock therapy treatment for her recovery. She graduated with honors from Smith College winning a Fulbright scholarship at Cambridge, England. There she found Ted Hughes and got married with him on 16 June 1956. The year of 1958 was very stressful for their relationship. On the last day of school she found her husband cheating on her with a young student. In April1960, Frieda Rebecca (their first child) was born. Later that year Plath became pregnant again and in February she had a miscarriage. She also had an appendectomy, which left her stitched & hospitalized for a number of weeks. On 17 January 1962 Plath Nicholas Farrar (their second child) was born. Late in September the married couple decided for a legal separation. In October Plath wrote over 25 poems and they were the best. In November she and her children moved to London where they had no telephone and the heat was no enough for the cold. Plath spent most of her time in London very lonely. The winter from 1962 to 1963 was recorded as one of the coldest in London ever. Sewer pipes froze and there was plenty of ice and snow on the ground. She and her children got sick leading her to a depression. On 11 February 1963, Plath took her own life. She placed her head in a gas oven and died of gas intoxication. Why Silvia wrote a poem about a mirror? Silvia wrote this poem the same year she committed suicide. The reason why she wrote a poem about a mirror is because at that time she was doing a deep introspection and she did not like what she saw, she was afraid of growing older. She also mentioned her fear of growing older in another journal that she wrote. Quotations for support: When Plath was young she looked at the mirror and see herself superficially; she did not look deep into herself: "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike" (789). But as Plath ages, She begins to look into herself deeper than just

Comparisons Between Araby and A&P Essay

Araby is a story about a young boy who has an intense attraction to this girl. He goes out of his way to watch her every morning, and eventually talks to her. She says how she wants to go to the bazaar but cannot due to the fact that she’s going away on some church related trip. He wants nothing more than to impress this girl so he offers to travel to the bazaar himself and get her something. His uncle is late returning home on the day the boy is to go shop, so the boy ends up having to pay more to get into the bazaar. After looking around for a while, a lady that works there asks if he is interested in anything, and he responds saying no. As he turns to leave, the bazaar is beginning to close for the night, the light shuts off on him as he walks back to return home. A&P is a story about a boy names Sammie who works in a supermarket. In this story Sammie is telling the readers what he sees with an elaborate devotion to detail. One day while he is working, three girls walk in with swimsuits on. He is shown to have some sort of instant attraction to one of the girls. He sees the most attractive girl to be the leader of the three nicknaming her â€Å"Queenie†, and while he goes in to detail of how beautiful her features are, he tells of how her â€Å"followers† were chubby and unattractive. When Sammie’s manager spots the girls, he scolds them about their attire. Sammie wanting to come to the rescue of the girls quits. His manager is a friend of his parents and tells him he is making a mistake, but Sammie doesn’t care. He walks out the store hoping to see â€Å"his† girls, but when they are nowhere in sight he realizes he’s made a mistake that was foolish. In these stories Araby by James Joyce and A&P by John Updike, there are many similarities and at the same time, these stories contain many differences. One of the many similarities between these two stories is that both these boys are seriously intrigued with someone of the opposite sex. While they go in to detail on the appearance of the girls they are interested in, they never give a name. This can be seen as the boys being obsessed with the female species. Another trait these boys share would have to be that they will go out of their way to impress these girls. The boy in Araby offers to go to the bazaar to spend his own money and purchase her a gift. Sammie tries to impress the girls by quitting his job. He feels as if he is defending their honor. Another similarity between these two boys is they failed in impressing the girls in their stories. Sammie quits then goes outside to look for the three girls that he quit for, but they were nowhere in sight. After discovering that they are not outside he feels regret, not only for quitting his job and not impressing the girls like he intended to do, but because he let his manager and parents down, and realized how foolish and rash his decision was. The boy in the Araby story felt foolish after he went out his way to go to the bazaar for this girl, and ended up paying just to leave empty-handed. When the lights turned off on him as he was walking out made it seem as if he was taking a walk of shame. He felt unwise because he was blinded by beauty and wasn’t using his brain. Just as there similarities, there are differences between the two stories Araby and A&P. One difference between the two stories is that in A&P when religion was spoken about it was mentioned briefly. In Araby, religion was mentioned a lot, and whenever it was mentioned it was usually in a negative way. In A&P Sammie mentions how his manager works in the church and has many jobs. In Araby the first time they mention religion, they mention the death of the boy’s family’s tenant, who was a priest. Another difference between these stories is that the boy in Araby only described the girl as being a beautiful object, while Sammie made the girl in his story seem more like a sexual object. Sammie made observations on how her top strap would hang off her shoulder, making her look naked from the neck down to her shoulder. The boy in Araby made comments on how graceful the girl in his story’s hair was.

The Easter Island Statues How the Moai Were Made