Book Review: A brief history of the middle east, by Christopher Catherwood

In recent years, I have diversified from reading only fiction, to sometimes reading history books. And I just love them. One because they are still stories (so I don't miss fiction) and second because there is so much more that you can understand about the current world, its intricacies and under currents if you can understand and follow its history better.

I was always interested in understanding the events in the Middle East, especially the Israel-Palestine conflict and realised I had only a half-knowledge about the issues for a long time. Reading Wiki helped, but not enough as Wiki is good enough to get some information about something, but if you need a detailed insight about anything, Wiki too falls short.

So one day in the library, I just picked up this book randomly. And it turned out to be a successful experiment. Of course I learnt a lot about the Middle East through it. But I realised two other things which I tend to sometimes forget. One, its fun to pick random books at times, and feels good when they turn out good! And the second was that the internet cannot replace books. Books have a depth and insight of their own, which a website can never match.

Anyways, a quick summary of the book is that it gives a very brief but comprehensive view of the region over time: starting with the ancient civilizations and empires, the rise of three of the worlds' biggest religions, the rise and fall of empires in this region (Islamic and Ottoman empires), the world wars, the creation and aftermath of Israel and ending with events in the recent past which have led the region to be what it is now.

I must say here itself, that whenever I read Wiki on this topic, I used to get confused with the multiple empires and events that have affected the Middle East history. I still can't remember it all, as there are too many things that have happened here, but thanks to this book, I think I do understand the key events a lot better.

This book has been written very well. It runs like a story, and provides a very good view to someone trying to understand this very very complex region for the first time. Its a definite must read for anyone looking for an introduction to the complicated world of the Middle East.

That being said, the reason for this post is not to review the book, but to just share two things. One, I found many fascinating historical titbits which I did not know before, and would like to share here. Second is the Israel-Palestine conflict, which I would try simplifying here, not just for the readers but for myself too. Some of these following words have been taken verbatim from the book, while the rest are my interpretation of what the author has described.

Some interesting insights/titbits from history of the Middle East

- The Islamic and Chinese civilisations spent many centuries far in advance of the West, in the field of science and technology but then went backwards. Its interesting how they lost their leads, the West went ahead and then has stayed ahead for so long. (p. 98)

- Even though Israel was the original home for the Jews, they have spent most of their lives outside this country. Moses brought them back from Egypt to the Promised Land, in ~1440 BC but then Babylonians captured it in around 586 BC and made the Jews leave again. They then spread out throughout the world, only to come back post the Second World War in 1948

- A lot of time is given by the author to the birth and development of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even though all three are similar in some ways, e.g., linkage to Abraham, according to the author, there is one interesting difference, which is '..the role the state plays in relation to religion and religious practice, that demarks Islam from Christianity and Judaism. Jews were under alien rule from the eights century BC onwards and the Christians, as we saw, were persecuted for their first 300 years, and have, in the West, long ceased to make religious adherence compulsory. But it is not the same with Islam, and this key different today makes it hard for Muslims, principally those in the West ,to be under the rule of those who do not accept the Islamic faith....Islam has, in that sense always been a religion of state power, with no political/religious divide. This is why the loss of such powers to the Europeans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been so traumatic...' (p.86)

- A lot of the issues in the Middle East today are because of the events that came after the Ottoman Empire was broken up after the First World War. One, the sense that the Muslims of the area got was that the British had abolished the Caliph. Second, was the loss of land to non-Muslim powers (the Europeans). And the third was the new political entities that the British created after the war, while distributing the spoils of war

- The British actually created both the countries of Jordan and Iraq after the war so as to maintain their power. They took the help of King Faisal and Abdullah, to lead the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire, in the World War. After the war, King Faisal was to become the king of Syria. But since France took over Syria, the British created Iraq by combining the Kurdish, Armenian and Muslim areas which had come to the British, and made King Faisal its king. And Jordan was given to King Abdullah because he was trying to attack Syria (which the French now held). So the creation of Jordan and Iraq, both was part of British imperialism in the Middle East, where notional kings were crowned, while the British remained the real rulers

- Moreover, King Faisal and King Abdullah were both sons of King Hussein bin Ali who was the Emir of Mecca and Medina - all part of the Hashemite clan. The Al-Saud family however defeated King Ali and created the present day country of Saudi Arabia

- The first genocide in the region was the long forgotten killing of more than a million of Armenians by the Ottomans in the First World War. Even then, the Armenians have been persecuted over time and did not really get the whole of their own country as they were expected to after the World War

- '...the conflict with Israel has seen the permanent militarisation of many Arab societies - up to 30 percent of the world's arm sales are in Arab countries' (p. 239)

-'..astonishingly, Israel and Iran actually collaborated on many military issues in the 1980s, on the basis that 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'. .. Israeli jets destroyed Saddam Hussein's attempt to develop nuclear capability of his own.' (p. 292)

- Saddam Hussein was supported by the Americans in his war against Iran, but later they became foes

- Egypt has rarely been ruled by Egyptians! Over history, the Iranians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Caliphs, Ottomans and the British have ruled over Egypt till General Nasser took over

- There are many different ethnicities in the Middle East and all are different - Turks, Persians, Arabs, Kurds, Jews, Armenians and so on..

