The 8-volume "General History of African Arab Countries" was first published to fill the gap in relevant research in Chinese academic circles

Beijing, May 5 (Reporter Ying Ni) The "Academic Symposium on the History of West Asia and North Africa from the Perspective of Regional Country Studies and the Book Launch Conference of "General History of African Arab Countries (13 Volumes)" jointly sponsored by the Commercial Press and Northwest University was held in Beijing on the 8th. This is the first general historical work written by Chinese scholars that comprehensively reflects the history of African Arab countries, filling the gap in the research of the general history of African Arab countries in Chinese academic circles.

"General History of African Arab Countries" is the result of a major project of the National Social Science Foundation, led by Professor Wang Tiezheng, former director of the Institute of Middle East Studies of Northwest University, and his academic team, after 8 years of hard work, launched 8 volumes "General History of African Arab Countries", including "History of Egypt", "History of Algeria", "History of Libya", "History of Morocco", "History of Tunisia", "History of Sudan", "History of Mauritania", "History of Somalia, Djibouti and Comoros".

With more than 300 million words, the book takes historical development as a clue to describe in detail the unique appearance and transmutation of the political, economic, social, religious and cultural fields of 10 African Arab countries, and makes a comprehensive and systematic study of the history of African Arab countries. This book has important academic value and practical significance, which not only fills the gap in the research of the general history of African Arab countries in Chinese academic circles, but also helps readers to interpret and reflect on the great changes in Arabia from the historical dimension.

Chen Xiaowen, Editor-in-Chief of the Commercial Press, and Wu Zhenlei, Vice President of Northwest University, reviewed the deep friendship between the Commercial Press and the Institute of Middle East Studies of Northwest University, from the 13-volume "General History of Middle Eastern Countries" to the 8-volume "General History of African Arab Countries", the two sides have cooperated for 30 years.

Photo courtesy of the Commercial Press

Yu Pei, former director of the Institute of World History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, discussed the modern value and academic historical significance of the General History of African Arab Countries as a regional country history study, and believed that the publication of this work can be regarded as a microcosm of the profound changes that are taking place in the study of Chinese world history under the new historical conditions, that is, bidding farewell to the "following" and "looking up" to Western scholarship and accelerating the construction of China's independent world history knowledge system.

He pointed out that the historical mission of contemporary Chinese historical science is to improve the interpretation ability of the historical scientific knowledge system and provide historical wisdom and support for China's social development in the integration of Chinese vision, world vision, historical vision, contemporary vision and future vision. The General History of the Arab States of Africa clearly embodies the spirit of "regional and national history", which is both the spirit of new historiography and the spirit of the new era. From the perspective of "regional and national history", this work still has many valuable lessons to be summarized. (End)