Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the

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PETER E PORMANN Greek Culture and Society: Classics and Islam 1 Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (Phoenix: 2002), pp.

1 PETER E PORMANN Greek Culture and Society: Classics and Islam 1 Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (Phoenix: 2002), pp Paul Wolfowitz, speaking via video phone at a special ceremony held in Tel Aviv to honour the leading Orientalist in March [source: Lamis Andoni, Bernard Lewis: In the service of empire, al-ahram Weekly December 2002; /weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/616/re4.htm]: Bernard Lewis has brilliantly placed the relationships and the issues of the Middle East into their larger context, with truly objective, original -- and always independent -- thought. Bernard has taught [us] how to understand the complex and important history of the Middle East and use it to guide us where we will go next to build a better world for generations"

2 PETER E PORMANN Greek Culture and Society: Classics and Islam 2 Anthony Pagden, Worlds at War: The 2,500 Year Struggle between East and West (Oxford University Press: 2008), p. xxi: All books begin by chance. One morning, over breakfast, my wife, the classical scholar Giulia Sissa, was looking at a picture in the New York Times of a group of Iranians prostrate in prayer. How ironic!, she remarked. It was just this habit of prostration which most horrified the Greeks about the ancient Persians. And she added: perhaps there is something here you could write a book about. So I have. To her, it owes its inspiration, its shape, and most of its chapter titles. Praxagora by Tawfīq al-ḥakīm based on the Assemblywomen by Aristophanes Dedication To Aristophanes! Master of Greek comedy! I present my misdeed [ḏanbī]! And I ask for: Forgiveness [al-ġufrān]! Preface I wrote the play [qiṣṣa] on the basis of an ancient comedy by Aristophanes, The Assembly of Women [maǧlis an-nisāʾ], that was produced in 392 BC. Those who have gathered crumbs from the Aristophanean table in order to make a new dish are many, and perhaps the most famous of them in our age is Maurice Donnay ( ), member of the Académie Française with his play Lysistrata. Although I would like that each meticulous reader [qāriʾ mudaqqiq] or scrupulous critic [nāqid mudaqqiq] refer to the source that Aristophanes wrote before perusing this book, doing so will show him many stylistic particularities [ḫaṣāʾiṣ al-ʾasālīb]. For just to share one play with Aristophanes has revealed to me what the experience of fifteen theatrical plays [qiṣṣa tamṯīlīya] that I wrote has not; has taught me secrets of this difficult art that I did not know; and disclosed features and faults to me that were not easy to grasp. Now, I ask to be excused for falling short [al-quṣūr]. For who could compare himself in stature with Aristophanes?

3 PETER E PORMANN Greek Culture and Society: Classics and Islam 3 First Act largely based on Aristophanes. Compare Aristophanes (7 13) with al-ḥakīm: κἀν τοῖσι δωματίοισιν Ἀφροδίτης τρόπων πειρωμέναισι πλησίον παραστατεῖς, λορδουμένων τε σωμάτων ἐπιστάτην ὀφθαλμὸν οὐδεὶς τὸν σὸν ἐξείργει δόμων. μόνος δὲ μηρῶν εἰς ἀπορρήτους μυχοὺς λάμπεις ἀφεύων τὴν ἐπανθοῦσαν τρίχα To thee alone our secret we ll reveal; And rightly, for within our bedrooms too, When we try out new sexual variations, close by thou standest, and thine eye o'ersees Our arching bodies, yet none ever shuts it Out of the chamber; thou alone dost shine Into the secret corners of our thighs, When singeing off the hairs that sprout from them; Oh lamp! Oh faithful guardian of our secret, who beholdest with thy illuminating eye what we devise by stealth, we the women. I am sending out the agreed sign through thine pure flame. One of the women explains to Praxagora why she was delayed in coming to the meeting. Compare Aristophanes (39): with al-ḥakīm: [ ] τὴν νύχθ ὅλην ἤλαυνε μ ἐν τοῖς στρώμασιν [ ] and all night long he [her husband] was rowing me under the covers. I did not sleep one moment tonight, for my husband was tossing and turning in bed the whole night because of a cough [min as-suʿāl]. in Aristophanes (88 94), we find the following dialogue between one of the women and Praxagora: ΓΥΝΉΉ Α: ΓΥΝΉΉ Β: ΠΡΑΞΑΓΌΌΡΑ: νὴ τὸν Δί, ὥστε δεῖ σε καταλαβεῖν ἕδρας ὑπὸ τῷ λίθῳ τῶν πρυτάνεων καταντικρύ. ταυτί γέ τοι νὴ τὸν Δί ἐφερόμην, ἵνα πληρουμένης ξαίνοιμι τῆς ἐκκλησίας. πληρουμένης τάλαινα; ΓΥ. Β: νὴ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν ἔγωγε. τί γὰρ ἂν χεῖρον ἀκροῴμην ἄρα ξαίνουσα; γυμνὰ δ ἐστί μου τὰ παιδία.

