From Babel to Dragomans

Description

The book comprises a series of scholarly essays and speeches given over the past 4 decades on the topic of the Middle East and the Islamic world.

Quotes from the author

What is the historian trying to do? First, on the most rudimentary level, to find out what happened. Then, at a rather more sophisticated level, to find out how it happened. And, for the intellectually ambitious, why it happened. This is surely the really interesting part of understanding the past.

How does one actually set about distorting history? The best and most effective method of course is invention, supported by fabrication. One invents events, and if convenient or necessary one fabricates the evidence to support one’s inventions. A fabrication may be personal and deliberate; it may be collective and unconscious. Both kinds can usually be detected by critical historical scholarship.

Nowadays it has become fashionable to present the Crusades as an early example of aggressive, predatory Western imperialism against the Muslim East. But how did the previously Christian East become Muslim? If we go back a few centuries we might notice that the Crusade was preceded by the Jihad—that is, a similar invasion moving in the opposite direction—and one might not unreasonably describe the Crusade as a long delayed, limited Christian response to the Muslim Jihad. .

Slavery is a very disagreeable fact in human history, not just American history. American historians faced this honorably, recognizing the fact, discussing it, documenting it, analyzing it without any attempt to offer excuses. It was not embellished, as it was not long ago at an African History Conference, where one of the most famous African slave traders was described as running “an intercontinental employment agency.” There are societies in which slavery has been a fact of life, in some of them very recently, in some even to the present day. But the subject is taboo. Not long ago a graduate student who wanted to work on slavery in the medieval Middle East was strongly advised, not by any Middle Eastern authority but by a grant-giving body in this country, to choose some “less provocative” subject. To study the history of the Middle East without slavery would be as meaningful as to study the history of the American South or the Roman Empire without slavery. Nevertheless, it is widely done. Many books, indeed I suppose most general books on Middle Eastern history, either don’t mention it or gloss over it, and research in that field is discouraged in a number of ways.

Contents

Chapter 1 : An Islamic mosqueChapter 2 : From Babel to Dragomans (PDF online)Chapter 3 : Middle East feastsChapter 4 : Iran in historyChapter 5 : Palimpsests of Jewish history : Christian, Muslim and secular diasporaChapter 6 : Some notes on land, money and power in medieval IslamChapter 7 : An interpretation of Fatimid historyChapter 8 : Propaganda in the pre-modern Middle East : a preliminary classificationChapter 9 : Monarchy in the Middle EastChapter 10 : Religion and murder in the Middle EastChapter 11 : The Mughals and the OttomansChapter 12 : Europe and the Turks : the civilization of the Ottoman empireChapter 13 : Europe and Islam : Muslim perceptions and experienceChapter 14 : Cold war and detente in the sixteenth centuryChapter 15 : From pilgrims to tourists : a survey of Middle Eastern travelChapter 16 : The British mandate for Palestine in historical perspectiveChapter 17 : Pan-ArabismChapter 18 : The emergence of modern IsraelChapter 19 : Orientalist notes on the Soviet-United Arab Republic Treaty of 27 May 1971Chapter 20 : A taxonomy of group hatredChapter 21 : Islam and the WestChapter 22 : The Middle East, westernized despite itselfChapter 23 : The Middle East in world affairsChapter 24 : Friends and enemies : reflections after a warChapter 25 : Return to CairoChapter 26 : Middle East at prayerChapter 27 : At the United NationsChapter 28 : The anti-Zionist resolutionChapter 29 : Right and left in LebanonChapter 30 : The Shi'aChapter 31 : Islamic revolutionChapter 32 : The enemies of GodChapter 33 : The roots of Muslim rageChapter 34 : The other Middle East problemsChapter 35 : Did you say "American imperialism"? : power, weakness, and choices in the Middle EastChapter 36 : The law of IslamChapter 37 : Not everybody hates SaddamChapter 38 : Mideast states : pawns no longer in imperial gamesChapter 39 : What Saddam wroughtChapter 40 : The "sick man" of today coughs closer to homeChapter 41 : Revisiting the paradox of modern TurkeyChapter 42 : We must be clearChapter 43 : Deconstructing Osama and his evil appealChapter 44 : Targeted by a history of hatredChapter 45 : A time for topplingChapter 46 : In defense of historyChapter 47 : First-person narrative in the Middle EastChapter 48 : Reflections on Islamic historiographyChapter 49 : The Ottoman archives : a source for European historyChapter 50 : History writing and national revival in TurkeyChapter 51 : On occidentalism and orientalism