Arabs

Resumen del libro

A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstone This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia. Mackintosh-Smith reveals how linguistic developments-from pre-Islamic poetry to the growth of script, Muhammad's use of writing, and the later problems of printing Arabic-have helped and hindered the progress of Arab history, and investigates how, even in today's politically fractured post-Arab Spring environment, Arabic itself is still a source of unity and disunity.

Biografía del autor

Tim Mackintosh-Smith es un eminente arabista, historiador, traductor y viajero formado en Oxford y afincado en Yemen desde la década de 1980. Ha publicado de forma extensiva sobre el mundo árabe y su cultura; entre sus obras se incluyen Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land (ganador del Premio Thomas Cook-Daily Telegraph), Travels with a Tangerine (adaptado a un documental de la BBC), The Hall of a Thousand Columns o Landfalls. También ha traducido el libro de viajes más antiguo que existe en árabe, Crónicas de China y la India. La guerra civil de Yemen lo ha obligado a permanecer en el país y, como él mismo asegura, ha aprovechado esa inmovilidad para escribir Los árabes: tres milenios de historia de pueblos, tribus e imperios. Es miembro de la Real Sociedad Asiática y miembro honorario de la Biblioteca de Literatura Árabe.