Drawing on material from a multitude of sources, including the work of archaeologists and scholars, Lewis chronologically traces the political, economical, social, and cultural development of the Middle East, from Hellenization in antiquity to the impact of westernization on Islamic culture. Meticulously researched, this enlightening narrative explores the patterns of history that have repeated themselves in the Middle East.

From the ancient conflicts to the current geographical and religious disputes between the Arabs and the Israelis, Lewis examines the ability of this region to unite and solve its problems and asks if, in the future, these unresolved conflicts will ultimately lead to the ethnic and cultural factionalism that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.

Product Description

In a sweeping and vivid survey, renowned historian Bernard Lewis charts the history of the Middle East over the last 2,000 years, from the birth of Christianity through the modern era, focusing on the successive transformations that have shaped it. Elegantly sritten, scholarly yet accessible, The Middle East is the most comprehensive single volume history of the region ever written from the world's foremost authority on the Middle East.

Part of the difficulty in keeping up comes from the way in which Lewis presents his information. This is not your typical linear narrative, starting at a particular era and then ploughing forward through time. Though there is an overall progression (we start out in the Roman era and end up in current times), the author also often backtracks when discussing different aspects of the civilizations he covers. So while the book starts out in a relatively chronological manner in the first few chapters(Romans>Byzantines-Crusades>Mongol Invasions>Turkic Ascendency-Ottomans), we suddenly detour to Part IV of the book, entitled "Cross-Sections." Lewis then proceeds to break down different societal components such as "The State," "The Economy," "The Elites," etc. in which he backtracks to provide additional details about groups he has earlier portrayed. This is where I for one, who am looking for enlightenment on these subjects and have no real background scholastically speaking, had a hard time keeping track. I consider myself at least a moderately attentive reader, and a lover of history from Herodotus to Gibbon to Parkman to Tuchman, but felt swamped at times here from the sheer wealth and breadth of information. One also had better be up on their geography from about six different eras in that part of the world. Though there are a series of maps in the appendix, obscure towns, countries and dynasties are paraded forth at a rate that is taxing for the general reader. While we may be familiar with place-names such as Mecca, Medina or even Basra, how many western readers are going to have a mental image of the area that Yathrib sits in? or Nishapur? or Bukhara? The maps don't really help either, as the regions that have the most obscure towns are in areas that are the most darkly shaded, and the print is so fine, it's impossible to make the names out.

All that said, if you want to learn about a region that up until recently not many westerners were really all that interested in, Lewis is an excellent teacher. Just be warned that he is rather a dry lecturer. He's not a "school of color" historian. He's an academic and a pure scholar. There are vitually no anecdotal details. No human interest. No exciting passages or descriptions of great battles. He is a purveyor of information and you will come away from reading with a lot more information than you came in with. If, like me, you think being at least reasonably well-informed at times such as these is important, you will want to investigate this book.


The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years.   July 26, 2001
 136 out of 146 found this review helpful

In a remarkable survey of Middle Eastern history, Lewis improves greatly on prior accounts. First, he starts not with the seventh century, when Islam originated, but goes the whole way back to the time of Jesus. This has the distinct virtue of placing Islamic history in context, rather than seeing it as an almost complete innovation.

Second, Lewis aspires to do more than recite names and dates; he hopes to convey something of the texture of Middle Eastern life. His is a thoroughly modern history, full of striking details and illustrative personalities. While some of his information will no doubt be familiar to a reader with basic knowledge of the Middle East, Lewis draws extensively on his own original research, insuring that much of his book will be novel even to the most practiced Middle East hand.

Third, the author resists the small-minded orthodoxies of political correctness. Lastly, the book is exceedingly well written. Recently dubbed "one of the great prose writers of the last fifty years," Lewis has a knack for the vignette, the turn of phrase, and the telling quotation.

Lewis wrote his first published article in 1936 and celebrated his eightieth birthday earlier this year. The Middle East is a fitting capstone to his long career, surveying with broad strokes so many of the topics he has previously written about in more detail. The reader can now benefit from this lifetime of study within the covers of a single book.

Middle East Quarterly, Sept 1996


Howard Zinn approach to Levant a bit too brief   May 8, 2002
 62 out of 64 found this review helpful

Contrary to previous reviewers, this book is NOT banal or dull. Bernard Lewis is the preeminent English-writing historian on the world's powderkeg region of today and has a wealth of knowledge on the area and its culture. For the average non-fiction reader, the text is not tough to read and has quite a bit of life to it, but if all you read is Oprah's Book of the Month, it may be a bit tedious.

However, I can only give it three stars because, although it's subtitled "A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years," it was a bit too brief for my literary palate. I anxiously devoured the work eager to learn about Suleyman the Magnificent and Ataturk; instead I learned that the eggplant comes from the Middle East and a peach, at one time, was known as a Persian apple.

And that's my biggest gripe with the book. Lewis titles it as an overview of the region giving prospective readers the idea it will cover famous Middle East leaders, its countries and their origins, and the timeless religious conflicts. Instead, the book takes a Howard Zinn approach to the region and covers in great detail the inhabitants and their religion, culture, economy, social castes, judicial systems, agriculture, etc. Over one-third of the book entitled "Cross-Sections" is on this subject matter, And although informative, it is impertinent to the political history of the Muslim world, which the title of the book implies it is about.
The only historical figure garnering a significant amount of ink in the book is, for obvious reasons, Muhammad. Lewis' basic explanation of the Muslim religion in his section "The Dawn and Noon of Islam," is an engrossing look into one of the major religions of the world and would be quite helpful to someone who is new to the subject matter. Lewis has a number of other books solely devoted to the subject matter but gives a good overview in this work.
With the large sections on culture and religion, there is little room left in the book on the political history itself. Lewis gives brief synopsis' on Iran's early history and the reign of the Ottoman Empire but little else. The 20th century info is contained in just 40 pages at the end of the last chapter.
Lewis does deserve extra credit for two helpful tools in the back with the reader-friendly chronology and informative maps.

