Introduction

Half the shores of the Mediterranean are inhabited by Moslems: Turks and Arabs whose world is in a state of upheaval which began before the first world war, grew after the political changes which followed it, and gathered enormous momentum after the second world war. Proletarianization is proceeding inside Arab society. Only the laws of personal status continue to be based on the Moslem law, although in Tunisia the old laws of personal status have already practically been abandoned. While pan-Arabism and local nationalisms are engaged in struggles for domination, the idea of regional associations, for which geo-political and economic reasons can be found, is making little progress. For Arab nationalism in the West, the ideals of Arab unity were replaced by the struggle against Western rule, as far as practical politics was concerned.