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The Arab Mind Paperback – May 1, 2010


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Product Details

  • Paperback: 465 pages
  • Publisher: Recovery Resources Press; Revised 2007 edition (May 1, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0967201551
  • ISBN-13: 978-0967201559
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A classic . . .one of the best expositions on the Arab world and Islam." Jay Winik, best-selling author of April 1865: The Month that Saved America. --Review provided by reviewer<br /><br />"A quarter-century-old book that I took with me to Baghdad last month helped explain what I saw when I got there." James R. Pinkerton, Newsday. --Newsday<br /><br />"A sympathetic wide-ranging study." -- The New Yorker<br /><br />[A]n impressive spread of scholarship...a major contribution in an important field. --Publishers' Weekly

About the Author

Raphael Patai was a prolific cultural anthroplogist, folklorist, historian, and Biblical scholar. He published more than 600 articles and thirty books, including The Arab Mind, The Jewish Mind, Arab Folktales from Palestine and Israel, and Jadid al-Islam: The Jewish "New Muslims" of Meshed (the latter two published posthumously). Dr. Patai began studying Arabic at the age of eighteen in his native Hungary. In his early twenties, he moved to Palestine and lived there for more than fifteen years before coming to the United States, where he taught at Princeton, Columbia, and other universities. He died in 1996. He was the founding editor of Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions, finally published in 2013

Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 87 people found the following review helpful By D. J. Epright on December 25, 2004
Format: 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.
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201 of 254 people found the following review helpful By Dr. Susan Z. Swan on June 16, 2002
Format: 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.
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34 of 42 people found the following review helpful By S. on August 19, 2007
Format: 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.
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80 of 104 people found the following review helpful By Caraculiambro on June 2, 2005
Format: Paperback
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.
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29 of 36 people found the following review helpful By A Customer on September 14, 2001
Format: Paperback
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.
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