BOOKS Middle East at prayer

BERNARD LEWIS

There is a well-known story, dating back to the early days of the Arab-Israel conflict, about an American representative at the United Nations who found himself involved in a more than usually acrimonious argu- ment between the spokesmen of the two sides. Forgetting for a moment where he was and to whom he was speaking, he urged the Arabs and Israelis to settle their quarrels like Christians. A less frequently cited ad- dendum explains that this is precisely what they have been doing ever since.

The reader of these two volumes (Reli- gion in the Middle East: Three Religions in Concord and Conflict General editor A. J. Arberry, CUP 2 vols £7) on religion in the contemporary Middle East—so rich in conflict, so poor in concord—may be excused for recalling both the anecdote and its sequel. The title is self-defining. Religion, in the Middle East, means Judaism, Chris- tianity and Islam, in historical sequence. The earlier religions of the region have dis- appeared—though one contributor records that certain theologians feared lest a lecture on Osiris by a Dutch scholar 'might conceal missionary tendencies'.

The more diflicult term 'Middle East' is correspondingly defined as the area where the three religions meet. Besides the regions of North Africa and South West Asia to which the term is normally applied, it in- cludes the Christians and Muslims of Ethio- pia, India and Pakistan, the Muslims (but not Christians) of East and West Africa, the Jews (but not the Christians or Muslims) of the United States, and the Muslims (but not Christians or Jews) of the Soviet Union and the Balkans. The first volume is de- voted to Judaism and Christianity, the second to Islam and a final general section on broad topics, such as doctrine, law, politics and culture, affecting all three religions. Among the chapters in this sec- tion, that of M Linant de Bellefonds on law stands out in particular. There are many ways of writing abotit religion—the prayer-book, the guide-book or the blue book, the tract, the pamphlet or the homily, the scholarly monograph or the annual report. Most of them are cultivated by one or other of the contributors to these volumes, which in consequence display a striking variation in manner, content and worth. The editing of such co-operative works is always difficult; indeed, by a form of exegesis familiar to all three faiths, one might read a ban on such enterprises into the pentateuchal commandment not to yoke creatures of unequal size and strength.

There is inequality in the treatment accorded to the three religions. Of the four chapters on Judaism, all are by Jews, two of them Rabbis. Of the nine chapters on Christianity, eight are by clerics, one—the most clerical of all—by a Christian layman. Of the nineteen chapters on Islam, only two or three are by Muslims, none of whom are professional men of religion. The re- mainder are by Western scholars, for whom Islam is an object of study, rather than a source of guidance.

It is perhaps for this reason that, for the Western lay reader at least. the Islamic section is by far the most satisfying, the Jewish section a poor second, and the Chris-

tian third. The Islamic section begins with an historical introduction by Dr R. B. Serjeant, which offers new insights to the specialist as well as general guidance for the beginner. This is followed by two series of chapters, the first on the condition of Islam in various regions, the second on Islamic sects and schools. With one gro- tesque exception, all these chapters are good; several are outstanding.

The chapters on Judaism deal with modern trends in Jewish religious thought, chiefly in Europe and America; with Judaism in modern Israel, and with the Jewish com- munities in oriental countries. The chapter by Professor H. Z. Hirschberg on the Jews under Muslim rule runs to more than a hundred pages, and covers the whole period from the rise of Islam to the present day. Though perhaps disproportionate, it is one of the most valuable contributions in the book, offering a scholarly and detailed ex- position of a subject that has suddenly acquired topical interest. Also valuable is Dr W. H. C. Frend's somewhat shorter in- troductory survey of Christianity in the Middle East, down to AD 1800.

The chances are that this will become a work of reference, which will be consulted, a few pages at a time, by those who seek information on the state of the Druzes, the beliefs of the Ismailis, the hierarchy of the Armenians, and similar topics. The structure of the book encourages such treatment. If so, it will be a pity, for while the factual information is sometimes inaccurate and fre- quently transitory, there are several major themes—concerning beliefs, institutions and events—that are of more general and perma- nent interest.

