Notes on a Century: Reflections of A Middle East Historian

by Bernard Lewis

  “Western Culture Must Go,” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 1988.

  “Metaphor and Illusion: Words of Islam,” Encounter, May 19, 1988, 34–45.

  “The Law of Islam,” Washington Post, Washington, D.C., February 24, 1989.

  “The Map of the Middle East: A Guide for the Perplexed,” The American Scholar, 58, no.1 (Winter 1988–89): 19–38.

  “State and Society under Islam,” The Wilson Quarterly xiii, no. 4, Washington, D.C. (Autumn 1989): 39–51.

  “The Maghribis in Jerusalem,” Arab Historical Review x, nos. 1 and 2 (Tunisia, 1990): 144–46.

  “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” The Atlantic Monthly, September 1990, 47–60.

  “Legal and Historical Reflections on the Position of Muslim Populations under Non-Muslim Rule,” Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs 13, no. 1 (January 1992): 1–16.

  “Rethinking the Middle East,” Foreign Affairs 71, no. 4 (Fall 1992).

  “The Middle East Crisis in Historical Perspective,” American Scholar (Winter 1992): 33–46.

  “Women and Children, Slaves and Unbelievers,” 17th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Madrid, 1992.

  “The Enemies of God,” New York Review of Books, March 25, 1993, 30–32.

  “Islam and Liberal Democracy,” The Atlantic Monthly, February 1993, 89–98.

  “In Defense of History,” Brandeis Review 13, no. 2 (Fall 1993).

  “What Went Wrong? Some Reflections on Arab History,” American Scholar (Fall 1993).

  “Why Turkey?” Middle East Quarterly, no. 1 (1994).

  “Secularism in the Middle East,” Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, no. 2 (1995).

  “Islam Partially Perceived,” First Things, no. 59 (January 1996).

  “Islam and Liberal Democracy,” Journal of Democracy 7, no. 2 (April 1996).

  “Jihad,” The Reader’s Companion to Military History, Boston, New York, 1996.

  “Reflections on Islamic Historiography,” Middle Eastern Lectures, no. 2 (Tel Aviv, 1997): 69–80.

  “The West and the Middle East,” Foreign Affairs 76, no. 1 (January/February 1997).

  “Hopes and Fears about Peace,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 1996.

  “Revisiting the Paradox of Modern Turkey,” Wall Street Journal, November 12, 1996.

  “How to Destroy ‘Peace in Our Time,’ ” Wall Street Journal, November 26, 1997.

  “Demokratie und Religion im Nahen Osten,” Transit Europäische Revue, Heft 14 (Winter 1997): 118–31.

  “Muslim Anti-Semitism,” Middle East Quarterly, June 1998, 43–49.

  “Historical Roots of Racism,” The American Scholar 67, no. 1 (Winter 1998).

  “License to Kill,” Foreign Affairs 77, no. 6 (November/December 1998): 14–19.

  “Islam and Liberal Democracy,” Common Knowledge 7, no. 3 (Winter 1998): 84–103.

  “From Babel to Dragoman: The Tortuous History of the Interpreter in the Middle East,” The Times Literary Supplement 23, April 1999, 12–14.

  “Poems from the Turkish,” Studies in Honour of Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Volume II, The Sultan’s Turret: Studies in Persian and Turkish Culture, Leiden, 2000, 238–45.

  “Who Is Syria’s Rightful Ruler?” Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2000.

  “We Must Be Clear,” Washington Post, September 16, 2001.

  “The Revolt of Islam,” The New Yorker, November 19, 2001, 50–63.

  “A War of Resolve,” Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2002.

  “Osama and His Evil Appeal,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2002.

  “Targeted by a History of Hatred,” Washington Post, September 10, 2002, A15; reprinted in International Herald Tribune, September 12, 2002, as “Inheriting a History of Hatred.”

  “A Time for Toppling,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2002.

  “A Question, and Answers,” Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2003.

  “I’m Right, You’re Wrong, Go to Hell,” The Atlantic Monthly, 291, no. 4, May 2003, 36–42.

  “Put the Iraqis in Charge,” Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2003.

  “To Be or Not to Be,” Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2004.

