Rather than try to intersperse this topic amongst the other blog posts, I think it will be most useful to record my thoughts in one place. A basic understanding of the history and culture of the Middle East is imperative to us in the West as we face the challenges presented by a resurgent and distinctly fundamentalist Islam. It is important to understand the formation of this new movement and its variants, as well as its roots in history, religion, and culture.
One aspect that seems to puzzle most Westerners is the extent to which Islam is more than a religion. It is a way of life, a way of thinking that guides every aspect of the culture, the legal system, the governmental forms, the business practices, the inter-personal relationships. While we owe much to the ideals and thinking of the ancient Greeks, we can also thank them for our ability to atomize the various aspects of living into discreet areas, conveniently ignoring the inconsistencies and rationalizing and compartmentalizing the cognitive dissonance.
I had majored in history and minored in international relations, but my focus had been European history. My own introduction to the culture of the region came in the 1970s when numerous families from Iran settled in my own community and neighborhood. A few years later, I decided to go back to graduate school, inspired in part by an acquaintance who was moving to Saudi Arabia to provide engineering support for a new petro-chemical facility in Ras Tanura. She was frustrated by the lack of cultural education that her husband’s company provided — mostly a list of dos and don’ts without the historical or cultural background to provide context — and they would be living in the community rather than in an ex-pat compound so would be expected to conform to Saudi standards. The more I learned, the more I became aware of the challenges faced by rapid modernization in the region.
On my About page, I wrote that I don’t think “they hate us for our freedoms.” I hope that what follows will provide a better understanding of what the sources of conflict are, their roots, and perhaps even an appreciation of how we as individuals might respond differently. After all, we share the same planet. At the most basic levels, we want many of the same things — close family ties, good friends, the right to live our lives according to our beliefs, and respect for our differences as well as our similarities.
Some Definitions
The Middle East is a term that refers generally to that part of the world surrounding the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and extending as far east as Pakistan. Frequently, the countries along the southern shore of the Mediterranean are included as well. Islam is the predominant religion in the area. Its followers are Muslims. The region is not exclusively Muslim, and besides Christians and Jews, one finds other religious traditions in smaller numbers, along with smaller sects of each of the major religions. And there are significant numbers of Muslims extending far beyond the region.
Arabs make up the largest single ethnic group. Iranians are not ethnic Arabs, nor are Afghans or Pakistanis. Arabic is the predominant language among Arabs, and as a Semitic language there are linguistic similarities between Arabic and Hebrew. There are regional dialects of Arabic just as there are in English. Furthermore, there are distinct differences between formal or classical Arabic and everyday or conversational Arabic. The structure of formal or classical Arabic has an inherent rhythm and rhyme.
The differences we see in spellings result from several things. First, the Arabic alphabet is different from the English one. Second, Arabic does not contain vowels as we know them in English. There are but three vowels in Arabic, each of which comes in both a short and long form. In written Arabic, the symbols for the long vowels also are used as consonants. Additionally, there are sounds that do not exist in English and must be expressed within the limitations of our alphabet. And finally, some of the sounds are similar in the two languages but not exact duplicates. Add to that the regional elements, and it’s easy to understand how differences can occur in transliterating the same word.
Arabia Before Islam
Most of us are familiar with the idea that what we call Western Civilization began in the Fertile Crescent. But to understand the Middle East, let’s begin with a brief overview of life in the Arabian Peninsula before the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The cities Mecca and Medina, along the Red Sea coastal strip, were trading centers, along with the area along the southern coast. The people living in these coastal areas had interacted with the people in what know as the Fertile Crescent and consequently had a more developed material culture than those in the interior. Indeed, the people along the Red Sea coast had been exposed to and had interacted with Jews and Christians for centuries. Mecca was the site of a popular local religious cult. As with many other cultures, pre-Islamic Arabs placed religious significance in certain inanimate objects, and in Mecca there was a sacred site that housed objects that represented their local gods. One of these gods was known as Allah, thought to be the creator and supreme provider. It’s important to note that many of the early stories of the Hebrew Bible would come to find expression in the Qur’an as well.
The people of the interior were Bedouins (Bedu or Badu), nomads moving seasonally from oasis to oasis with their herds of sheep, goats and camels; there are no permanent rivers or streams in the entire peninsula. A nomadic life-style was the best and possibly the only adaptation to the harsh climate and geography. Minimal rain and poor soil hindered the development of agriculture. Wheat, and thus bread, was a luxury. Society was organized along tribal lines. Sons represented future warriors in the inevitable conflicts between tribes over scarce resources. Polygamy was accepted, as was female infanticide. Inter-tribal raids provided access to those things they could not obtain beyond the most basic foodstuffs (mostly dates along with the milk from their herds) and the hair, hides, and sinews from their animals. The Bedouin were and remain very individualistic, had little in the way of laws or government beyond familial and tribal mores and traditions, and disdained manual labor, trade, and agriculture. They were polytheistic but not highly religious. Their pantheon consisted of both gods and demons known as jinn.
While the Bedouin lacked items we might consider material culture, language was their art form. This oral tradition was easily transportable, while material objects were not. They had highly developed poems and stories, what we know as epics, along with their history and lineage. Facility with language and poetry brought influence to a person. Poetry was used to intimidate as well as to negotiate and to entertain. This appreciation of and facility with the beauty of their language was shared by the coastal Arabs as well as those living in the interior.
