In writing this modern history of the Arab world I have been privileged to be part of a remarkable intellectual community in the Middle East Centre of St. Antony’s College in the University of Oxford.
The late Albert Hourani, one of the greatest historians of the Arab world, assembled an innovative group of scholars who made the Middle East Centre Europe’s leading university institute for the study of the modern Middle East. From that original fellowship, my emeritus colleagues Mustafa Badawi, Derek Hopwood, Robert Mabro, and Roger Owen have been my mentors since 1991. I have taken full advantage of their deep knowledge of the Middle East, discussing the arguments of this book with them and imposing draft chapters on them for comment. They have been unstinting in their encouragement and constructive criticisms.
The current Fellowship of the Middle East Centre has in every way preserved the magic of Albert Hourani’s original community. In Ahmed Al-Shahi, Walter Armbrust, Raffaella Del Sarto, Homa Katouzian, Celia Kerslake, Philip Robins, and Michael Willis, I have generous friends and colleagues who have made daily contributions to this project—in casual conversation over coffee each morning at the Centre, in suggested readings, and in comments on draft chapters. I owe a particular debt of friendship and gratitude to Avi Shlaim, a brilliant and innovative historian of Israel’s troubled history with the Arabs. Avi read every chapter and met with me over lunches in College to give me the most detailed and constructive feedback. His insightful comments have made their impact on every part of the book.
I wish to thank the Middle East Centre’s archivist, Debbie Usher, for her generous support for my research in the archive’s rich collections of private papers and historic photographs. I am most grateful to the Middle East Centre’s Librarian, Mastan Ebtehaj, and to the Centre’s administrator, Julia Cook.
I have used material from the book-in-progress for my lectures in modern Arab history at Oxford and am very grateful to our astute students for their feedback. I would like to thank Reem Abou El Fadl, Nick Kardahji, and Nadia Oweidat for their help with research for the book.
Over the years of writing this book I have exploited family and friends, specialists and nonspecialists alike, to read and comment on draft chapters along the way. Their encouragement and critiques did more to see the book through to completion than they might believe. I wish to acknowledge my debt to Peter Airey, Tui Clark, Foulath Hadid—my tutor in Iraqi history, Tim Kennedy, Dina Khoury, Joshua Landis, Ronald Nettler, Tom Orde, Thomas Philipp—who first inspired me to study the history of the Arabs, Gabi Piterberg, Tariq Ramadan, my brother Grant Rogan, Kevin Watkins, and my brilliant wife Ngaire Woods.
I wish to give special thanks to my most persistent and dedicated reader—Margaret Rogan, my mother. She read every chapter of the book from beginning to end without letting a mother’s love blind her to the mistakes that she, a life-long student of the Middle East, found along the way.
I am indebted to Serge Fouchard of the Musée départemental Albert-Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt for making copies of the extraordinary autochromes from the Albert Kahn collection available for publication. I am also most grateful to Victoria Hogarth of the Bridgeman Art Library and Jeff Spurr of the Harvard Fine Arts Library for their help with images for the book.
The book would never have happened without the particular genius of my literary agent Felicity Bryan. I am especially grateful to Felicity for breaking her own rule not to represent her friends. I will ever be indebted to George Lucas for agreeing to represent me in New York and for treating me to an unforgettable introduction to New York’s publishing world. Together they found the very best publishing houses for this book.
My deepest thanks at Basic Books go to my editor, Lara Heimert, who through humor and insight has cajoled a better book from me than ever I could have written on my own. Brandon Proia has shared his editorial talents and helped with finding the right images for the book. Kay Mariea and Michelle Asakawa were heroic at copyediting at break-neck speed. At Penguin, I have benefited throughout the writing of the book from Simon Winder’s deep knowledge and penetrating engagement with the manuscript.
My family have been my strength and inspiration at every point in writing this book. To Ngaire, our son Richard and daughter Isabelle, I owe the sanity that counterbalances the madness of taking on such a project. Thank you.