In this book, the author, Professor John Masters, traces the Ottoman rule of the Arab lands for four centuries extending from 1516 to 1918, and presents a comprehensive, impartial survey of the political, economic, and social conditions in the Arab lands during Ottoman rule. It also deals with the ways the Ottoman Empire managed and governed the Arab lands that remained under their rule for four centuries. The writer addresses the role of the clergy in granting legitimacy to the Ottoman sultans in their rule of the Arab states, and also sheds light on the historical experience of Arab Muslims with Ottoman rule. It refers largely to the sectarian conflicts, revolutions, riots, and rebellions that ravaged the Arab region during the period of Ottoman rule, and the ways the Ottomans dealt with them through repression at times or with compromise solutions at other times. The book also discusses the issue of the Sultanate and the Caliphate. This book can be an important source and historical reference of great benefit to researchers and students of the history of the Arabs and their relationship with the Ottoman Empire, due to its reliance on a huge amount of reliable Arab and Turkish historical sources in tracking the course of events and their precise details, as well as its neutrality in presenting matters and events and calling things by their proper names, away from... Bias towards one side at the expense of another. The translator made a great effort in translating it by tracing the Turkish nomenclature for many procedures and names that were common at the time and are no longer used in our modern era.
