Cultural InfluencesAs with so many things in Middle Eastern history, providing generalizations about culture in the region is a virtual impossibility. It is a region, as Lewis points out, of great diversity and, simultaneously, great discontinuity. There is not a common history, a shared language, or even (until the arrival of Islam) a binding religious element. The peoples that attacked the Middle East, rather than trying to preserve its various cultures, instead sought to destroy them. As such, when Islam emerged as the predominant religion, and Arabic as the (somewhat) standardized language, these new traditions found a fertile ground. Unlike the Western world, where the Middle Ages were marked by a single dominant language—Latin—and a single religion—Catholicism—the Middle East remained diverse. Three languages were most common: Persian, Arabic, and Turkish. While each of these had an Arabic based script (Turkish will be changed to the Romanized alphabet only under the reign of Ataturk in the 20th century), the other local dialectic languages did not, adding to the diversity of the region. The culture of the Middle East reflected this diversity. Unlike the West, where music and art were major components of culture and worship, in the Middle East these two art forms were largely ignored or, in the case of religious paintings, were seen as sacrilegious. Instead, the dominant art form was literature, with its most noteworthy form being poetry. Middle Eastern artists were known both for their love poetry and their erotic poetry, much of which only survives in fragments. Poetry also glorified rulers, religion, the hunt, and a variety of other aspects of life, although narrative poems, such as those favored in the West (think of the troubadours in the Middle Ages, or the epic poems of the Greeks and Romans), were not a part of Middle Eastern life in medieval times. Instead, they make their way into the Islamic tradition largely through the efforts of Persian poets, and not until well after the Abbasid reign. Theatrical performances, again largely popular in the West, are not usually found in the Middle East after the arrival of Islam until about the 14th century; however, most of these performances were conducted by non-Muslims, and actual plays in the European sense being performed by Muslim actors did not become common until the 19th century. |
HistoriographyOne tradition that the Middle East shared with the West was the tradition of aggrandizement of rulers, and particularly in terms of historiography. The Greeks have traditionally been granted the honor as the first historians, although it is likely that the Chinese were writing histories before the Greeks were. The history that was written in the Middle East was largely Muslim history; the events and participants that had occurred prior to the arrival of Islam were often ignored. Instead, early Muslim historiography focused on the sayings and teachings of the Prophet, and as such was taken very seriously. Other branches of scholarship developed as well, including grammars, dictionaries, maps and other geographical texts, and the like. In additional, medieval Middle Eastern scientific discoveries were among the most important; as already discussed, the Abbasids contributed heavily to this scientific interest, but the Turks and Persians also contributed, especially in the medical field. Lewis discusses Lady Mary Montagu, who was one of the first Europeans to be exposed to the idea of vaccinating against diseases such as smallpox; she is usually credited with having discovered vaccinations in the West, although she very clearly adopted the idea from the Turks. |
WeaponryMuch in the same way that the introduction of automatic weapons into Japan at the end of the 19th century marked the end of the samurai culture (although in fairness it was dying before that), the introduction of things like siege guns and handguns changed the face of warfare in the Middle East and allowed the Ottomans to challenge the West for several centuries. After failing to take Vienna in 1683, the Ottomans were soundly defeated by the unified Christian troops, and were forced to negotiate treaties that often put them at a severe disadvantage. The Middle East, and especially areas like Iran and Turkey, became targets for the greed of their neighbors, notably Austria and Russia. By the end of the 18th century, these two powers, along with Prussia, had carved up Poland and were seeking more territories. The Russians, in particular, had moved south from Moscow; by the reign of Peter the Great (1689-1725), they were crossing into Ottoman held territories. Within a century, Russia had annexed the Crimea, taken the Danube provinces, including Moldavia, and expanded far into the south. In 1801, Russia added Georgia, and shortly thereafter, several smaller Georgian held kingdoms around the region. The Russians then attacked Iran, successfully seizing the territories that would make up the Armenian and Azerbaijani Soviet republics. In 1828, the Russians declared war on Turkey in the Greek War of Independence, the first major war for national independence in the 19th century and the beginning of the nationalist movement that would impact virtually of Europe and the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries. Russia would continue its expansion through the 19th century, battling its European neighbors (most notably Britain) for control of territories, with the kingdoms of the Ottoman Empire and the Iranians as two of their favorite targets. |
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