The need for social change has been recognized by most of the politically important forces in the Middle East today, but differences remain concerning its implementation. These differences are centered on the type of change and the rate at which it should take place. There are three basic social groups taking part in this conflict; the traditional elements of society, typified by organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, many of the ruling families, and large sections of the peasant population; the ‘modern’ man of the liberal era such as evolutionary–liberalist politicians, doctors, landowners, bureaucrats, merchants, and the like; and the ‘modern’ men of the era of technology (material-scientific) such as army officers, agronomists, planners and industrialists.

We now turn from the development of political institutions in the Islamic lands of the Middle East to the organisms and attitudes prevalent among the governed classes in Middle Eastern society. The mass of people in the area are commonly described as apolitical, or politically apathetic. This is largely true, but an even more accurate and fitting description would be that of ‘negatively political’, meaning that, since politics largely is a matter of who rules what and who collects taxes, the masses are little interested, since experience has shown them that there is little to choose between one set of rulers and another, apart from minor individual fluctuations in the severity or mildness of regimes.

In 1795, i.e. three years before Napoleon's arrival in Egypt, Egyptian opposition to the Ottoman Wâlï and the Mamlûks brought the country almost to what might be described as a popular movement of resistance. This was climaxed in a dramatic incident in which the leaders of the Azhâr and the masses were able to secure a rare hujja from the Wâlï and the two Mamlûk leaders, Murâd Bek and Ibrâhïm Bek, which can be considered the first ‘legal document’ Egypt ever had known in its constitutional history.

To measure the achievement of Badr Shâkir al-Sayyâb and ascertain his place in modern Arabic poetry, the general condition of Arabic poetry up to the Second World War must be taken into consideration.

Ṭughril Beg, first Sultan of the Saljûq dynasty, entered Baghdâd and put an end to the Buwaihid dynasty in 447/1055. By 451/1059, he had eliminated all pretenders to the supreme amirate, himself becoming the supreme amîr, the Sultan.

The Saljûq dynasty itself dates from the year 429/1037, when Ṭughril seized Nîsâbûr. This also was the occasion for the first known relations between the Saljûq warrior and the Abbâsid Caliph al-Qâim,1 when the latter sent a mission2 to Tughril, admonishing him to refrain from destroying the conquered cities and mistreating the Caliph's subjects.