  “Iraq at the Forefront,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2005.

  “A Democratic Institution,” Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2005.

  “Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East,” Foreign Affairs 84, no. 3 (May/June 2005): 36–51.

  “Rewriting Oneself,” The American Interest 1, no. 3 (Spring 2006): 123–31.

  “August 22,” Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2006.

  “The New Anti-Semitism, First Religion, Then Race, Then What?,” The American Scholar 75, no. 1 (Winter 2006): 25–36.

  “Was Osama Right?” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2007.

  “On the Jewish Question,” Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2007.

  “Second Acts,” The Atlantic, November 2007, 23, 25.

  “The Arab Destruction of the Library of Alexandria: Anatomy of a Myth,” What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? edited by Mostafa El-Abbadi and Omnia Mounir Fathallah, Leiden-Boston, 2008, 213–17.

  “Free at Last? The Arab World in the Twenty-first Century,” Foreign Affairs (March/April 2009): 77–88.

  “Israel’s Election System Is No Good,” Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2009.

  “Moderate Islam: A History of Tolerance,” Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2010.

  Endnotes

  1. This description is based on a contemporary report which I wrote for SOAS.

  2. The proceedings of the conference were published in a volume entitled Tensions in the Middle East, edited by Philip W. Thayer, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1958, pp. 50–60. My talk was reprinted in From Babel to Dragomans, pp. 232–39.

  3. The languages: EUROPE: Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Spanish, Swedish. MIDDLE EAST: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish. ASIA: Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Urdu.

  Index

  Abdullah, King of Jordan, ref1, ref2

  Ada, ref1

  Adams, Arlen, ref1

  Aden, ref1

  Adnan Bey, ref1

  Afghanistan, ref1, ref2

  Soviet invasion of, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Africa, ref1

  African Americans, Islamic names of, ref1

  Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, ref1

  Ajami, Fouad, ref1

  Albanians, Albanian language, ref1

  alcohol, Muslim ban on, ref1

  Algerian War of Independence, ref1, ref2

  Algiers, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Ali, Rashid, ref1

  Al-Qaida, ref1, ref2

  American University in Cairo, ref1

  Amman, ref1

  Amman, University of, ref1

  Ankara, University of, ref1

  Annales, ref1

  Annenberg, Walter, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Annenberg Research Institute for Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, ref1, ref2

  Anthology of Turkish Literature, An (Silay), ref1

  anti-Americanism, ref1, ref2, ref3

  anti-Semitism, ref1, ref2

  Arabic, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  colloquial, ref1

  Arab League, ref1

  Arabs in History, The (Lewis), ref1, ref2, ref3

  revising of, ref1

  Arab Spring, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Arafat, Yasser, ref1, ref2

  Aras, Tevfik Rüştü, 50

  Armenian massacres:

  Holocaust compared to, ref1, ref2

  lawsuits over BL’s characterization of, ref1

  Armenian Medical Association, ref1

  Armenian National Committee of France, ref1

  Armenian Report International, ref1

  Arthur, Geoffrey, ref1

  Asia, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Assad, Hafiz al-, ref1

  Assassin
s, ref1, ref2, ref3

  as forerunners of modern terrorists, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), ref1

  Atatürk, Kemal, ref1, ref2, ref3

  women’s emancipation and, ref1

  Atatürk Prize, ref1

  Atlantic Monthly, ref1

  Australia, ref1

  Avedon, Richard, ref1

  Ayyubid period, ref1

  Al-Azhar Mosque and University, ref1

  Badoglio, Marshal, ref1

  Baghdad, ref1, ref2

  Balkan Peninsula, ref1

  Bandar, Prince of Saudi Arabia, ref1

  Bangladesh (East Pakistan), ref1, ref2, ref3

  Banna, Hassan al-, ref1

  Barbary Corsairs, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Bar-Kokhba Revolt, ref1

  “barratry,” ref1

  Baynes, Norman H., ref1

  Bedouin, ref1, ref2

  Begin, Menachem, ref1

  Beirut, U.S. Embassy and barracks attacks in, ref1

  Ben-Zvi, Isaac, ref1

  Berlin, Japanese embassy in, ref1

  Beyond Chutzpah (Finkelstein), ref1

  Bialik, H. N., ref1, ref2, ref3

  Bible:

