I recently finished a book entitled The Arab Mind by Raphael Patai. Originally published in 1976, it was revised in 1983, and re-published in 2002 (after the terrorist assault on the 
United States on 11 September 2001). The book includes a valuable foreward by Norvell B. DeAtkine, a retired US Army colonel who possesses a graduate degree in Arab studies from the American University in Beirut, served for 8 years in the Middle East, taught for 18 years at the JFK Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and is now an independent Middle East consultant. DeAtkine offers a glowing assessment of the value of this book to Westerners working and serving in the armed forces in the Middle East. While it took me some time to get through the book in its entirety (it is at times a bit dry and academic), its thoroughness in exploring every aspect of Arab culture and society, from the sense of honor to the Arabic language to the love of conferences and summits gave me a better understanding of the people I’m surrounded by where I live in Yehudah. Patai’s examination of trends in Arab thinking and society stem both from the point of view of a Western Arabist who was welcomed into that society by Arab friends, and from the point of view of Arab defenders and critics of Arab customs.
I am by no means an Arabist myself after reading this one book. But I discovered answers to many questions I have had about Arabs, and have a better grasp of why American foreign policy under Barack Obama is doomed to failure. Over the next few days, I will be presenting some of my questions (not all; that would be the book itself) and the information gleaned from Patai’s book that I think helps to answer them.
As the West catapults forward in the progress of science, medicine, technology, and every other field, why does the Arab world seem to recede into the past?
Where Westerners value innovation and are constantly trying to make things smaller, more powerful, faster, and cheaper, Arabs value what is ancient over what is modern—and the older the better. Patai states that “in a culture in which traditionalism is pronounced, change and innovation in every area of culture are inhibited. Moreover, in such a culture, the greater the antiquity of a feature, the greater its traditional value, and, hence, the greater the resistance to changing it.” There has been an attitude of incuriosity in the Arab world for some time to the progress the West has embarked on in the last almost 500 years. When Arab author Omar A. Farrukh set out to write his book The Arab Genius in Science and Philosophy, he intended to extol the Arab contribution to theology, mathematics, natural sciences, and philosophy. However, “none of the outstanding Arab scientists and philosophers he discusses lived later than the fourteenth century.”
Arabs have also not shown themselves culturally inclined to embrace manual labor the way Westerners do. The notion of a homeowner proudly fixing his own lawnmower (or using it, even) is foreign to Arab culture, where getting one’s hands dirty is not something to be desired or praised. This has also resulted in a resistance to some of the industrialization (though not all) that the West has undergone in the last 150 years or so.
Perhaps the most important thing that contributes to stagnation of contemporary Arab society is the debate—internal and external—concerning Western knowledge and technology. Some Arabs choose to see these innovations as evil and imposed on Arab society without Arab approval, while other Arabs burn with resentment that these valuable tools of modernization are being kept from them by self-interested Westerners who desire to humiliate the Arab world. Whichever point of view an Arab adopts regarding Western knowledge, many Arabs are concerned about the impact of that information and influence on their traditional culture which does not lend itself to such forces of innovation. While there are some in the Arab world who would like to perpetuate the maintenance and worship of the old over the new, the unavoidable example of (mostly hated) Israel cannot but represent a reproach to many Arab critics of Arab society. Patai notes that “there is indeed a strong desire among thoughtful Arabs to introduce far-reaching changes into the traditional texture of their society, and to reshape the Arab man in a new mold. They also show that the enemy, Israel, is being considered by many highly articulate spokesmen as the exemplar which the Arabs must emulate, primarily in order to be able to defeat Israel, but also in order to become progressive, to advance themselves, and to occupy a place of honor in the modern world.”
Shimshonit 
This should be interesting. I’m looking forward to reading what you write. It is an interesting exercise, at least for this first part, to compare Arab attitudes with those of the Orthodoxy in general and charedim in particular. Certainly the increased respect for custom based on its supposed age is present. Most of the arguments against the ordination of women are sociological and based on the notion that since we’ve never done it it has to be forbidden.
I also once spent a Shabbat with a Bobover family. Motzei Shabbat one of their friend’s car needed a jump start and the were absolutely flabbergasted to learn that not only did know how to give a jump, I even carried the cables in my car. One of them actually said they thought only goyim knew that sort of thing, but once it was explained that I was a BT, all became clear.
“Arabs have also not shown themselves culturally inclined to embrace manual labor the way Westerners do.”
…but, quite paradoxically, most manual labor in Israel was done by arabs, at least before terror attacks pushed Israel to restrict access for arabs under Rabin.
Larry: I’ve thought the same thing as I was reading the book, especially regarding strict separation of the sexes based on the assumption than any man and woman left in a room together will do the Forbidden. The only difference I see is that Arab men blame women for being the randy ones, and Jewish men tend to admit their own randiness (while still making women bear the brunt of the consequences for it). I love the jump-starting story. Oy.
fille: I agree. Most of the manual labor in the West Bank where I live is still done by Arabs. There are a number of paths history has gone down that Patai did not foresee; I may touch on more of them as time passes.
is this the same patai who wrote the book, “the hebrew goddess?”
Shualah Elisheva: The Wiki page says it is. This is the first Patai book I’ve read, and the first time I’ve heard of him. I also have his book The Jewish Mind which at some point I’ll read also.
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