What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis

On any given day in recent history, the most pressing international story was most likely some sort of skirmish or incident in the Middle East. Make no mistake, the region is a cinder box that can spark up and cause an international scene very quickly. The volatile nature of the region can be linked to the current war with Iraq, the clash with Afghanistan, the 9/11 attack, and any number of Arab-Israeli events. Why, then, is this region so unstable compared to the rest of the world? Why, also, is most of the frustration of the residents of this region directed at either the United States or the idea of modernity that exists in the US and in Europe? These questions are tackled by Bernard Lewis in his book What Went Wrong?.

For nearly one thousand years, the Arab world was superior in its clash with Christendom. In fact, the Ottoman Empire once reached as far as the outskirts of Vienna and dominated the area that is presently Hungary. At the same time, the citizens of Europe were battling each other throughout the Middle Ages with inferior technology, weaponry, and strategy. However, with the dawn of the Renaissance, the balance of power swung to the Europeans and the Middle Easterners have progressively lost power since that moment. Lewis explains that the process of modernization in the Middle East has been extremely difficult and frequently unsuccessful. There has been opposition to many of the various aspects of modernization.

Two topics that I found particularly interesting were the treatment of women and the lack of technology to determine the time of day. On the first subject, there was a fierce resistance to granting rights to women as it seemed to violate the Qu’ran. To many Muslims, it was sacrilegious to change the state of human rights from the way people interacted during the time of Mohammad. If the Prophet was able to live at a time when leaders had harems and women had few rights, then why should they change the way people are treated. In fact, with every issue that was confronted by modernization, the argument that it altered the state of living from the time of Mohammad was drawn upon by fundamentalists looking to prevent change.

When it comes to determining time, the Middle East lagged behind Europe in the number of clockmakers and watches. Not only were these devices not made, the ones imported from Europe were met with skepticism. An extremely humorous anecdote was included in Lewis’ work. An ambassador was traveling to the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but was frequently perturbed by his guides. He wrote:

“Our guides, misled by the brightness of the moon, would give the signal for packing-up long before sunrise. We would then hastily get up, so that we might not be late or be blamed for any untoward incident that might occur; our baggage would be collected, my bed and the tents hurled into the carriage, our horses harnessed, and we ourselves girt up and ready awaiting the signal for departure. Meanwhile the Turks, having realized their mistake, had returned to their beds and their slumbers” (Lewis 117-8).

In short, his Turkish guides would misjudge the time, wake the ambassador early, and then fail to notify him once they realized their mistake. The solution the ambassador posed was simple. He wrote:

“I explained to them that I had clocks which never failed me, and would arrange matters, taking the responsibility of letting them sleep on; they could, I said, safely trust me to get up. They assented, but were still not quite at their ease; they arrived in the early morning, and, waking my valet, begged him to go and ask me ‘what the fingers of my timepiece said’. He did this, and then indicated as best he could whether a long or a short time remained before the sun would rise. When they had tested us once or twice and found that they were not deceived, they relied on us henceforward and expressed their admiration of the trustworthiness of our clocks” (Lewis 118).

While there were isolated incidents within his book that were very interesting, the book as a whole was not worth a read. While Lewis frequently posed the question “What Went Wrong?”, he never actually gave me a satisfactory answer. While the region is extremely complex, Lewis made no attempt at all to solve the problems. He merely suggested that fundamentalists were not helping the region (obviously!). In short, when I am reading a book that attempts to answer a question (especially if the question is included in the title), then I want the author to attempt to answer the question. Is that too much to ask?

The only conclusion that really seemed obvious after reading the book is that the Middle East has failed miserably to adapt to the changing world. As its rivals – first Christendom, and then the United States and Europe – have evolved, the Middle East held onto some of its less useful beliefs and methods much to its disadvantage. Likewise, in the ways in which the region modernized, many of them were inconsequential (like the introduction of European music) or unnecessary (like a change in military uniforms). However, for a basic introduction, the book does feature several useful facts and gives a good introductory history on the region’s struggles with modernization. Basically, as an introduction to the historical roots of the problems currently faced in the Middle East, the book is excellent. However, as a source for answers to the many riddles posed by the region, the book should be avoided like the plague.

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