  Hebrew (Old Testament), ref1, ref2

  mistranslation of, ref1

  New Testament, ref1

  Bilād al-Sūdān, ref1

  bin Ladin, Osama, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Black Sea, ref1

  Bletchley Park, ref1

  Bombay, ref1

  Bourguiba, Habib, ref1

  Bramley, Jennings, ref1

  Brimicombe, Marcelle Manusset, ref1

  Brimicombe, William, ref1

  British Academy, ref1

  British Empire, end of, ref1, ref2

  Browning, Robert, ref1

  Brzezinski, Zbigniew, ref1, ref2

  Buddhism, ref1, ref2

  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, ref1

  Bunche, Ralph, ref1

  Bush, George H. W., ref1, ref2, ref3

  Bush, George W., ref1, ref2

  Byzantine Empire, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Cahen, Claude, ref1, ref2

  Cairo, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  California, University of:

  at Berkeley, ref1

  at Los Angeles (UCLA), ref1, ref2

  Caliphs, ref1, ref2

  Cambridge University, ref1

  Carter, Jimmy, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Castel Gandolfo, ref1, ref2

  Castro, Fidel, ref1

  Catholic Church, ref1

  Ceauşescu, Nicolae, ref1

  “champerty,” ref1

  Cheney, Dick, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  China, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Christians, Christianity:

  anti-Semitism and, ref1

  early history of, ref1, ref2

  Israeli, ref1

  Jews as viewed by, ref1

  Muslim view of, ref1, ref2

  triumphalist approach of, ref1

  U.S. seen as leading power of, ref1

  Churchill, Buntzie Ellis, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9

  Churchill, Winston, ref1

  Church of England, ref1

  Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ref1

  citizenship, identity and, ref1

  “clash of civilizations,” ref1

  Clash of Civilizations (Huntington), ref1

  “class,” use of term, ref1

  Clinton, Bill, ref1, ref2

  code breaking, ref1, ref2

  coffee, history of, ref1

  Cold War, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Collège de France, ref1

  Commentary, ref1, ref2

  Confucianism, ref1

  Congress, U.S.:

  Armenian massacres and, ref1

  see also Senate, U.S.

  Conservative Party, ref1

  Constantine, Emperor of Rome, ref1

  Constantinople, ref1, ref2

  see also Istanbul

  consultation, Islamic tradition of, ref1

  Coornaert, Emile, ref1

  Copts, ref1

  Córdoba, ref1

  Cornell University, ref1

  “Corsairs in Iceland” (Lewis), ref1

  Crac des Chevaliers, ref1

  Creditor, Leon Shalom, ref1

  Crisis of Islam, The (Lewis), ref1

  Cromwell, Oliver, ref1

  Crusader states, ref1

  Crusades, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Cypriots, ref1

  Cyprus, ref1, ref2

  Cyrus the Great, ref1

  Czechoslovakia, Nazi invasion of, ref1

  Damascus, ref1

  Dante Alighieri, ref1

  Dari, ref1

  Dayan, Moshe, ref1, ref2, ref3

  “Declaration of the world Islamic front for jihad against Jews and the Crusaders” (bin Ladin), ref1

  de Gaulle, Charles, ref1, ref2

  de la Mare, Arthur and Elisabeth, ref1

  Demirel, Süleyman, ref1

  democracy, Muslim world and, ref1

  Denmark, ref1, ref2

  Depression, ref1, ref2, ref3

  “dining in hall,” ref1

  “Dirge, The” (Lewis), ref1

  Dodwell, Professor, ref1

  Dovre Ivrit, ref1

  Dreyfus affair, ref1

  Dropsie College, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Eastern Question, ref1, ref2

  Eban, Aubrey (Abba), ref1

  Eckersley, C. E., ref1

  Economic History Review, ref1

  Edib, Halide, ref1

  education:

  and end of imperialism, ref1

  in England, ref1, ref2, ref3

  and students’ lack of general knowledge, ref1, ref2

  study of history and, ref1

  of women, ref1, ref2

  Egypt, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Arab conquest of, ref1, ref2

