ABSTRACT
The Arabic language links 250 million people inhabiting a belt that runs from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Most Arabs are Muslims (though there are large Christian communities in Egypt and Lebanon) and Mecca, Islam’s holiest place, is in Arabia; politicians and rulers seeking pan-Arab support often exploit Islamic feeling. But when a sense of Arab unity has been strong, it has been a reaction against alien rule – first by Turkey and then by west Europeans (27) – and, more recently, against the creation of the Jewish state of Israel near the centre of the Arab world.
