The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years.

Bernard Lewis is a widely-read scholar on the Middle East, serving as Emeritus Professor of Near East Studies in Princeton University. He's been at the center of some controversy, having been a go-to public intellectual for George W. Bush and, academically, been charged of imperialistic orientalism whereby his understanding of the Muslim world is largely based on subjective imposition of Western ideas that is in tension with post-colonial methods of historical scholarship.

Much like classic questions of who is to blame for WWI, a common question in Middle Eastern history is why Dar al-Islam (House of Islam) fell behind Dar al-Harb (House of War, i.e. land not subjected to Muslim rule) when for a majority of Islam's existence it was technologically, philosophically, politically, economically, and culturally far more advanced than Europe. Lewis has argued in other works that when the West began to industrialize and progress, Islamic lands were already in decline due to internal factors, not because of Western colonialism. Interestingly, Seyyid Hossein Nasr takes this position and actually assigned Muslim Discovery of Europe (where Lewis argues this point) for his class on Islam and the West.

The thesis of The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years is arguably that the Middle East can be considered in terms of one over-arching civilization that has persevered despite changing political realities and successive empires. He traces history from the pre-Christian era to the Gulf War and its immediate consequences; and he adeptly balances a progressive approach recounting major historical turning points and thematic approaches such as culture, religion and law, etc.

Lewis spends a good amount of time on the Ottoman Empire, which is generally what he became known for, being one of the key scholars that first delved into the Ottoman archives when they were made available to the West by Turkey; there is a sense of bias as to the importance of the Ottoman Empire to Middle Eastern history. He spends a considerably less time on important turning points such as Muhammad Ali's ascension to power in Egypt or the Fatimid dynasty that questioned the Abbasid claim to the caliphate. At the same time, Lewis does want to bridge the gap between history and contemporary relevance, which is why he might have put emphasis on the Ottomans as the spearhead for initial Western forays into the Middle East in a meaningful way.

At the end of the book, Lewis spends some time tracking the growing reluctance of Western powers to intervene in the Middle East after its enthusiasm to redraw the map after WWII. He posits that much impetus for change now must come from within Muslim states, especially with the Arab League and emerging cooperation among Arab states. The book was published in 1997 so it might be interesting to see a new edition come out now that the West appears to have reengaged in a heavy way through the Afghan and Iraqi wars.

General Updates:

• Had a beer with Dangus for my 21st while playing battleship at a bar.
• Got an volunteer internship with YPFP, will be doing part-time work in the development department; and USCC is still on hold and will be getting back to me beginning of next week.

Reading Updates:

• Picked up Packer's "Fundamentalism" and the Word of God, which has been great so far.
• Finished up Hebrews and will be starting up the gospel of John for quiet times.