Customer Reviews

The Arab mind

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you're looking for a book about what has got all those Muslims so hopping mad in the last few years, steer clear of this book. For understanding the political and social implications of the Islamization of Europe and the post 9-11 world, you won't find much here that seems immediately relevant. For these purposes I would recommend instead Spencer's "Islam Unveiled" in combination with Ferguson's "Colossus."

This book is more of an anthropological analysis of the Arab character, although it's certainly not a formal field study or an academic book.

If you're looking for a book that examines and attempts to explain Arab psychology, why Arabs are the way they are, this is the book for you. It is superlative. The only book I can think of that rivals it is David Pryce-Jones's "The Closed Circle," which is very similar in theme and purpose (and renown).

To make a long story short, Patai's efforts are deeply enlightening. Reading this book carefully will prevent you from jumping to specious conclusions and concocting false theories about the culture and behavior of Arabs, something quite common to newcomers out here.

This book will also go a long way to helping you deal successfully with Arabs in business, educational, or diplomatic settings: for this purpose, it's much more instructive and worthwhile than any recently-minted tome I know of.

Its author, the late Rafael Patai, was a renowned Israeli Arabist who was very sympathetic to Arabs and the Palestinian cause.

Nevertheless, this book can appear quite insulting (to Arabs) from time to time. It is rare to find it in libraries in the Arab world; they certainly don't have to dig in it for long before they find something to object to. It is on the "index prohibitorum" in several Gulf countries.

But this book's reputation among Western expats in the Middle East could not be higher: copies of it are passed from hand to hand until the binding is shot and the pages are being held together with a rubber band. I have yet to see a copy of this book in good condition.

An eye-opening book. Most people put the Arab personality down to Islam. THE ARAB MIND sets the reader right that the Arab personality is rooted in the Bedouin culture. It is not a racist book. The author confesses an extreme affection for Arabs. It's a wonderful book, and, frankly, let's you understand the Arab ... better. The author, incidentally, also wrote a book titled THE JEWISH MIND.

I heard about the book in Juan Cole's web site. One of my co-workers had a copy so I borrowed it to read. Lets put it this way, I've bought two dozen of them to give to the Iraqis I work with and sold half of them to the other Coalition members I work with.

The Iraqis have found it enlightening, as did I. Applying it to day-to-day interactions will be the test. However, from my 18 months here, the author is right on.

Absolutely WONDERFUL. This is a great bloody book, and I feel ever soo lucky to have found it at all. [THANK YOU AMAZON.COM] It's HONEST, and answered soo many unanswered questions I had, . I finally have closure with soo many incidents that I couldn't understand when dealing with the arab population. By no means is this book racist. IT'S HONEST!! I HAD to live in both Iran and Egypt [against me will] and never really got over it, or what happened to me. After reading this book, for the VERY FIRST time in years, I felt at ease, as though a great weight had been lifted off me shoulders. More books like this should be read, and I'm sorry It's out of print. At points in this[not soo easy to read] book I cried, & in other spots I nodded me head in recognition of events I went through. It talks about sex [always a good subject ] to other heavy duty subjects. Now all I want to do is meet the author. HA-HA I'm a 28 yr. old British lass and speak arabic , to the point that this book , with it's wee references in arabic, I could quite well understand. Thank you.

Patai's "The Arab Mind" is book based on decades of experience and study and considerable research, but as with all things, one must consider the sources. The book is ultimately an attempt to explain Arab thought patterns in general--highlighting the differences between Arabs and Westerners--and then trying suggesting as to the "why" and "how," with considerable citation.

Patai's sources are dated--the original was completed in 1973 and many of the sources are from the 1950s or older--and even the newest version only adds citations from the seventies and eighties. Unsurprising, as the most recent edition was in 1983 and Patai himself passed away in 1996. His writing is a product of his times and his background, and some of his statements are shocking or unnecessary.

That said, if a reader is skeptical about what he reads, there is a lot that is of use here. Many of the traits, concepts, and processes described--in particular the concepts of honor and hospitality, his analysis of traditional art and music--have been echoed by the writings and experiences of soldiers, officials, and academics. It's especially frustrating to critics how often Patai is right!

Don't take every word as the gospel truth, or this book to be 'anthropology' as we now understand it. Don't end your study of Arab thought and culture here, you will find in this book a good foundation that can be refined by more recent works.

Just remember that all authors are products of their environment; newer works will lean more towards political correctness, concern about how the work will be received by other countries and cultures. Take, for example, a primer currently en vogue: Nydell's "Understanding Arabs," which is less blunt and more apologetic.

There is no doubt that the late Dr. Patai provides some good, if not brilliant, insights in this book. He obviously has a deep understanding of the Arabic language and has canvased Arab and non-Arab sources. However, I feel his study is compromised by two major and elementary methodological flaws.

First, an ethnocultural study that evaluates particular characteristics must adopt a comparative method to avoid the impression of bias. In other words, in evaluating Arab personality traits, we must have a clear understanding of the standard used to gauge them. Sometimes Patai makes implicit comparisons against "a normal person" or "the average American", but this is never made clearer than a passing metion. I'm inclined to progress further than this and assert that Patai's baseline modal personality is "Western Man" at his very best, which casts the "real" Arab personality in a negative light in just about every segment of study. In addition to defining his object of study, he should have made clear his method of evaluation and adopted a realistic, empirically-grounded and intellectually fair method, at that.

Second, Dr. Patai's arguments are too heavily constructed from anecdotal, experiential and proverbial sources and too lacking in quantitative surveys and measurements. If these primary studies didn't exist when his book was written, he should have conducted them first. Without the quantitative dimension, even an eminent scholar can lapse into ahistoricity, selecting ancient proverbs, excerpts from the memoirs of famous people and regional folk practices to make a Frankenstein's Monster of sweeping generalizations about the "modern" Arab mind. A quantitative study would help balance and empirically ground some generalizations and rule out others. A good example of this is Robert Putnam's "Making Democracy Work", which consults historical sources AND survey data to analyze Italian political culture.

In sum, Patai's nuggets of insight are wrapped in a texture of bias and strung in sinews of unrealistically harsh and ubiquitous criticism. If you read this book, I suggest doing so after you've grounded yourself in other works first.

I have known Arab families for more than a decade, and I am an American, hence I found Patai's work insightful, but also unsettling. A reviewer pointed out that people tend to be much the same everywhere. This has also been my direct experience with Arab people. Patai has generalized Arab culture and painted with a broad brush in order to explain, essentially, the phenomenon of Islamism and the failure of Arabs states to admit Westernization.

Patai draws several conclusions, largely from the writings of Westernized Arabs. Among these are work-avoidance, over-emotionalism, over-rhetoricism, and atemporality. But the Arabs I have known are industrious, restrained, concise, and punctual. So where's the beef?

The reader may assume that Patai is describing ordinary Arab folks, but he is really explaining the collective behavior of Arab governments; many of his examples are culled from official transcripts of heads-of-state.

I daresay Islam has a profound effect on the world-view of its believers, but most Arabs are cagey enough to look out for number one, as we do. And when has the behavior of government ever coincided with the wishes of its own citizens? Does ours?

My conclusion is that "The Arab Mind" is useful to understand Arab diplomacy, but less so the average person in the shuq.