This book is a comprehensive examination of the historical process of social formation that gave rise to the communal consciousness of the Arab nation and determined its sense of identity. It aims to provide a historical context for the assessment of prevailing concepts and suggests hypotheses for the development of modern Arab consciousness. The book firstly traces Arab origins and the formation of Arab societies after the emergence of Islam, assessing the perspectives and factors that shaped the rise of the Arab nation in both practical and intellectual terms. It then examines the beginning of the Arab awakening and the course of its development in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth, focusing on the emergence of a nationalist perspective in the development of intellectual positions on patriotism and Arabism.

This book is a comprehensive examination of the historical process of social formation that gave rise to the communal consciousness of the Arab nation and determined its sense of identity. It aims to provide a historical context for the assessment of prevailing concepts and suggests hypotheses for the development of modern Arab consciousness.

The book firstly traces Arab origins and the formation of Arab societies after the emergence of Islam, assessing the perspectives and factors that shaped the rise of the Arab nation in both practical and intellectual terms. It then examines the beginning of the Arab awakening and the course of its development in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth, focusing on the emergence of a nationalist perspective in the development of intellectual positions on patriotism and Arabism.

The subjects of this volume are views and perceptions of the a oeothera (i.e. strangers, enemies or curiosities) within the Islamic world, as well as in the interplay between the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. More than 20 contributions describe conceptions and contingencies of the other from very different perspectives, so arriving - with reference to Islam - at insights into the complex problems of the a oeother.a The studies are dedicated to Professor Gernot Rotter.