In a work of profound and lasting importance, Albert Hourani tells the definitive history of the Arab peoples from the seventh century, when the new religion of Islam began to spread from the Arabian Peninsula westwards, to the present day. "A History of the Arab Peoples" is a masterly distillation of a lifetime of scholarship and a unique insight into a perpetually troubled region. For this edition, Malise Ruthven continues the history to include such recent events as the crisis in Iraq, the civil war in Algeria and the aftermath of September 11th.