Arabs in the Mirror: Images and Self-Images from Pre-Islamic to Modern Times

225 Pages·2008·2.89 MB·English

by  Nissim Rejwan

arabs in the mirror
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arabs in the mirror
Images and Self-Images
from Pre-Islamic to Modern Times
nissim rejwan
university of texas press
austin
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A number of extracts and summaries quoted in this book appeared pre-
viously in articles and surveys contributed by the author to the Jerusalem
Post, Jerusalem Quarterly, Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, Jewish
Chronicle (London), Hadassah Magazine, and Midstream (New York),
among others. Th anks to the editors and publishers of these periodi-
cals for permission to quote from this earlier work. Th anks also to the
director and staff of the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement
of Peace, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for their cooperation
and encouragement. Also, unless otherwise noted, all translations from
Arabic and Hebrew sources are the author’s.
Copyright © 2008 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2008
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work
should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819
www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html
(cid:2)(cid:2) Th e paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rejwan, Nissim.
Arabs in the mirror : images and self-images from pre-Islamic to modern
times / Nissim Rejwan. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-71727-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-292-71728-2
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Arabs. 2. National characteristics, Arab. 3. Arab countries—Intellectual life.
4. Intellectuals—Arab countries. 5. Democracy—Arab countries. 6. Egypt—Social
conditions. I. Title.
ds36.7.r45 2008
305.892'7—dc22
2007033592
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contents
prologue. the bedouin,
the camel, the sand, and the palm tree vii
1. identity and self-definition 1
2. ibn khaldun’s appraisal appraised 10
3. “arabizing the arabs” 20
4. self-images old and new 31
5. calls for “critical self-analysis” 50
6. unity in diversity 65
7. the quest for democracy 77
8. resources and development 92
9. the social scene 101
10. the case of egypt 122
11. the west’s inroads 136
12. the difference israel has made 147
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contents
13. new lessons for old 160
14. the intellectuals 170
appendix. portraits in a mirror:
three fictional versions 183
select bibliography 199
index 205
vi
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prologue
the bedouin, the camel,
the sand, and the palm tree
T
he Arabian Peninsula is the cradle
of the Semitic family of peoples, who later became known as the Baby-
lonians, the Hebrews, the Assyrians, and the Phoenicians; it is one of the
driest and hottest areas in the world. In the words of Philip Hitti, an Arab
historian: “Th ough sandwiched between seas on the east and west, those
bodies of water are too narrow to break the climatic continuity of the Afro-
Asian rainless continental masses. Th e ocean on the south does bring rains,
but the burning winds which seasonally lash the land leave very little mois-
ture for the interior. Th e bracing and delightful east wind has always pro-
vided a favorite theme for Arabian poets” (History of the Arabs, 17).
Poetry was considered the highest manifestation of Arab culture in the
century preceding Islam, so much so that the well-known Persian historian
and geographer Ibn Wadhih al-Yaʿqubi, in his book Kitab al-Buldan (Book
of Countries), wrote that poetry among the Arabs had taken the place of
science, philosophy, history, and everything else. If an Arab had a bright
idea, he would express it in a few verses.
Th e Arabs of the pre-Islamic era were people of a poetic bent, and Arabic
nurtured many a great poet, although their land was not one of fl owers and
nightingales, but only thorns and sand. Since poetry was esteemed as the
highest manifestation of culture, Arab poets were always on the lookout for
a suitable spot to present their poems. Th e fi nest poems were inscribed on
posters and hung on the walls of the Kaʿba during the poets’ annual ren-
dezvous. Th e Kaʿba (Arabic, “square building” or “cube”) is Islam’s most sa-
cred sanctuary and pilgrimage site, located in the Great Mosque in Mecca.
Th e Qurʾan states that the Kaʿba was built by Adam and rebuilt by Abra-
ham and Ishmael; it houses the Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad ), the most
venerated place for Muslims. Th ese posters hung on the walls of the Kaʿba
were called muʿallaqat (hanging verses), and the poets rewarded with such
display became famous. Imrʿul-Qais and other poets of early Islam were
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arabs in the mirror
among those thus honored. Th ey were the authors of “the seven hanging
pieces” (al-muʿallaqat el-Sabʿ), which eventually found a place of honor on
the walls of the Kaʾba and in history.
It is important to add here, however, that there are still serious doubts
about the authenticity of the muʾallaqat. In 1926, Dr. Taha Hussein, who
