Saturday, September 21, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Bernard Lewis on the Islamic World
Reading Diary for Sept 14, 2013
With the tumult in the Middle East last few days, and attention orienting to Syria, I read the book What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis. I had no idea who Bernard Lewis was --but apparently he is, or was in previous decades, the foremost Islamic scholar in the United States, emeritus professor at Princeton, author of many books, and recipient of many accolades. The book has positive blurbs from periodicals across the political span--the New York Times Book Review, The Wall St. Journal, Time, National Review, Business Week, Slate--well, perhaps more from periodicals on the right. The book was written prior to 9-11, but has an afterword on that subject. Its well written, though academic.
Lewis argues that the Islamic world resisted modernization and Westernization, (discussing the difference between the two concepts in the text), except for a few practical spheres. Hence, there has been decline in the Middle Easts ascendance since the middle ages and, ongoing puzzlement, reaction and anger about this loss of power..
Lewis argues, as I understand him, that as Western might increased, the Islamic region of the world including the Ottoman empire accepted and copied advances in military and medicinal technology--practical areas. However, they resisted developments in music, art, government, intellectual currents, pure science, and social roles. There were eventual attempts to incorporate aspects of Western government--not because they were admirable but because they seemed associated with military or economic ascendance. These attempts were never really were successful and sometimes disastrous.
Lewis states that the Islamic world, seeing its relative decline, has in turn blamed Mongols, Christianity, Nationalism, America, Britain, and even communism. He also notes how the Islam world has tried to deal with its enemies without (e.g., efforts by fanatics advocating Jihad) and from within (with assassination of those accommodating to Western ways, such as Nasser) to maintain strength and purity.
He argues that oppression of women, existence of sanctioned slavery, theocratic society, dogmatic anti-scientific view, and hostility to infidels at root of the Islamic worlds' stagnation. So, in effect, his argument is similar to the themes that have run through may social writings in our own culture in the last forty of fifty years--a sort of multicultral argument with emphasis on civil rights.
The explanatory tool seems a bit rote to me, and I would wonder about others reasons a culture might decline. These might include psychological factors, geopolitical factors, environment, the vagaries of genius appearing in once country or another, and other non-cultural roles, as well as the role of sheer chance and statistics. An additional consideration is that no culture remains strongest for ever, for a myriad of reasons that are are not easily rendered by one particular set of ideas. Cultures just replace each other--Egypt to Greece, Greece to Rome, Rome to Europe and Spain, to Britain, to the US, and so forth--maybe China is next.
Nonetheless, Lewis is lauded and famous, so its nice to know you are reading something at least discussable in the future, or useful in reading further and future interpretations of the Middle East. Maybe a bit of editing m ight have been useful, though. Apparently, he has many other books and they might develop ancillary themes.
I came away from this book more informed about the history of the world of Islam. It would be interesting to hear his view on psychological factors that are included in these changes--but he seems not to primarily think in those terms.
For understanding Middle Eastern culture I seemed to prefer the recent book on the Iranian statesman Mohammed Mossadegh, which has a more internalized sense of the themes pervading Islamic thought.
With the tumult in the Middle East last few days, and attention orienting to Syria, I read the book What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis. I had no idea who Bernard Lewis was --but apparently he is, or was in previous decades, the foremost Islamic scholar in the United States, emeritus professor at Princeton, author of many books, and recipient of many accolades. The book has positive blurbs from periodicals across the political span--the New York Times Book Review, The Wall St. Journal, Time, National Review, Business Week, Slate--well, perhaps more from periodicals on the right. The book was written prior to 9-11, but has an afterword on that subject. Its well written, though academic.
Lewis argues that the Islamic world resisted modernization and Westernization, (discussing the difference between the two concepts in the text), except for a few practical spheres. Hence, there has been decline in the Middle Easts ascendance since the middle ages and, ongoing puzzlement, reaction and anger about this loss of power..
Lewis argues, as I understand him, that as Western might increased, the Islamic region of the world including the Ottoman empire accepted and copied advances in military and medicinal technology--practical areas. However, they resisted developments in music, art, government, intellectual currents, pure science, and social roles. There were eventual attempts to incorporate aspects of Western government--not because they were admirable but because they seemed associated with military or economic ascendance. These attempts were never really were successful and sometimes disastrous.
Lewis states that the Islamic world, seeing its relative decline, has in turn blamed Mongols, Christianity, Nationalism, America, Britain, and even communism. He also notes how the Islam world has tried to deal with its enemies without (e.g., efforts by fanatics advocating Jihad) and from within (with assassination of those accommodating to Western ways, such as Nasser) to maintain strength and purity.
He argues that oppression of women, existence of sanctioned slavery, theocratic society, dogmatic anti-scientific view, and hostility to infidels at root of the Islamic worlds' stagnation. So, in effect, his argument is similar to the themes that have run through may social writings in our own culture in the last forty of fifty years--a sort of multicultral argument with emphasis on civil rights.
The explanatory tool seems a bit rote to me, and I would wonder about others reasons a culture might decline. These might include psychological factors, geopolitical factors, environment, the vagaries of genius appearing in once country or another, and other non-cultural roles, as well as the role of sheer chance and statistics. An additional consideration is that no culture remains strongest for ever, for a myriad of reasons that are are not easily rendered by one particular set of ideas. Cultures just replace each other--Egypt to Greece, Greece to Rome, Rome to Europe and Spain, to Britain, to the US, and so forth--maybe China is next.
Nonetheless, Lewis is lauded and famous, so its nice to know you are reading something at least discussable in the future, or useful in reading further and future interpretations of the Middle East. Maybe a bit of editing m ight have been useful, though. Apparently, he has many other books and they might develop ancillary themes.
I came away from this book more informed about the history of the world of Islam. It would be interesting to hear his view on psychological factors that are included in these changes--but he seems not to primarily think in those terms.
For understanding Middle Eastern culture I seemed to prefer the recent book on the Iranian statesman Mohammed Mossadegh, which has a more internalized sense of the themes pervading Islamic thought.
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