Too Hard to Understand? Then simplify it!
"Images are very important to a civilization, culture and religion because as humans people wish to have a good image. There is nothing essentially good or bad in images themselves, but only in what they portray, evoke, or justify (Siddiqi 1)." It comes as no surprise, then, that people today doubt the fact that the Arab Empire was once amongst the world's greatest civilizations. To reduce the average Arab to the images that define him today would be to dismiss the existence of an entire historical era. Like members of any living society, Arabs have adopted, amended, coveted, and rejected traditions throughout the ages. The rich history that encompasses their development began several centuries before the invention of the solar calendar, bending and shifting until it arrives at today, in which the misunderstood concept of Arab consciousness defines the tumultuous present. Early historical records date the existence of Arabs back to 854 B.C, during the Neolithic period (Bowersock 19). It wasn't until the third millennium, however, that the first urban Arab settlements are ackno
Arab national consciousness consists of three central tenets, including the struggle for independence and the movement of people in and between Arab countries (Reilly 009). Several centuries later, the definition of a traditional Arab livelihood was expanded to include traders and Bedouins (Rammuny). While the lack of a standard written language among tribal Arabs cause many to write off the pre-Islamic period as one of "Jahiliyya," or ignorance, Bedouins actually possessed, as demonstrated in the oral transmission of their stories and poetry, a remarkable artistic flair for eloquence and enunciation (Green 24). The rise of Islam and the subsequent recognition of Arabs as major world actors occurred in the seventh century A. Learning about the origins of a people and the subsequent progression of a civilization is one thing, but it is clear that without contextual understanding, this information can only be exploited and reworked into oversimplified but easy to swallow impressions. From that complex subject the proud journalist emerges, victorious, with a sensationalistic piece on the devilish designs of a "fundamentalist" suicide bomber, the man eager to fulfill his wicked destiny, anxious to cross over to the afterlife to greet the 70 black-eyed virgins that await him at heaven's gates. Yet they continue to thrive; the miniscule kernels of truth that bore these irresponsible fabrications offer subsistence, nourishment. Though Islamic fundamentalist movements have criticized nationalism for placing loyalty to the nation before loyalty to the Islamic community, the festering wounds that resulted from direct European colonization made Arab consciousness more popular than ever (Reilly 009). In addition to a shared place in history, shared economic interests and external conflicts have also helped to shape the Arab's sense of belonging (Barakat 33). It is the results of this last factor and the conflicts of the early 20th century that most significantly impact the images of Arabs today. From this less general but sufficiently vast category the image of Arabs if further reduced, to an issue of independence. By the ninth century, however, Arabic had become thelanguage of a cosmopolitan Islamic civilization that combined the intellectual and artistic traditions of the Persians, Romans, and Greeks.
Common topics in this essay:
Arabs Islamic,
Arab Empire,
Bedouins Rammuny,
Latin Reilly,
BC Neolithic,
,
Romans Greeks,
Fertile Crescent,
arabic language,
AD Arabs,
arab identity,
reilly 009,
concept arab,
national consciousness,
arab consciousness,
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Acceptance Essays
