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JOHN JULIUS NORWICH is the author of more than a dozen books on Norman Sicily¢Ù, the Sahara, Mount Athos¢Ú and the Venetian and Byzantine empires. £¨1£©Yet even his immense knowledge is not enough to keep his latest chronicle-of 5,000 years of Mediterranean history-from appearing somewhat lopsided[1].

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Lord Norwich's second task was to strike a balance over time. "The Middle Sea" reaches from ancient Egypt to the first world war. Like many long, chronological narratives, it becomes progressively more detailed, though it is debatable whether this is a good thing. £¨3£©Few people have changed the region as much as the Romans, yet their republic's five centuries get only a page more than the great siege of Gibraltar which began in 1779.

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£¨4£©Lord Norwich's final, and arguably most important, challenge is the area that is most likely to engage modern readers: the intermittent, but frequently savage, conflict between Muslims and Christians. Impatient with the notion, echoed most recently and disastrously by Pope Benedict, that the Koran sanctions the spreading of Islam by the sword, Lord Norwich is no Islamophobe. He is hostile to the Crusades and fulsome[3] in his praise of that traditional Western schoolbook villain, Saladin¢Û.

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Yet his account remains disappointingly focused from Christendom[4] outwards. £¨5£©It is true that Muslims do appear in his book-usually in battle-but they rarely speak. Only two items in the 170-volume bibliography are by Arab scholars and only one is by a Turk. This is unabashedly history of the old school: Eurocentric (Octavian¢Ü, the author declares without irony, was the "undisputed master of the known world") and largely uninterested in what other economic, social and technological changes may have shaped events.

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What fires Lord Norwich is recounting the doings of princes and preachers, warriors, courtiers and courtesans[5]. And he does it with consummate[6] skill. He spices his narrative liberally with entertaining anecdotes, deft portraits and brisk judgments. Aristotle, for example, is given short shrift[7] as "one of the most reactionary intellectuals that ever lived". Lord Norwich's control of his vast and complex subject matter is masterly. And the subject matter itself is as colourful as history can get. No sooner have readers bidden farewell to a short, fat, dissolute sultan, Selim the Sot, than they encounter the "piratical Uskoks, a heterogeneous, but exceedingly troublesome community". £¨6£©Although few will resist the temptation to keep turning the pages, readers will close this monumental work exhilarated and informed, but with plenty of questions still unanswered.

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[NOTES](LONGMAN)
1. lopsided adj. ÇãÏòÒ»·½µÄ
2. convolute v. Ðýת£¬ÅÌÐý
3. fulsome adj. ¹ý·ÖµÄ£¬ÁîÈËÉúÑáµÄ
4. Christendom n. »ù¶½½Ì£¨×ܳƣ©
5. courtesan n. ¹Ù¼Ë£¬Ç鸾
6. consummate adj. ÍêÃÀµÄ£¬Ô²ÂúµÄ£¬¾ø¶¥µÄ£»ÀÏÁ·µÄ
7. give short shrift to ¶Ô......Ä®²»¹ØÐÄ

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