Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of Arab society and culture that offers an opportunity to know the Arab world from an Arab point of view. It emphasizes the changes and diverse patterns that have characterized the Middle East since the mid-nineteenth century.
Table of Contents Preface
PART ONE: ARAB IDENTITY AND ISSUES OF DIVERSITY AND
INTEGRATION: OUT OF MANY, ONE
1. Social and Political Integration: Alternative Visions of the
Future
Historical Context
Conclusion
2. Arab Society: Basic Characteristic Features
A Critical Approach: Some Methodological Observations
Some Characteristic Features: Arab Society
Basics: The Physical Setting, Demography, and Ecology
Conclusion
3. Arab Identity: E pluribus unum
The Arab Sense: Belonging
Shared Culture and Its Variations
The Place of Arabs in History and Their Common Experiences
Shared Economic Interests
External Challenges and Political Unity
Conclusion
4. The Continuity of Old Cleavages: Tribe, Village, City
The Bedouin Way: Life
The Peasantry and the Village
The City: Urbanization: Society
Nature: The Relationships between Tribe, Village, and City
Conclusion
PART TWO: SOCIAL STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONS: OUT OF
ONE, MANY
5. Social Classes: Beyond the Mosaic Model
The Emerging Arab Economic Order
Bases of Class Distinction and Formation
Basic Classes in Contemporary Arab Society
Class Relations: Class Consciousness and Class Struggle
Conclusion
6. The Arab Family and the Challenge of Change
The Basic Characteristics of the Arab Family
Marriage and Divorce Patterns
The Family and Society
Conclusion
7. Religion in Society
The Sociology of Islam
The Social Origins of Religion
Religion and Sect
Official versus Folk or Popular Religion
Religions as Mechanisms of Control, Instigation, and Reconciliation
The Interrelationship between Religion and Other Social Institutions
Religion and the State--Secularism versus Theocracy
Alienation from and in Religion
Religion and Change: Transformation or Conformity?
Conclusion
8. Arab Politics: Its Social Context
The Starting Point of Analysis
The Politics of the Traditional Urban Big Bourgeoisie
The Politics of the Intermediate National Bourgeoisie: Western Liberalism,
Nationalism, Arab Socialism, and Religious Fundamentalism
The Working Classes and the Left
The Authoritarian Nature of the Arab Systems
Conclusion: The Crisis of Civil Society
PART THREE: THE DYNAMICS OF ARAB CULTURE
9. National Character and Value Orientations
The Question of National Character
Arab Value Orientations
Conclusion
10. Creative Expression: Society and Literary Orientations
Orientations in Arabic Literature
Novels of Reconciliation
Novels of Exposure
Novels of Revolutionary Change
Conclusion
11. Arab Thought: Problems of Renewal, Modernity, and
Transformation
Arab Thought in the Formative Period (1850-1914)
Arab Thought and the Struggle for National Independence
(1918-1945)
Independence and Postindependence, 1945-1992: Researching the
Roots of Disaster
Conclusion
PART FOUR: THE CRISIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY APPROACHING THE
HORIZON OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
12. Conclusion
Visions for the Future
Notes
Glossary
Select Bibliography
Index
