Abou Ben Adhem vs. the Karamanian Exile

OK, I'm bragging. Anyways, my question is how we can have a different kind of Orientalism going. In the 19th century, several stereotypes of the Middle East were competing in European culture. One was that of ferocity, violent emotions, merciless bonds of honour and generations-old hatreds, of sensual indulgence between long stretches of deepest suffering. This is the world of 'Lawrence of Arabia' and still resonates with many Neoconservative renderings of Islamic radicalism, a world as sparse and harsh as the desert, as lush as the oases in it. It is the one that won - just look at the travel documentaries that come out of the Arabian peninsula, or the persistent annoying habit of calling Islam a 'desert religion'.


The other one lost out. It's still present - the popularity of Sufi poetry (in translation) bears witness to that. It casts the Middle East as a culture of spirituality and compassion, a perfectly balanced blend of worldly wisdom and mysticism, closer to God that we. Nowadays, though, it seems that South and East Asians have the market cornered on 'deep'. The idea is nicely encompassed in James Leigh Hunt's poem:

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An Angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?" The Vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow men."

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!

Yes, it's cheesy. I still like it.


The question is: how can this sterotype win out? What historical or cultural change of circumstances could lead to the widespread assumption among Europeans that Middle Easterners, or Arabs in particular, are spiritual, high-minded, gentle and wise. Note I'm not talking about reality, just the stereotype.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
OK, I'm bragging. Anyways, my question is how we can have a different kind of Orientalism going. In the 19th century, several stereotypes of the Middle East were competing in European culture. One was that of ferocity, violent emotions, merciless bonds of honour and generations-old hatreds, of sensual indulgence between long stretches of deepest suffering. This is the world of 'Lawrence of Arabia' and still resonates with many Neoconservative renderings of Islamic radicalism, a world as sparse and harsh as the desert, as lush as the oases in it. It is the one that won - just look at the travel documentaries that come out of the Arabian peninsula, or the persistent annoying habit of calling Islam a 'desert religion'.


The other one lost out. It's still present - the popularity of Sufi poetry (in translation) bears witness to that. It casts the Middle East as a culture of spirituality and compassion, a perfectly balanced blend of worldly wisdom and mysticism, closer to God that we. Nowadays, though, it seems that South and East Asians have the market cornered on 'deep'. The idea is nicely encompassed in James Leigh Hunt's poem:



Yes, it's cheesy. I still like it.


The question is: how can this sterotype win out? What historical or cultural change of circumstances could lead to the widespread assumption among Europeans that Middle Easterners, or Arabs in particular, are spiritual, high-minded, gentle and wise. Note I'm not talking about reality, just the stereotype.

The problem is that Middle Eastern coutries have to many emigrants in the West, it's hard to have that kind of stereotype when a large part of you population have to deal with Middle Easterners youth gangs on daily basis in many Western countries (you could see that Americans had a romantic image of Middle Easterners a lot longer). The solution could that we got East Asian emigration (or East European) in large quentity instead (several reports have shown that East Asian immigrant is just as criminal as Middle Eastern at least in Denmark, there're just a lot fewer of them) or you could change the emigrants to high class refuge or religious minorities.
 
True, but I think it can be done with a slightly smaller change.

Maybe if more people had actually gone there in the 19th c, and fewer of them missionaries.

Another would be some sort of disaster befalling Britain to shake their late-Victorian uber-confidence. When you read literature from the first half of the 19th c or earlier, it's more objective and appreciative.

The whole question seems mildly Anglosphere-centric; in my experience German and French writers were less "orientalist" - maybe because the cosmopolitanism Catholicism of the latter was a little less "fire-and-brimstoney", and travel accounts from Germany seemed to include a lot more scientists than your typical irritating aristocratic British tourist.
 
Bulwer-Lytton lives a decade longer and becomes a Shriner (Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine) making them popular in English Masonic circles.
 

Keenir

Banned
The question is: how can this sterotype win out? What historical or cultural change of circumstances could lead to the widespread assumption among Europeans that Middle Easterners, or Arabs in particular, are spiritual, high-minded, gentle and wise. Note I'm not talking about reality, just the stereotype.

less focus on the Greek Rebellion (dam that Byron!), and more on importing the MidEastern literature...Rumi and others.



The problem is that Middle Eastern coutries have to many emigrants in the West, it's hard to have that kind of stereotype when a large part of you population have to deal with Middle Easterners youth gangs on daily basis in many Western countries

didn't stop Americans from romanticizing the Irish.
 
less focus on the Greek Rebellion (dam that Byron!), and more on importing the MidEastern literature...Rumi and others.

didn't stop Americans from romanticizing the Irish.

It was Irish-Americans who were doing the romanticizing, and their very successful leap into American electoral politics allowed them to do that. Perhaps if you have the Middle Eastern immigrants rapidly become a solid and disciplined voting bloc for one party or another (I would lean toward Socialist/Social-Democrats for them) then you could have the romanticizing of Middle Eastern culture, and more focus on the Sufi stuff, since its more appealing and politically moderate than the desert fanaticism.

What you need to do this though is some great crisis that rapidly builds up a massive population of Middle Easterners. The Irish in America became powerful because of the huge number of Irish who immigrated to the United States during the Potato Famine. Those large numbers allowed the Irish to become a powerful bloc with a pretty united political leadership. The shared experience of the famine, along with the importance of the Catholic church were powerful factors in this unity. Perhaps some kind of terrible agricultural crisis in Egypt while France is the main European power interested there (circa the late 1830's/early 40's) that drives millions of Egyptians to France? They build their mosques, stake out political control over their neighborhoods (that will require that they have the right to vote), and make themselves into a political voice who must be listened to. So Marseilles ends up being dominated the "Egyptians" or "Arabs" not sure how they would be identified/self-identify, and whatever political party they choose to vote for (as I said before the Socialist/ Social Democrats are my pick).

This population is going to stay involved in the goings on of the their original homeland, and you could actually see a lot of Arabic nationalist thought end up coming out of the French community, since they would be heavily influenced by the growth of European nationalism. Perhaps this community ends up making "Arab Liberty" as political-chic as Polish liberty in France. Nationalism in Europe was defined almost exclusively by language, and this will end up being very important to the way that Arab nationalist thought develops. Perhaps, with the added importance that the Arabic community brings to the "Arab Issue" the French are willing to cut up the Ottoman Empire with the Russians, to carve out an independent Arab state that would be dominated by French-educated and perhaps even raised politician-intellectuals.
 
Last edited:
Top