Eleven superb essays on the culture clash between the Islamic
nations of the Middle East and the more secularized West; from
distinguished Orientalist Lewis (Near Eastern Studies/Princeton;
Semites and Anti-Semites, 1986, etc.). Scholarly but not pedantic,
writing without fear or favor, Lewis makes an ideal guide through
the political, religious, and cultural thickets of Islam. As the
range of subjects demonstrates, his reach is as wide as his touch
is sure. His tone is objective throughout, except for two pieces: a
scaring critique of Edward Said and other critics of Orientalism
for their "science-fiction history and...lexical Humpty-Dumptyism";
and an impassioned defense of non-Western studies against
adversaries who employ contradictory rhetoric to mask a hidden
agenda ("If we don't study and teach other cultures we are called
arrogant and ethnocentric and if we do we are accused of spoliation
and exploitation"). Lewis begins with a capsule history that
outlines the odd affinities and tensions between Europe and the
Islamic nations - a struggle in which each side has called the
other "infidel" and has swapped commercial and military supremacy.
He also considers medieval Islamic debates on worship in lands
where the teachings of Mohammed did not hold sway - and the
implications of this today amid the Arab diaspora to Europe and
America. Lewis is equally comfortable with more specialized topics,
including Edward Gibbon's influence on the Western image of
Mohammed; the difficulties of translating from Arabic; and the
Ottoman threat to Europe until the Turkish defeat at Vienna in
1683. The author concludes with four meditations on the
contemporary Islamic response to Western might, discussing
resurgent Islamic fundamentalism as a unifying factor in Mideast
politics; the split between the Shi'a and Sunni sects; the passage
of the concept of "country" into Islamic lands; and why few Islamic
countries have traditions of religious coexistence and secularism.
A learned, forceful analysis that treats Islam with respect, not
condescension. (Kirkus Reviews)
Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle
Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis has been for half a century one of
the West's foremost scholars of Islamic history and culture, the
author of over two dozen books, most notably The Arabs in History,
The Emergence of ModernTurkey, The Political Language of Islam, and
The Muslim Discovery of Europe. Eminent French historian Robert
Mantran has written of Lewis's work: "How could one resist being
attracted to the books of an author who opens for you the doors of
an unknown or misunderstood universe, who leads you within to its
innermost domains: religion, ways of thinking, conceptions of
power, culture--an author who upsets notions too often fixed,
fallacious, or partisan."
In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis brings together in one volume
eleven essays that indeed open doors to the innermost domains of
Islam. Lewis ranges far and wide in these essays. He includes long
pieces, such as his capsule history of the interaction--in war and
peace, in commerce and culture--between Europe and its Islamic
neighbors, and shorter ones, such as his deft study of the Arabic
word watan and what its linguistic history reveals about the
introduction of the idea of patriotism from the West. Lewis offers
a revealing look at Edward Gibbon's portrait of Muhammad in Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire (unlike previous writers, Gibbon saw
the rise of Islam not as something separate and isolated, nor as a
regrettable aberration from the onward march of the church, but
simply as a part of human history); he offers a devastating
critique of Edward Said's controversial book, Orientalism; and he
gives an account of the impediments to translating from classic
Arabic to other languages (the old dictionaries, for one, are
packed with scribal errors, misreadings, false analogies, and
etymological deductions that pay little attention to the evolution
of the language). And he concludes with an astute commentary on the
Islamic world today, examining revivalism, fundamentalism, the role
of the Shi'a, and the larger question of religious co-existence
between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
A matchless guide to the background of Middle East conflicts
today, Islam and the West presents the seasoned reflections of an
eminent authority on one of the most intriguing and little
understood regions in the world.
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