4 PETER E PORMANN Greek Culture and Society: Classics and Islam 4 ΠΡ.: ἰδού γέ σε ξαίνουσαν, ἣν τοῦ σώματος οὐδὲν παραφῆναι τοῖς καθημένοις ἔδει. FIRST WOMAN: Yes, it is, so we really must occupy some seats, at the foot of the Rock, directly facing the Pryntaneis. SECOND WOMAN: Actually that s why I brought along this stuff, so I could do some carding while the Assembly was filling up. PRAXAGORA: Filling up, you idiot? SECOND WOMAN: Yes, indeed, by Artemis. I won t be any less well able to hear the speeches, will I, if I m carding as well? And my children have nothing to wear! PRAXAGORA: Listen to you carding! When you ought not to be showing any part of your body to the men sitting there! Al-Ḥakīm expands this scene further, and carding is replaced by spinning: WOMAN: And are we going to stay until we have heard all the speeches? THE NEIGHBOUR (displaying a spindle and a thread underneath her clothes): That cannot be helped. You should have expected this, and done what I have done. Look, look. I have brought with me my thread and spindle. I shall relax by spinning whilst the assembly is conducted. PRAXAGORA (shouting): Spinning? You wretched woman. THE NEIGHBOUR: Yes, by Artemis, truly, spinning does not stop me from listening to the words of the speakers, does it? PRAXAGORA: You do not know what you are doing. THE NEIGHBOUR: I am making clothes for my children; they are naked. Who should spin for them? PRAXAGORA: Stupid woman, have you forgotten that you are a venerable man with a beard? and that beard and spindle do not go together? THE NEIGHBOUR (with a cry): Oh! That s right. I forgot that I was a man. PRAXAGORA (turning to all the women): Listen to me, women. Our aim [ġāyatunā] for which we have been meeting for some time; our objective [hadafunā] to which we have been aspiring for a while; our dream [ḥulmunā] which we strive to realise and that we wish to be realised today is, as you know, that we put the affairs of the state ourselves into our hands. For the state, as you know, is now travelling like a ship lost in the deep waters of the sea, lacking oars and sails THE NEIGHBOUR: Yes, when we take over this ship, we will spin for it immediately with our spindles a thousand sails. PRAXAGORA (turning to her scoldingly): Will you not stop talking about spinning and spindles? Political aspects

5 PETER E PORMANN Greek Culture and Society: Classics and Islam 5 Praxagora, for instance, says in her speech (1st act): My heart bleeds, because I see that corruption has crept into the body of the state like a slow death. I see that the state has put its affairs into the hands of presidents [ruʾasāʾ] who only care for themselves, not the state. [ ] No man has yet appeared who would make the state a single circle at the centre of which is the public benefit [an-nafʿ al-ʿāmm], and who would then remove himself only to watch over it from far, like a God. In act three, the dictator Hieronymus speaks: HIERONYMUS: I am order [an-niẓām]! Since I have seized the reins of power, have you heard a single faction proffer a request? or has anyone praised an opinion? or has any mouth opened to cry? or has anybody raised his voice to shout a slogan? All that is past. The age of the parties has come to an end. The differences, struggles, and competitions have been wiped out. I have brought together the whole nation, and united the country s voice. Everything is now as if one. The people are like one individual. THE PHILOSOPHER [I.E., HIPPOCRATES]: It is you! HIERONYMUS: Yes! It is I. There is nothing else but I; no wish but mine. And I will give the people with this hand the most eternal glory. PRAXA[GORA]: And what is this glory? HIERONYMUS: Triumph and victory! In act six, a show trial takes place. HIERONYMUS (shouting): I say that these people alone are duped today. O Athenians! Search a little in your heads, and you will find the answer. Think a moment and it will become clear that they betray you and rob you. It is they who keep you occupied with a small and paltry matter which does not concern you, so that you do not become aware of greater matter which touch your rights and your interests directly. It is high time that you pay attention. It is high time to observe the hands which fiddle with your pockets in darkness. Chremes attempts to calm the populace, and severely inveighs against Hieronymus: CHREMES (through his teeth): So be it. Since you wanted it so, then listen, Hieronymus. You were an absolute ruler [ḥākim muṭlaq] over Athens. And what have you done for its people? You deprived them of their freedoms, their possessions, their food, and their sons. You threw all this away for a war through which you supported your rule and built, as you believed, your glory. Hippocrates addresses the populace directly at the end of act six: O people, can you not walk one path or another yourselves? Then, where are you? What do you do? Do you always sit like this? You observe, and listen, and shout? You may be excused for this, if you have in front of you one of the shrewd snakecharmers [ ] But only swindlers [daǧǧālūn] and pickpocket [naššālūn] are left. Then what is the wisdom in sitting around? What are you waiting for?

The Song of Solomon 1:6 Mine own vineyard have I not kept

The Song of Solomon 1:6 Mine own vineyard have I not kept 1 My love is like a red, red rose That sweetly blooms in June John Phillips has written, To turn from Ecclesiastes to the Song of Solomon is like