- Arabs are not synonymous with Muslims, a lot of Arabs, though a minority are Christians too!

- The author tries to summarise the Muslim-Western conflict, splitting the Arabs into the Arab street - 'which dislikes what the west does, e.g., attack Iraq' - and the Arab basement - 'which dislikes what the west is, in terms of its values'. The Muslim fanatics come from the Arab basement, and not the Arab street

- The Wahhabi form of Islam has been one of the reasons of the present Muslim-Western conflict. The Wahhabi form of Islam is based on the thinkings of Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Two of the points which were part of his philosophy were that the purest (and already reformed) form of Islam is what was present in the times of Mohamed. It should still be followed as it is, without any changes over time. The second point he focused on was that the only kind of jihad that exists is the military one (thereby rejecting the other version of jihad which refers to the internal struggle within oneself). The Wahhabis helped al-Saud win over the Emir of Mecca, and hence the newly created Saudi Arabia accepted this form of Islam. This is where a lot of the terror in the Muslim world emanates from and is different from the other more flexible forms of Islam followed in many places of the world

Some key events of the Israel-Palestine conflict

The Israel-Palestine conflict is very confusing, and even though its recent history, it is still very difficult to confirm all the details, or get one view on what actually transpired. Also, both sides blame each other for a lot, its still not very black or white who was right and who wasn't.

- Its very difficult to decide who was more correct when the issue began. When Israel was formed, both the Jews and the Arabs had a valid viewpoint for what they wanted. ' .. both sides, Jewish and Palestinian alike, had strong moral grounds for the cases that they now put to the wider world, which were entirely incompatible. After the annihilation of six million Jews, the Jewish national wish for safety was entirely comprehensible as was the Palestinian desire not to lose their ancestral land as a result of mass immigration from outside. It is important to remember that after the Second World war, both sides therefore had equally strong moral claims for their particular viewpoints, and the fact that neither could co-exist with the other one was nor the real dilemma'. (p.199) Alas, given the events after that time, there is none who has remained more right anymore...

- Israel was created by the British (apparently to get over the European guilt of the Second World War). As part of the UN resolution, Palestine was divided into Israel and Palestine, where Israel was to be the home for Jews across the world who were coming back to their Promised Land

- This was not acceptable to Palestinians (or the neighbouring Arab nations), but it was done nonetheless. After Israel was created in 1948, the neighbouring nations of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Iraq attacked Israel, to win back Palestinian lands from them. Israel not only won this first Arab-Israeli conflict but also took over some of the land which was to be part of Palestine

-Moreover, 'Jordan gained most of the 22 per cent of the Palestinian state that was left in Arab hands - today called the West Bank,...- and the Egyptians took the Gaza strip, which is contiguous to their territory.' (p.201)

- Most of the Palestinians left their homes at this time, as they thought they could come back when they won the war. That never happened, and so about 100,000 Palestinians have been living as refugees for the last 50 years in the neighbouring countries. Only Jordan has provided them citizenship, while the rest still remain as state-less refugees

- According to the author, the neighbouring countries got into the war not really to help the Palestinians, but as they wanted to gain Palestinian land for themselves. This cannot be confirmed but nevertheless it still means that the Palestinians would have had an independent country, a home of their own (even if smaller in size than the combined Palestine) if the neighbouring countries did not want more than what they had

- Its also very interesting that even now, a lot of countries and people don't agree with Israel's right to exist, nor acknowledge its existence

- In 1967 Israel and Egypt fought again, in the Six Day War which Israel won comprehensively - they won parts of West Bank and East Jerusalem from the Arabs, and did not return these areas back to them after the war either. The Arabs in these areas came under Israel and are still there

- In 1973, Egypt and Syria again attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Israel won again but this time only with US support

- In 1982, Israel attacked Lebanon to remove PLO from Lebanon and then withdrew

- In 2006 again, Lebanon and Israel fought as Hizbollah fired rockets on Israel, but the war ended with no clear winner

- On the Palestinian side, their resistance is composed of the PLO and the Hamas, and both are different. The Hamas is a Muslim organisation, while the PLO is a secular organisation, fighting for the rights of Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike

- The PLO and the Hamas have also been fighting with each other recently, with the Gaza strip now under the Hamas control and the West Bank under the Fatah (PLO)

- As part of the peace process, in 2005 Israel said that they will leave the West Bank. This hasn't happened yet though but would be a positive step towards peace if it happens

The last 50 years have been one of conflict in the region, especially for Israel-Palestine, with the Arab nations trying to end Israel's existence but failing. Some of the countries like Egypt have now signed peace accords with Israel, while some still continue to fight. Israel though looks like it has moved on. It focuses on its security, but then on its internal development too. The elusive peace is still not in sight though...

In the end, the only losers of this warfare have been the Palestinians - so many of them left without a home of their own and I end agreeing with what the author says, in this conflict ' ...one kind of suffering - that of Jews being persecuted in Europe - led in time to another kind, that of dispossessed Palestinians' (p.273)