Ebook: A Brief History of the Middle East

Western civilization began in the Middle East: Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam, were born there. For over a millennium, the Islamic empires were ahead of the West in learning, technology and medicine, and were militarily far more powerful. It took another three hundred centuries for the West to catch up, and overtake, the Middle East. Why does it seem different now? Why does Osama bin Laden see 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, as the year everything changed? These issues are explained in historical detail here, in a way that deliberately seeks to go behind the rhetoric to t.;Cover; Other Titles in the Series; Title Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION; ORTHOGRAPHIC NOTE AND NOTE FOR SPECIALISTS; DATES; Maps; INTRODUCTION; 1 : ANCIENT EMPIRES; 2 : THE DAWN OF MONOTHEISM; 3 : FROM CHRIST TO CHRISTENNDOM; 4 : MUHAMMAD AND THE DAWN OF ISLAM; 5 : THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM; 6 : MANZIKERT, CRUSADERS, MONGOLS; 7 : THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: THE STORY OF AN ISLAMIC SUPERPOWER; 8 : THE FALL OF THE OTTOMANS AND THE BIRTH OF A NEW MIDDLE EAST; 9 : THE CREATION OF ISRAEL AND AFTER ... ; 10 : REVOLUTION AND RESISTANCE.