The student of modern theology will pro- bably be disappointed, for Muslims have not yet begun to discuss the death of Allah, and their Jewish and Christian neighbours are similarly unenlightened. In the Middle East religion is a matter of practice more than of belief, and its main demand is for loyalty rather than for orthodoxy. In Israel, it would appear, even the left-wing marxist labour party 'accepts God de facto but not de jure'. Law—which for Muslims is a cen- tral part of the faith—is of more practical importance than theology, which has limited appeal even for professional theologians.

It is interesting to learn that only three countries in the area have formally out- lawed polygamy—Turkey, Tunisia, and Israel. The list is noteworthy. All the rest, including the revolutionary and 'progressive' states, have retained legal polygamy, and for the most part have also retained the Islamic rule of law by which a Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman. but a non- Muslim man may not in any circumstances marry a Muslim woman. In Israel, we are told, the law forbidding polygamy was chal-

lenged in the supreme court by a Muslim citizen, who claimed that it violated free- dom of religion. His plea was rejected, on the ground that Islam permits polygamy, but does not require it.

Another important general theme which, though not the subject of separate treat- ment, emerges from the work as a whole is that of tolerance and intolerance in the three religions. Here the almost unanimous testimony of the contributors leads to the chastening conclusion that modernisation— political, social, ideological—has led to a serious deterioration. In traditional society there were no doubt religious hatreds, especially between different branches of the same religion. It was a Greek monk, not a Muslim or Jew, who wrote after Richard Coeur de Lion's failure to capture Jerusalem in 1191: 'It did not please Divine Provi- dence to chase out the dogs from the Holy City in order to put wolves in their place'.

The treatment accorded by the dominant religion to Christians and Jews certainly fell a long way short of the inter-faith utopia invented by modern political propa- gandists, but it was one which enabled them to survive and at times even flourish. To the modern ear, 'second-class citizen' sounds like a condemnation—but second-class citi- zenship effectively maintained is better than first-class citizenship on paper only. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the new liberalism gave the minorities full legal equality as individuals, in place of their former inferior but protected status as tolerated communities; European econo- mic and political influence sometimes gave Christians even more. In more recent times, the new intolerance has left them rather worse off than before. Constitutional rights, in countries where such concepts have little meaning, have proved a poor substitute for entrenched and recognised privileges.

The liquidation of the Jewish communi- ties in Arab countries since the creation of Israel is well known. Less well known, since it raises no current political issues, is the emigration of Christians. From the chapter on the Orthodox Church, we learn that about 100,000 Orthodox Christians have migrated from Syria to Lebanon in recent years, and tens of thousands from Egypt, where the Orthodox community has been `virtually liquidated'. One might add the growing emigration of Copts, especially to Canada and Australia. The chapter on the Roman Catholic Church speaks of Christian, especially Catholic, emigrants from Egypt and other Muslim countries to Lebanon and North America, and quotes, without entirely approving, the reasons given by those who go:' "Christians", they say, "have no future in a country which is becoming all the time more socialist and totalitarian. . . . To remain is to condemn oneself to death by suffocation, It is better to go in search of a milder climate".' It is a sad change from the days when the Ottoman Empire was the only state in Europe that offered freedom and safety to Christians and Jews of all sects and churches.

Apart from these larger matters, Religion in the Middle East is full of fascinating details and side-lights. In the Yemen, women, not men, wear trousers, and of an effeminate man it is said: 'He wears the trousers'. A Coptic saint, St Moses the Robber, exemplifies asceticism resulting from a 'deep sense of guilt'. Arab Protest- ants are embarrassed by a hymn-book which sings the songs of Zion and blesses the Lord God of Zion. One point—perhaps the only one—which the book proves conclusively

is the importance of the diacritical trans- cription signs used by Arabists and some- times criticised by others as useless pedan- try. A contributor quotes an Arabic book called Kita al-Zina, but by an unfortunate misprint the macron in Zinn appears over the 'a', thus making it a quite different word. In Arabic, written or spoken, the two words are distinct, and could not be confused. In transcription, the misplacement of the macron transforms adornment into fornification.