in his life was known as “the doyen of Arabic literature,” published a book
titled Fil Shiʿr al-Jahili (On Pre-Islamic Poetry). In his introduction and
in the course of the book, the author tries to prove that all this poetry—
which, he says, was so abundant that one could imagine that all the an-
cients were poets—had been fabricated. He reaches the conclusion, in fact,
that this poetry “proves nothing and tells nothing and should not be used,
as it has been, as an instrument in the study of the Koran and the Hadith.
“Th ere is no doubt,” Taha Hussein asserts, “that this poetry was tailored
and invented all of a piece so that the culema (religious savants) might prove
by it what they had set out to prove” (quoted in Nissim Rejwan, Arabs Face
the Modern World, 47, 48).
Few non-Arab ancient historians wrote about Arabia, and the traces in
Herodotus’s Histories (430 BC), Dio Cassius’s History of Rome (AD 220),
and Ammianus Marcellinus’s Roman History (AD 380) are, with the pos-
sible exception of the last, hardly worth mentioning. Following are a few
passages from Ammianus.
At this time also the Saracens, a race whom it is never desirable to have ei-
ther for friends or enemies, ranging up and down the country, if ever they
found anything, plundered it in a moment, like rapacious hawks who, if
from on high they behold any prey, carry it off with a rapid swoop, or, if
they fail in their attempt, do not tarry. And although, in recounting the
career of the Prince Marcus, and once or twice subsequently, I remem-
ber having discussed the manners of this people, nevertheless I will now
briefl y enumerate a few more particulars concerning them.
Among these tribes, whose primary origin is derived from the cata-
racts of the Nile and the borders of the Blemmyae [a nomadic Nubian
tribe], all the men are warriors of equal rank; half naked, clad in colored
cloaks down to the waist, overrunning diff erent countries, with the aid
of swift and active horses and speedy camels, alike in times of peace
and war. Nor does any member of their tribe ever take plow in hand or
cultivate a tree, or seek food by the tillage of the land; but they are per-
petually wandering over various and extensive districts, having no home,
no fi xed abode or laws; nor can they endure to remain long in the same
climate, no one district or country pleasing them for a continuance.
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the bedouin, the camel, the sand, and the palm tree
Th eir life is one of continued wandering; their wives are hired, on
special covenant, for a fi xed time; and that there may be some appear-
ance of marriage in the business, the intended wife, under the name of a
dowry, off ers a spear and a tent to her husband, with a right to quit him
after a fi xed day, if she should choose to do so. And it is inconceivable
with what eagerness the individuals of both sexes give themselves up to
matrimonial pleasures.
But as long as they live they wander about with such extensive and
perpetual migrations, that the woman is married in one place, brings
forth her children in another, and rears them at a distance from either
place, no opportunity of remaining quiet being ever granted to her. Th ey
all live on venison, and are further supported on a great abundance of
milk, and on many kinds of herbs, and on whatever birds they can catch
by fowling. And we have seen a great many of them wholly ignorant of
the use of either corn or wine. (Th e Roman History of Ammianus Marcel-
linus, translated by C. D. Yonge, 11–12)
Similarly superfi cial depictions of pre-Islamic Arabians and their way
of life are to be found. Th e relatively few accounts in later works of his-
tory are equally brief, Arabic sources not excluded, except perhaps by their
lengthy and typically ornamental prose. Of the more recent Arab histori-
ans, however, the one who has produced the most comprehensive though
briefest summary has been Philip Hitti, the Lebanese American author
of the monumental History of the Arabs, fi rst published in 1937, updated
throughout nine later editions, and still the standard one-volume history
of its kind.
About the population of central and northern Arabia in the pre-Islamic
era, Bernard Lewis writes that the dominant feature of this population was
Bedouin tribalism: “In Bedouin society, the social unit is the group, not the
individual. Th e latter has rights and duties only as a member of his group.
Th e group is held together externally by the need for self-defence against
the hardships and dangers of desert life, internally by the blood-tie of de-
scent in the male line which is the basic social bond. . . . Th e tribe does not
usually admit of private landed property, but exercises collective rights over
pastures, water sources, etc.” (Lewis, Th e Arabs in History, 29).
In his book Muhammad and the Conquests of Islam, Francesco Gabrieli
rightly says that it is impossible to deal with Muhammad and his achieve-
ment without knowing something about the environment in which he was
born, which “he partly revolutionized or altered profoundly and partly re-
tained and consolidated.” Following a brief description of this environment,
ix
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