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What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
by: Bernard Lewis |
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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 956.015 EAN: 9780195144208 Edition: 4th edition ISBN: 0195144201 Label: Oxford University Press Manufacturer: Oxford University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 180 Publication Date: 2001-12 Publisher: Oxford University Press Studio: Oxford University Press |
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  - Can't Put Down LewisIt seems any time I read Bernard Lewis I can't put it down. "What When Wrong" is a little less than 200 pages and fantastically interesting. Lewis has such insights into the Turks in this book and historic Muslims in general. This book is focused primarily on post-Vienna Ottomans, specifically 18th and 19th century. One of the topics the book looks at the difference in science, treatment of women, and music. This is a great book and should be read by anyone who wants to learn more about the Turkish, Persian, and Arab peoples. Rating:  - Quick delivery; some marksquick delivery - only comment is that there were more marks than I would have expected for a like new book Rating: - Potent and compelling historical analysisBernard Lewis is one of the greatest living historians on the subject of Islam and the Middle East. Indeed it a testimony to his greatness that he was attacked by the loathsome Edward Said, for stating some home truths about Arabs and Islam. Islamists and radical Left intellectuals see any criticism of the Arab and Islamic worlds as racist. so much for the supposed role of the intellectual that one must question everything and strive after the truth. Lewis traces the zenith of Islam as a a paramount world civilization in up to the 15th century and is not sparing his praises. But he also honestly examines why Islam has become a backward and violent society-he examines the cultural, social, religious, political and economic aspects. The slave trade from Africa was started by Muslims and in earlier centuries Muslims had raided Europe for slaves, as far north as England and Scandinavia. This puts paid to the modern myth punted by left wing activists of Muslims as the innocent "other". Muslim religious leaders in past centuries opposed the end of slavery as they saw it a crime to prohibit what Allah had allowed as it was a crime to allow what Allah had prohibited. The modern history of the Middle East is traced by the author to the 1798 expedition to Egypt General Napoleon Bonaparte. For the first time one of the heartlands of Islam was subjected to the rule of a Western power and the direct impact of Western attitudes and ideas. What particularly enraged the Muslims in Egypt was the abolition of discrimination of the Christian Copts that had long been living under a heavy dhimmi status of enforced subservience. The equality of the Copts and their employment by the French authorities was seen as a blow to Islamic pride. Also vital in explaining the decline of Islam as a civilization. With only half of the population allowed to take part in all aspects of society-cultural, social, religious political and economic, this is immensely destructive to a society as it sacrificing half of it's potential! The struggle for the emancipation of women made some progress in the twentieth century in the more socially and economically progressive parts of the Islamic world such as Turkey, and pre 1979 Iran. The violent reaction to this from Islamic fundamentalists was a large factor in the rise of Islamism as a militant political ideology in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Ayatollah Khomeini after seizing power in the bloody Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 gave the rights afforded to woman under the Shah (Iran under the Shah was in it's time the most progressive country in the Muslim world terms of rights, freedoms and equality for women) prominent place in the misdeeds and crimes attributed to the Shah's government, As Lewis writes : "From the traditional point of view the emancipation of women, specifically allowing them to reveal their faces , their arms and their legs and to mingle socially in the school or the work place with men, is an incitement to immorality and promiscuity, and a deadly blow to the very heart of Islamic society, the Muslim family and home. The battle continues". Similarly the emancipation forced by the West on non-Muslims negatively impacted on vested interest in the Muslim elite. The roots of Islamic hostility to Israel lie in two areas 1 The resentment of the Jews becoming equals that the Jewish State of Israel meant as the Jews had always been a despised and subservient minority, The idea of a state-no matter how small-in the heart of Arab Islam, ruled by Jews, was too much to bear, and the insult was compounded by the defeats the lowly-regarded Jews had dealt the Arabs after the many Arab attacks on Israel and the Levantine Jews before that. 2 The State of Israel was an example of democracy, equality and freedom for women that struck at the heart of Islam. This negative influence on the Arab masses could not be allowed and so the Jewish presence in Palestine that became the re-established Israel had to be demonized and destroyed. Lewis does mention how the Islamic world can get out of this rut but first he points out they have to stop the blame game, blaming the Turks, the Mongols, the 'Imperialists', the Jews, the Americans which grows stronger every year A potent and compelling account of Islamic history. Rating: - A wonderful short route to the long history of IslamI'm not sure what impresses me more about Prof. Lewis, the completeness of his scholarship or the clarity of his writing. Not only does What Went Wrong? provide a clear discussion of the transformation of the Islamic world from the peak of its civilization until now and of the possible roots of discord with the West, it also paints a general picture of the decline of a privileged world that we should take to heart today. Denial of Sunlight Rating: - Lots to Think AboutWhat went wrong? The Middle East, once a power to be reckoned with, is now noted for its poverty, political weakness and the under-education of its people. Some say it is the fault of outside powers. Professor Lewis looks deeper, seeing this not as a cause but a symptom. He explores why the region was vulnerable to those outside powers. He notes that some have considered the causes to be military, economic and/or political weaknesses. Attempts to modernize in these areas have met with military failure, continued poverty and democracy without freedom. For root causes Lewis looks to the culture, specifically, the historical and current role of women, attitude towards science and the role of music. I was glad to see a serious discussion of the role of women as a cause for poverty, etc. Having half of the population hobbled in participating in the economic, political, intellectual and cultural life, by its very nature, "dumbs down" the environment. Also, what kind of grown ups are expected to result from having the sole parent responsible for raising children limited in experience of the real world? A sheltered life and a sub-standard education do not prepare anyone for the many roles (guiding, role modeling, advising, advocating/protecting) a parent or caregiver must play. Although replete with examples, music is the weakest discussion. Lewis' analysis works for me if music is seen as a proxy for the characteristic ignoring/shunning of western life and culture (he discusses clothing, learning languages, marrying "outsiders"/diversity separately). Lewis shows a long history of insularity. In music, as with science, the culture looked inward and did not easily absorb new ideas. Both music and art have been suspect by some Middle Eastern religious leaders. There is a history of not just censorship, but total prohibition in different parts of the Middle East. Lewis shows how insularity stunted the political development of the region. While it received ambassadors it did not send them. It used messengers who would deliver and return. With this system and no foreign languages studied/spoken, generations of experience in diplomacy were lost. Often books that result from synthesizing lectures, articles, etc., are disjointed or repetitive and don't read well together. This book, does a reasonable job of joining of 3 lectures and previous publications. I recommend it for anyone interested in the cultural roots of the problems in the Middle East. |
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