370 • 19 THE REASSERTION OF ISLAMIC POWERmay not take control. Lands not under Muslim rule are called Dar al-
Harb, or the "house of war." Most Muslims believe they should expand
Dar al-Islam against Dar al-Harb. For centuries they did so, but then the
territorial losses inflicted on them by the Christians of Spain, and later
those of Austria, Russia, France, and Britain, shocked Muslims. Their
rulers imported weapons, tactics, and military organization piecemeal
from the West. When these stratagems failed, some adopted comprehen¬
sive westernizing reforms.
Although most of us would argue that westernization improved educa¬
tion, transport, and commerce, there was another side to the coin. Good
customs got thrown out with the bad. The old moral and intellectual lead¬
ers, the ulama, were displaced but not really replaced, for the new western¬
ized elites lacked the ulamas rapport with the people. Many artisans and
traders lost their livelihoods. Government despotism and corruption, far
from vanishing, increased with the telegram and the railroad. Bypassing
Muslim political theory, native westernizers adopted secular nationalism,
but this ideology did not halt the spread of Western rule. It did not stop the
exploitation of poor people or local minorities. Instead, nationalism sapped
popular institutions and exalted dictators such as Ataturk, Reza Shah, Nasir,
and Qadhafi. Few Muslim states (Indonesia, Algeria, and South Yemen are
exceptions) won their independence by revolutionary armed struggles. Af¬
ter independence, however, many failed to build national unity or even de¬
feat their enemies. Muslim defeats—like those of the Arabs by Israel in
1948, 1956, and 1967—were traumatic. If nationalism failed to uphold the
self-worth of modern Muslim states, other imported ideologies also proved
unfit: Fascism degraded the individual to exalt the state, and communism
denied the basic tenets of Islam altogether. People attain freedom and dig¬
nity not by aping others but by affirming what is true within themselves.THE IRANIAN REVOLUTIONAlthough the religious revival touched all parts of the Muslim world, its
most dramatic impact has been in Iran. This country is unique in some
ways: its language, its conscious cultivation of a pre-Islamic heritage, and
its adherence to Twelve-Imam Shi'ism. In Iran the rise of nationalism was
reinforced by the beliefs of the ulama and the people. The Shi'i ulama en¬
joyed great power and prestige. As you may recall from Chapter 8, they had
more leeway than did their Sunni counterparts to interpret the Shari'a.
Their ideas had great revolutionary potential, especially their belief that no