The Arab Mind [Paperback]

Raphael Patai (Author), Norvell B. De Atkine (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2002

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 <I>The Arab Mind</I> 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. <I>The Arab Mind</I> 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. A later printing. from 2007, contains a revised foreword by Norvell DeAtkine but is otherwise identical to this, 2002, edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A sympathetic wide-ranging study." -- The New Yorker<br /><br />[A]n impressive spread of scholarship...a major contribution in an important field. --<I>Publishers Weekly</I>

About the Author

<B>Raphael Patai</B> 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 Details

• Paperback: 466 pages
• Publisher: Hatherleigh Press; Revised edition (February 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578261171
• ISBN-13: 978-1578261178
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #697,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

190 of 236 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars important but unsettling in where it is off-base, June 16, 2002

By 

Dr. Susan Z. Swan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Arab Mind (Paperback)

This is a must-read book -- not because it is necessarily brilliant or especially insightful, but because so many people cite it and it captures well many common conceptions of and judgements about the Arab World. I have read this twice since 9/11 along with many other books to come to understand the culture in which I now live and teach. Each time I come away more unsettled, especially as Patai seems all too often to be saying that because the rhetorical strategies and the logical patterns of Arabs may (or may not) be different from Western minds, they are inadequate. While he doesn't often say this directly, the judgementalism that undergirds his discussion screams aloud this view. In many instances, he makes sweeping generalizations about the nature of all Arabs by citing a single instance, whether in Palestine, or Morroco, or Iran, or where ever. He then uses this one instance to make a grand claim that sounds good, but which may or may not have any legs to it. The nature of Arabs is no more universal from country to country than the "West" is universal from France to the US to Germany. Some of his arguments are grounded in citations of the work of others, but it is difficult to know the value of those as, again, there is much that is done as case studies of a single village or situation but used by this author as evidence for a much wider conclusion of the nature of the Arab mind. As an American living in the Gulf, it saddens me that the richness of the people and cultures here become so caricatured in this work. Read it--but don't assume that its pronouncements are gospel.

61 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Experience tends to validate the observations of this book, December 25, 2004

By 

D. J. Epright (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Arab Mind (Paperback)

I took this book to Baghdad for my military assignment and left it there with friends who continue to use it to help inform their experiences. The book helped me understand what I was seeing with my own eyes and helped me avoid mis-steps that probably would have been misinterpreted. The book rang true with my experiences and helped me understand the Iraqi people, who I found to be generally good and noble. This books is not the be-all and end-all for Arab cultural understanding, but it seems to be an excellent jumping-off point. Westerners in Iraq "got points" from the Iraqis by merely TRYING to undertand their culture. Empathy, compassion and RESPECT go a long way in any culture, and certainly for the Iraqis.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, August 19, 2007

By 

S. (MIAMI, FL, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Arab Mind (Paperback)

I have lived in the Middle East, on and off, for four years, and no book explained the Arab mind as well as Raphael Patai's. Written over 30 years ago, it still rings true in so many aspects, and definitely helps explain the cultural clashes that still occur and slow down the process of coexisting.

Raphael Patai's love of Arabia and all things Arabic is very obvious throughout his work. Even so, Patai managed to be objective and to portray the good and the bad in Arab culture. Too many authors take one road or the other, allowing personal feelings and thoughts to encroach on the necessary objectivity. Patai, like a true sociologist, presents how a culture was formed, in language easily understandable to the Western mind.

Sometimes dry and drawn out, "The Arab Mind" should nonetheless be mandatory reading for all government workers in the Middle East, as it is truly an indispensible guide through a culture that has been around longer than our own.