ABSTRACT
An invitation to an historian to write a chapter on the historical background to a period of literary development implies a belief in the truth of the proposition that there is some relationship between social, economic and political changes, in literary form and content. This truth, of course, except to Marxist writers, is not self-evident; in particular, those who would endeavour to extend the proposition to embrace the quality of literary work stand on treacherous ground indeed. It is not my purpose, however, to debate this interesting proposition here; instead it will be assumed that some relationship does exist, and suggested that in the Near and Middle East during the period under review the relationship may be described in terms of three theses. These are, first, that the most notable characteristic of the Near and Middle East during the period with which we are concerned was that it was passing through a phase of modernization; second, that the form and content of Near and Middle Eastern literature during these years was related to the process of modernization; and third, and more speculatively, that differences in the literary development of the various regions of the Near and Middle East are linked to variations in the extent and character of modernization.
