Posted on 12/01/2004 10:51:40 PM PST by aphrodite74
I am now reading 'The Arab Mind' a book by Raphael Patai. It was published in 1983. The author gives an unvarnished look at norms in Arab culture. I am learning SO much that I wanted to share it with more FREEPERS. Its an essential topic for us to know about given current events in our post-911 times. If anyone knows of more books on this or related topics, please share! Is there a recommended books list for FREEPERS anywhere on this site?
Publishers Weekly [A]n impressive spread of scholarship...a major contribution in an important field.
About the Author Raphael Patai was the author of over 600 articles and more than twenty books. A native of Hungary, he taught at Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania. A prolific cultural anthropologist, Dr. Patai died in 1996.
Product Description: The classic study of Arab culture and society is now more relevant than ever. Since its original publication in 1983, the revised edition of Raphael Patai's The Arab Mind has been recognized as one of the seminal works in the field of Middle Eastern studies. This penetrating analysis unlocks the mysteries of Arab society to help us better understand a complex, proud and ancient culture. The Arab Mind discusses the upbringing of a typical Arab boy or girl, the intense concern with honor and courage, the Arabs' tendency toward extremes of behavior, and their ambivalent attitudes toward the West. Chapters are devoted to the influence of Islam, sexual mores, Arab language and Arab art, Bedouin values, Arab nationalism, and the pervasive influence of Westernization. With a new foreword by Norvell B. DeAtkine, Director of Middle East Studies at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg, N.C., this book unravels the complexities of Arab traditions and provides authentic revelations of Arab mind and character.
"Is there a recommended books list for FREEPERS anywhere on this site?"
Not that I know of, but that's a great idea. Especially with Christmas coming up. Maybe someone will do a vanity gift suggestion thread. An on-going one for books would be great! Mini-reviews and all.
Soldiers in OIF remarked at how a father could calmly pick up the mangled body of his child and walk home.
The soldiers were told by their interpreter that Arabs do not mourn the way Westerners do, having something to do with and unshakeable faith in the afterlife. Also explains why Muslims are so eager to fight to the death.
Well don't believe everything you read in it.
Here is a review:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/05/30/misreading_the_arab_mind?mode=PF
I read an old book (published in the 1930's or so) titled "The Gentle Infidel".
It's an account of a family's experiences during the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, focussed on the fall of Constantinople.
The thing that struck me about this book is how little has changed in the muslim world, and our understanding of it since the book was written, or even from the time of the Ottomans.
It's another book for the list, if ever it gets compiled.
I have yet to understand how Palestinian parents could send their children out to bomb a few miles away while they stayed home. If I felt so strongly about a situation, I would have given my own life before sending my child a few miles away to kill for me, and then collect Saddam's check afterwards.
The soldiers were told by their interpreter that Arabs do not mourn the way Westerners do, having something to do with and unshakeable faith in the afterlife. Also explains why Muslims are so eager to fight to the death.
For starters, Arabic armies can't and don't fight. Even with state-of-the-art equipment, they bail out and run. And what kind of a god cheers when school children on buses, babies in strollers, etc., rejoices because some brain-dead follower thinks that a one-way ticket to allah's whorehouse in the sky? And just look at a description of their 'Paradise' if you think 'whorehous' is too strong a term.
And why do any female Muslims blow themselves up, because their status in paradise is highly questionable?
However, it's worth noting that Dr. Patai throws every Arab into one large cultural bucket (he notes this early, but it's easy to forgot through the course of the book). As such, it's not the "be all, end all" book on Arabs.
(While I'm on the subject, Dr. Patai's other book: "The Jewish Mind" is not a good book. It may contain a lot of information, but it's as boring as "The Arab Mind" is interesting.)
Someone's bu!!$hi++ing, Lord, kum-bay-ya...
There is a book titled "Arabs at War" which I think explains Arab military incompetence from a cultural perspective.
Look, just google up that book and you will find
that its completely discredited.
Arabs are bad enough, but the stuff in this book
just goes over the line. Its been out there fore
years, and has been universally debunked.
This book has often been recommended at Free Republic. "The Haj" by Leon Uris is also good to understand the Arab mind.
No, it explains arab performance based on how they run their army, with very little cultural emphasys, other than the total distrust by higher ranks of any underlings having any power. http://www.strategypage.com/bookreviews/196.asp
Pollack finds a number of problems that have consistently bedeviled the Arabs in every war they have fought in modern times. These are tactical leadership, information management, weapon handling, and logistics and maintenance.
Googleing around abit will find virtually the whole book on line.
A review by the BoGlo?
Why not the NYT, or LA times, as well? :^)
In that kind of environment (which is their own damn fault), one does not expect their children to survive to adulthood.
Same in almost any war torn land. If they really had any idea of a future for their children, they would get the hell out of there - even if it meant sneaking across the border to Egypt. But all they know is hatered, and the death of a child just feeds the hatred, and the hatred just causes the death of more children.
I've read it, and it is a GREAT book. Disregard the static from those who claim "stereotyping," etc. Of COURSE there can't be a description that applies to every single person in a culture. But there CAN be, and are, descriptions that accurately apply to large majorities or supermajorities. This book is one of those.
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