In conclusion, ask yourself what most interests you as the reader about the Middle East? If one is interested in the culture and everyday life, this book is a great start. If one wants the political history about the rulers and military leaders, I'd look elsewhere.


An Excellent Introduction with a Critical Perspective   January 16, 2003
 54 out of 56 found this review helpful

Books about the Middle East concerned less with current headlines, prognosticating, or analyzing policies seem in short supply, but Bernard Lewis's The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years is a welcome departure. Because it predates 9/11, it is more of a scholarly introduction than a cultural or political document. Two aspects of Lewis's The Middle East I appreciated were his historical and geographical framing, and his emphasis on Ottoman history.

Although most of the book involves the Ottoman period, because of the volume of original sources, Lewis starts not with Mohammad classical period, but in the pre-classical empires of the Roman Empire and Persia. The perspective illustrates Islam's genius for adapting both indigenous and exogenous alternatives to local problems. Geographically, Lewis stays fixed on Ottoman and Persian territory, with only occasional references to Central Asian, European, African, and Southeast Asian history. This keeps the reader immersed in the region without following Islam's extended borders in other regions.

Another aspect I liked was an emphasis on Ottoman history, and not classical Islam. There is entire section on culture, law, religion, and social classes, which acts as an interlude between the early Ottoman Period and modern times. Here he addresses very succinctly and diplomatically many issues relevant to contemporary discussions. Many readers no doubt will be disappointed by his apparent reticence, but he avoids placing the debate in the classical period.

Lewis makes a controversial argument that is certainly counter-intuitive and offensive to Muslim fundamentalists. The West has not intervened in the Middle East, except for limited economic and political contacts over short periods. As a matter of fact, if Western countries had supported their limited forays with substantial aid and attention, the region might have benefited. Instead, Lewis blames the marginalization of the Middle East both on the demise of the region as a crossroads between east and west, and on the Muslim governments for not realizing the consequences of this change. Lewis points the finger mostly at Muslims, not the West.

The only bad aspect of this book is its length: too short. Although Lewis blames this on the dearth of research on Ottoman official documents, there is certainly more spaces to be filled with information. But Lewis's outline is very fruitful and compelling. It might not satisfy advocates, but it challenges both Muslim and Western proponents to examine their approaches.


Masterful survey, deeply considered & articulately expressed   December 4, 2001
 46 out of 48 found this review helpful

I have willfully avoided reading any of Lewis' works because of his popularity. The mistake and loss were mine, but are mine no more.

After an engaging preview in the introduction, the first 132 pages of "The Middle East" is a recap of history, from Nile to Oxus and from AD 1 to 1700 where he highlights precedents for current characteristics. The Caliphate's expansion was aided by peoples people "long subject to the Persian and Byzantine Empires [who] exchanged one imperial domination for another and found their new masters less demanding, more tolerant, and above all more welcoming than the old." The middle third of the book is a collection of cross-sectional essays on the state; the economy; elites; the commonality; religion and law; and culture. Agriculture & stock raising were economically in different hands, hence the persistence of nomads. Poets were PR people for rulers, even composing 'jingles.' Compared to the West, there was a lack of doctrinal differences or strife, an absence of persecution of heretics or unbelievers. "Muslims... [created] a religious civilization beyond the limits of a single race or religion or culture. The Islamic world in the High Middle Ages was international, multi-racial, polyethnic. one might even say intercontinental." In the 15th and 16th centuries, refugees voted with their feet from West to East. "[E]ven at the beginning of the 19th century a poor man of humble origin had a better chance of attaining to wealth, power and dignity in the Ottoman Empire than in any of the states of Christian Europe, including post-Revolutionary France." The section on religion and law is especially illuminating in its comparison of political law as a supplement to the Shari'a and in its explanation of how custom, regulations, and interpretations were used to disguise new laws.

The final part of the book summarizes Middle Eastern history from 1683 to 1994. The author's analysis of the Ottoman state is the best I've ever seen, from the organizational roots of success, through the seeds of relaxed complacence at the height of its success to its collapse, which he compares and contrasts to the Soviet collapse. The alienation of landholdings, then governorships, is well covered, as is deindustrialization. I'll have to get his book on the Ottomans. Lewis' discussion of patriotism and nationalism is thought-provoking, as is one on the impact of liberty, equality and fraternity. The last chapter reveals the only significant weakness of the book: Lewis fails to distinguish Modernity from The West. He uses the terms modern and West interchangeably, not appreciating a point that Huntington, for one, makes theoretically in "Clash of Civilizations," and that Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan make in practice. The author also understates the client-patron nature of the Egyptian, Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Iraqi (formerly), and Saudi regimes, among others.

Though there are a couple of spell-check typos (attached instead of attacked, founts instead of fonts), there are many delights in Lewis' command of language, and not just English. The depth of his knowledge shines through everywhere. It may aggravate some, but I especially delighted in his use of 'fora' as plural of the noun 'forum.' His word choices are true, and his phrasings in places approach the elegance and wry wit of Will and Ariel Durant. For instance, "even the pettiest of modern dictators has greater control than even the mightiest of Arab caliphs Persian shahs, and Turkish sultans. The traditional restraints on tyranny have gone. The search for some new or renewed form of limitation continues." The neologismic nature of country names are explored. He even has a couple of satirical excerpts that had me tearing up with laughter. And I had to go to the dictionary to look up 'calque' (a copy). All in all, I found this an informative easily read book that left me wanting more. It's time to add to my wish list.