Dreaming of Damascus: Merchants, Mullahs and Militants in the New Middle East - Softcover

Glain, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719555485 ISBN 13: 9780719555480

Publisher: John Murray, 2004

Synopsis

A thousand years ago, a vast Arab empire stretched from the Asian steppe across the Mediterranean to Spain, pioneering new technologies, sciences, art and culture. Arab traders and Arab currencies dominated the global economy the way Western multinationals and the dollar do today. A thousand years later, Arab states are in decay. Official corruption and ineptitude have eroded state authority and created a vacuum that militant Islam - with its schools, hospitals and other civil services - has rushed to fill.

In Dreaming of Damascus, Stephen Glain distils his experience as the Wall Street Journal's Middle East correspondent. He takes us on a journey through the heart of what were once the great Islamic caliphates, the countries now known as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, to illustrate how a once-prosperous and enlightened civilization finds itself at a crossroad between Dark Age and New Dawn.

As late the 1900s, what we call the Levant was a prosperous trading bloc. But today the Arab world has opted out of the global economy, with tragic consequences. It is up to the new generation of leaders - and the Western governments that created the modern Middle East - to reverse the sclerosis and revive the region.

About this title

Review

Insightful ... a valuable guide (Observer)

I can't think of a more poignant or timely book to see us through this self inflicted purgatory or post war trauma. Blair and Bush should be forced to consume this enlightened, truthful and imperative insight into the state of the Middle East. The author understands the vagaries and subtleties of interarctions and transactions and explains them in humourous and unmincing detail ... Seminal and essential reading. This year's must read (Indobrit Magazine)

Ground-breaking ... There are a few books and/or literature around on Middle-Eastern economics at a macro level but nothing at the grass roots level of which Stephen Glain writes and so reader friendly ... I also very much enjoyed the humour which is rare in literature about the region. ... It should be required reading, Really good stuff. (Norvell B. DeAtkine - retired Army colonel and dir)

Steve Glain has written a wonderful book about the Middle East, beautifully written and well reported, which fills in a very important gap in our understanding of the volatile region. (Peter Bergen - journalist, terrorist expert for CN)

Book Description

A poignant and intimate account of how the Arab world - once the spearhead of what we call globalization - may collapse in the absence of badly needed reform.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0719555485
• ISBN 13: 9780719555480
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336