A Brief History of the Middle East - Softcover

For over a millennium, the Islamic empires were ahead of the West in learning, technology, and medicine, and were militarily far more powerful. It took another three hundred years for the West to catch up and overtake the Middle East. In this fully updated and revised edition, historian Christopher Catherwood brings the account up to the present day and places in context the continuing friction between Israel and Palestine, the aftermath of the Iraq conflict, and the rising threat of Iran.

Christopher Catherwood is a historian and terrorism specialist who appears regularly on CNN and the BBC. He is also the author of several books including "Churchill's Folly" and "Merchants of Fear." He lives in Cambridge, England.