Title: Out of Arabia : Phoenicians, Arabs, and the discovery of Europe /
Authors: Ball, Warwick.
Publisher: Olive Branch Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: East and West; Arabs Europe History; Phoenicians Europe History; Muslims Europe History; Arabs; Civilization Arab influences; Civilization Islamic influences; Civilization Middle Eastern influences; East and West.; Muslims; Phoenicians; Araber Europa; Fenicier Europa; Europe Civilization Arab influences.; Europe Civilization Middle Eastern influences.; Europe Civilization Islamic influences.; Europe
Abstract: Arab history is often viewed as beginning with Islam. But the Arabs have a long history stretching back millenia-and it is one intimately bound up with European history and identity. The Arabs' forbears, the Phoenicians, were exploring the coasts of England and West Africa and colonizing much of Spain, Sicily and North Africa in the early first millennium BC. The Arabs were to continue this tradition of world penetration long before the European "Age of Expansion." Islam, therefore, was as much a culmination as a beginning. The arrival of the Arabs in Spain in 711 and the subsequent continuation of Islam's first Caliphate in Cordoba after a second one had been established in Baghdad-not to mention Emirates in the Balearics, Sicily and southern Italy, and further penetration throughout much of Italy, France and Switzerland-can only be understood as part of a process that had already been underway for several thousands of years. Phoenicians and Arabs form a part of European history that is both European and Asiatic, a part that defines and makes Europe what it is-cultures that can no more be excluded from Europe than the Viking, Roman or Greek. Europe has been engaged in a complex relationship with the Arabs and their immediate forbears throughout its history. This richly illustrated book is an account of that relationship.
Contents: Introduction : an unsound compass -- The discovery of Europe : the first travellers out of Arabia -- The near East far West : the Phoenician new world and its legacy -- Glittering kingdoms : Arab states before Islam -- Rome's Arab half century : Arab emperors and emperors of Rome -- Impact of the abstract : ancient Arabian religion and the Christian West -- Muhammad, Charlemagne and Rome : the effect of the first Islamic empires on Europe -- Caliphs in Europe : Caliphs, Emirs and Sayyids of Spain -- Across the Alps : the Arabs in Sicily, Italy, France and Switzerland -- The world's debate : tragedy of the crusades and the legacy of intolerance -- The Arabian Lake : Arab seafaring and the pre-European world system -- A universal world : Arab world travel and world.