Some of the prized values of pre-Islamic Arabia remain essential parts of the Middle East character. Among those are honor and hospitality. Honor resides at every level, from the personal to the communal. There are elaborate almost ritualistic ways to restore one’s honor and that of the family, tribe and larger community. We’re accustomed to the idea of saving face, but I’m not aware of cultures where “face” extends beyond the personal to the communal. We know of honor killings and find them abhorent. But consider the potential benefits to communal peace when one life is taken, often by those closest to the offender, in order to restore tranquility and avoid a series of revenge killings, each taken to restore honor to an aggrieved individual or community.
The second value worth a mention is that of hospitality. In such a harsh climate, it is useful to know that if someone has lost their way and stumble upon a Bedouin encampment, they will be shown hospitality by the members of that encampment and given food and water, which could ensure survival.
And one last point about how tribal leaders were chosen. Leadership was not hereditary but was considered to be first among equals. That will become critically important later during the early years of Islam.
Next: The Birth of Islam and its early years. Stay tuned.
This page has the following sub pages.
Thank you for taking this on. I appreciate your efforts. I believe that we cannot begin to deal with the Middle East until we come to understand it people and respect their culture and belief system. I have long been the rare traveler down the road of history in order to understand where we have been as context to where we are. In my experience it never fails to yield important answers.
So I salute you and am grateful for your acquired knowledge and your willingness to pass it along to the rest of us.
Very interesting….question where does Farsi as a language come in to the picture?
@ jan
Farsi (Persian) is linguistically an Indo-Iranian strain of the Indo-European languages. Farsi uses the same alphabet as does Arabic, but it’s an entirely different language, coming from a different linguistic strain. It’s spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language for more detail.
Arabic is the “official” language of Islam. Any version of the Qur’an not in Arabic is known as a translation of the Qur’an, not the Qur’an. The prayers are in Arabic, regardless of the native language of the individual Muslim. Remember, Latin was the language of Catholic masses until Vatican II and John XXIII’s papacy.
I have finally found the time to come here and catch up, and thank goodness I have. Your historical descriptions are just wonderful. Being Jewish I have always felt that there are more similarities between Judaism and Islam than differences, which has always made me sort of scratch my head in wonderment.
I know this may be putting the cart before the horse, since you are taking us step by step through the history of the Middle East, but I would love to know your opinion on how British Colonialism has affected Middle Eastern history in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, even so far as Pakistan and India are concerned. I feel that it is really all wrapped up into one big package.
Going on to read page 2 now.
@ willpen,
You are so very right! It wasn’t just the Brits, but when borders are drawn without apparent regard to the natural and historic ethnic and tribal divisions, one cannot expect peace to reign.
While I know the historical events and share your sadness that the Children of Abraham seem too often to focus on their differences, there are aspects, particularly of the contemporary era that I find especially puzzling. I look forward to your perspective.
MLTH,
There is a wonderful article at The American Prospect, called “The Cult of the Counterinsurgency”. It discusses John Nagl and his approach to this new doctrine.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_cult_of_counterinsurgency
@ willpen,
Thank you for the link to the AP article.
You might be interested in Richard A. Clarke’s latest book, “Your Government Failed You.” He takes a long look at the lessons of Vietnam, which ones were learned, and which were subverted in the rush to war. That, as a companion to Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine make for interesting, if unsettling reading.
Colonialism, be it traditional or neo in flavor, rarely works in the long run. The challenges of non-state actors and asymetrical warfare will continue to plague the world until we figure out how best to address the underlying causes and issues.
I read your post on “..thoughts about Mumbai) and then explored further. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this section as well as I thought you seem to have a much better grasp on the region’s history than 90% of the “Westerners” – if I may use the term loosely. I concluded that you are an Arab since you stated:
As I read further, I was surprised with this, seemingly rhetoric statement about “Allah.” Therefore if you are an Arab and do speak Arabic, my point below will make sense. You wrote:
I must say that this quite erroneous. In Arabic, the word you should have used is Allaat (الات) and not Allah (الله) .
Allaat was one of the stone gods the pagans of Mecca worshiped. It was later destroyed, as were all the idols, when Muhammad liberated Mecca. That was the end of paganism.
Allah means “The God” and the supreme.. and expresses the concept of divinity! It is the Arabic word for God. I’m sure you know that in Hebrew, Elohim and Eli were used in reference to God. This does not make Hebrews, Christians and/or Jews, believers in a different God called Elohim!
Regards,
ATW
ATW,
Thank you for your comments, and for your correction. The sources I used, having unfortunately dumped the remainder during one of my several moves since grad school, didn’t differentiate the term for the pagan stone idol.
My remark on transliterating Arabic into English was intended to illustrate the challenges inherent in finding English letter combinations to approximate sounds that don’t exist in English plus the inherent differences in the linguistic structure between the two languages. I confess that my knowledge of Arabic is very limited. That, combined with my available source material undoubtedly led to my not recognizing the error you mentioned.
I’m not sure that I understand your last sentence. I meant to say that while Jews, Christians and Muslims refer to God using their own languages, it is the same God they worship.
I hope that as I continue with this series, you’ll continue to read and to point out errors in fact or in interpretation. As we approach the contemporary period, it is my intent to seek a middle ground. There is so much contention, and as Gandhi so rightly noted, there is truth on both sides of most arguments. It is my hope to find those truths and so to provide a means for further discussion.
morelightthanheat,
An eloquent response and thank you.
My last sentence was more general and directed towards the average reader: that it is One God; that the French call Dieu, the Spanish Dios, etc. Like wise, Elohim and Allah. Many accuse Muslims of worshiping a “different” God and the word Allah is often used in mockery.
It will be a pleasure to read more of your posts.
ATW
Interessante Informationen.