Maxime Rodinson

This book is a rebuttal of the cultural reductionism of Max Weber and others who have tried to explain the politics and society of the Middle East by reference to some unchanging entity called "Islam," typically characterized as instinctively hostile to capitalism. The author looks at the facts, analyzing economic texts, to show that Muslims never had any problem making money.

Since the time of the Crusades, Europeans have viewed Muslim culture and religion through the unique distorting lens of Orientalism, coloring all aspects of their perception and generating a curious blend of fascination and distrust. Maxime Rodinson presents the classic account of this relationship, in a history that is balanced and concise yet full of insight.

"The Arabs is an interpretative essay based upon a great deal of reading and research, and like other writings of the author, brilliant and insightful. Rodinson's response to the question Who are the Arabs? traces the career of the Arab people from their first appearance about twenty-nine centuries ago up to the present day. The purpose of the book is to make the reader aware of an undeniable Arab being, of its historic performance and its contemporary situation, on the basis of a scientifically careful but sympathetic study and statement." Back cover.

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Maxime Rodinson's Marxist analyses of contemporary politics and economics in the Muslim world are more salient than ever. In this collection, Rodinson emphasizes the economic and political, rather than religious, characteristics of Islam, covering topics like the history of the Marxist movement in the Islamic Middle East; the dialogue between socialism and Islam, and Marxism and Arab nationalism; the relationship between national conflicts and class struggle, and the history of communism in Arab states such as Syria and Egypt. Unashamedly political and polemical, Rodinson offers an insightful picture of political Islam and Marxism, and their profound implications for the Arab working class and the future of the region.--