December 12, 2004

The book From Babel to Dragomans by the orientalist Bernard Lewis is a collection of articles he wrote over the last forty years. Lewis is known to be influenced heavily by the right wing Israeli ideology and sadly enough this dictates his undoubtedly vast storehouse of knowledge about Islam and history. However it is clear from the evolution of the articles that he did start off as an objective scholar but somewhere along the line lost his academic integrity. This impression is compounded by the fact that in the latest swirling madness of war he was a massive admirer of Ahmad Chalabi the now disgraced leader in exile of Iraq. Also most of what he has written has already been discredited by scholars of good repute.

The term ‘orientalism’ has taken on a political significance after Edward Said exposed it as the study of the other with a view to dominate. It is not an unbiased study of the orient and Lewis takes orientalism to its height by his insistence that there is a war of civilizations under progress. The significance of Islamic identity among the Muslims of the Middle East which can be traced to the early period of Islamic civilization, when Islam was concerned with questions of the ummah, affects all of Lewis’ writings.

With the modern day nation states, his assertion that the Middle East, and indeed the Islamic world, has to be seen as a monolithic entity is deeply flawed. History can help to understand the present but it is problematic when images of the past are allowed to cloud the present. When history is treated as a theoretical tool to understanding contemporary events, it ceases to serve as a useful guide and becomes an impediment to understanding the present. Thus Lewis wrongly explains anti-Western feelings among the Muslims to be the result of tension between Islam and Christianity that may be traced back to the Crusades, “We shall be better able to understand this situation (anti-Americanism) if we view the present discontent of the Middle East not as a conflict between states or nations, but as a clash of civilization’s historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present and the worldwide expansion of both.”

The articles in the book are divided into ‘Past History’, ‘Current History’ and ‘About History’ and brings together some of Lewis’ early publications of the 1950s and more recently published opinion pieces on terrorism and Iraq. The word ‘Dragomans’ in the title of his book, is a paraphrase of the word tarjuman, which is translator in Arabic as well as Aramaic. Dragomans were translators and tourist guides in the middle ages, who were famous for lying in claiming to have knowledge in archeology. This is indeed a self confession, a slip, perhaps, because Lewis uses history to create explanations for all acts of war against the Middle East. In “The British mandate for Palestine”, he even argues that Palestine is not a historical identity, “The name [Palestine] survived briefly in the early Arab empire, and then disappeared. Even the adjective ‘Palestinian’ is comparatively new.” He forgets that in his 1896 preface to his treatise Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, referred to Palestine as a possible territory for the implementation of his plan, namely, the creation of a state for the Jews.

Consider what he has to say about democracies vis-a-vis the Palestinian conflict, “There may indeed be, as is so often said, a link between a settlement of the Palestinian conflict and a regime change in the region — but in the reverse order to that usually adduced. It is generally agreed that democracies do not start wars. Democratic governments are elected by the people and are answerable to the people, and with exceedingly rare exceptions, the people prefer peace” This view has been thoroughly discredited by recent events where even a million people coming out into the streets did not prevent ‘democratically’ elected heads of states from declaring an unjust war. He even attributes the Iranian Revolution to be the product of Ayatollah Khomeini alone, and not of the Iranian people.

Lewis argues that the misuser of history can to a certain extent serve his purpose simply by defining the topic, that is to say, of what, of where, of whom, of when, he is writing history. Take a simple matter like the starting point. One has to start somewhere if one is going to write a book or an article or give a lecture on a historical topic, and the choice may in some cases predetermine the result. Any starting point is to some degree artificial.

History is a seamless garment; periodization is a convenience of the historian and not a fact of the historical process. By choosing carefully, one can slant history without any resort to falsehood. For example, a writer on relations between the United States and Japan can start with Hiroshima or Pearl Harbour. Even precisely identical narratives of events would look very different, if they start with one or the other. Lewis could not have been more right. What he does, cleverly, I might add, is omit evidence that does not support his thesis especially on Israel.

For example in the chapter “Religion and murder in the Middle East” he concentrates entirely on assassination and terrorism in the Islamic and Arab world and says nothing of the terrorism of the Irgun and Stern Gang. He writes about the establishment of Israel, without mentioning the destruction of King David Hotel, or Deir Yassin, and the crimes and terrorism by the state of Israel.

Lewis’ influence in the corridors of power is well known. When he writes, “In the same way the dictatorships that rule much of the Middle East today will not, indeed cannot, make peace, because they need conflict to justify their tyrannical oppression of their own people, and to deflect their people’s anger against an external enemy. As with the Axis and the Soviet Union, real peace will come only with their defeat or preferably, collapse, and their replacement by governments that have been chosen and can be dismissed by their people and will therefore seek to resolve, not provoke, conflicts,” Bernard Lewis, a historian and a scholar, sets out the parameters for pre-emption and regime change.

From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East
By Bernard Lewis
Oxford University Press, Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi. Tel: 111-693-673
Email: ouppak@theoffice.net Website: www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 0-19-517336-8
438pp. Rs1,917

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