  BL’s trips to, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Britain and, ref1, ref2

  “Free Officers” coup in, ref1

  identity issues in, ref1

  in Israeli peace treaty, ref1, ref2, ref3

  jihad and, ref1

  Muslim Brothers in, ref1

  political humor in, ref1, ref2

  in Six Day War, ref1, ref2

  Soviet Union and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  in Suez Crisis, ref1

  in Yom Kippur War, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Egyptian University of Cairo, ref1

  Eight-Year War (1980), ref1

  Eisenhower, Dwight D., ref1, ref2

  elections:

  in Muslim world, ref1

  U.S., of 1976, ref1

  Elizabeth II, Queen of England, ref1

  Emergence of Modern Turkey, The (Lewis), ref1, ref2, ref3

  empathy, as Western trait, ref1

  Encounter, ref1, ref2

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, ref1

  Encyclopedia of Islam, ref1

  England:

  church and state in, ref1

  education in, ref1, ref2, ref3

  intellectual freedom in, ref1, ref2

  Jews in, ref1

  wartime shortages in, ref1

  see also Great Britain

  “Enough Said” (Pryce-Jones), ref1

  Ethiopia, ref1, ref2, ref3

  ethnicity, ethnic studies, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Europe:

  anti-Semitism in, ref1, ref2

  Muslim discovery of, ref1

  Muslim invasions of, ref1

  Muslims in, ref1, ref2

  secularization of, ref1

  see also West

  European Union, ref1

  Evening Standard (London), ref1

  Express, L’, ref1

  Faisal, King of Saudi Arabia, ref1

  Faris, Nabih, ref1

  Farouk, King of Egypt, ref1

  Fatah, ref1

  Fatimid period, ref1

>   fatwas, ref1

  Festschrifts, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Figaro, Le (Paris), ref1

  Finkelstein, Norman G., ref1

  food and meals:

  and dietary laws, ref1, ref2

  history of, ref1

  in Middle East, ref1

  Foreign Affairs, ref1, ref2

  Foreign Office, British, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Forum of Armenian Associations, ref1, ref2

  France, ref1, ref2

  Armenian massacre lawsuit in, ref1

  imperialism of, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Muslim invasion of, ref1, ref2

  Nazi occupation of, ref1, ref2

  France, Anatole, ref1

  Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, ref1

  freedom:

  intellectual, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Islamic vs. Western view of, ref1

  Free French, ref1

  French language, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  French Popular Front, ref1

  Fukuyama, Francis, ref1

  “Fundamentalism,” misuse of, ref1

  Fundamentals, The, ref1

  Gaddafi, Muammar, ref1

  Gamasi, Mohamed Abdel-Ghani al-, ref1

  Gandhi, Mohandas K., ref1

  Gayssot law, ref1, ref2

  Gaza, ref1

  Gdańsk, ref1

  Genizah collection, ref1

  George Polk Award, ref1

  German language, ref1

  Germany, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Muslims in, ref1

  Germany, Federal Republic of (West Germany), ref1

  Germany, Nazi, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Holocaust and, ref1, ref2

  intelligence service of, ref1

  Japanese treaty with, ref1

  Middle East and, ref1, ref2

  Ghorbal, Shafiq, ref1

  Gibb, Sir Hamilton A. R., ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9

  Gibbon, Edward, ref1

  Goitein, S. D., ref1

  Golan Heights, ref1, ref2

  Goldenberg, David, ref1

  Goldmann, Nahum, ref1

  Gottesman Lectures, ref1

  Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, ref1, ref2

  Great Britain:

  Egypt and, ref1, ref2

  Middle East and, ref1, ref2

  naturalized citizens in, ref1

  Palestine and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Turkish cultural relations with, ref1

  see also British Empire; England

  Greece, Nazi occupation of, ref1, ref2

  Greek language, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Grobba, Fritz, ref1

  Grodno, ref1

  Gulf states, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  hadith, ref1

  Hadley, Stephen, ref1

  Haifa, ref1

  Haifa Technion, ref1