A Concise History of the Middle East

Then and Now, There and Here • 5

THEN AND NOW, THERE AND HERE

But why, you may ask, should anyone want to study the Middle East, let
alone the history of Islamic civilization? We argue that studying any sub¬
ject, from philosophy to physics, is potentially an adventure of the mind.
Islamic history is a subject worth learning for its own sake. Confronted by
distances of time and space, and by differences of thought patterns and
lifestyles, we learn more about ourselves—about our era, area, beliefs, and
customs. Islam is somewhat like Christianity and Judaism, but not entirely
so. The peoples of the Middle East (like those of the West) are partial heirs
to the Greeks and the Romans. To a greater degree, however, they are di¬
rect successors of the still earlier civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Per¬
sia, and other lands of the ancient Middle East. As a result, they have
evolved in ways quite different from ours. They are rather like our cousins,
neither siblings nor strangers to us.
In another sense, our culture is their debtor. Our religious beliefs and
observances are derived from those of the Hebrews, Mesopotamians,
Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks who lived in the Middle East before Islam.
Moreover, many Westerners do not know what they have learned from
Islamic culture. Some of the technical aspects of cultural transmission,
especially in philosophy, mathematics, and science, we will save for later.
For now, a glance at the background of some everyday English words
backs up our point.
Let us start with what is closest to ourselves, our clothes. The names of
several things we are apt to wear have Middle Eastern backgrounds: cotton
(from the Arabic qutn)y pajamas and sandals (both words taken from Per¬
sian), and obviously caftans and turbans. Muslin cloth once came from
Mosul (a city in Iraq) and damask from Damascus. The striped cat we call
tabby got its name from a type of cloth called Attabi, once woven in a sec¬
tion of Baghdad having that name. Some Arabs claim that the game of
tennis took its name from a medieval Egyptian town, Tinnis, where cotton
cloth (used then to cover the balls) was woven. Are we stretching the
point? Well, the name for the implement with which you play the game,
your racquet, goes back to an Arabic word meaning "palm of the hand."
Backgammon, chess, polo, and playing cards came to the West from the
Middle East. The rook in chess comes from the Persian rukh (castle) and
checkmate from shah mat (the king is dead). As for household furnishings,
we have taken divan, sofa, mattress, and of course afghan and ottoman
from the Middle East.
You may already know the Middle Eastern origin of such foods as shish
kebab, yogurt, tabbouleh, hummus, and pita. Some of our other terms for