Arab History

Currently the Middle East is a problem area for the United States, and Europe in general. However, this was not always so, and it might be of interest to look at a time before there was a problem to see what the solution must be.

Having read history books about the Arab culture before the crusades, it is important to note that here. At that time the Arab culture was the most advance in the world. I would say that it was even more advanced than that of Europe (which was true) but that would be insulting the Arabs, as Europe had not real culture.

Arabs were depicted as being the height of learning, art, and agriculture. It was at this time that the Arabs developed the Arabic numerals which we use today for our numbering system. The Christian world was still using Roman Numerals, which, as most people know, are very difficult to use. (Think of doing your taxes using Roman Numerals.) This is the time of Arab literature and advances in Arab agriculture, and science. In addition to their own learning, the Arabs saved the teachings of previous generations, such as the learning of the Greeks and Romans.

Then something happened, and all this vanished. What I have read tends to indicate that two things happened, which were connected, and which destroyed this great civilization. The first was the invasion of Arab lands by the Turks, who were a tribe employed as mercenaries by the Arabs. They conquered territory, Arab as well as others, and had no use for civilization. Like tribes that invaded Europe, who converted to Christianity, the Turks converted to Islam.

Therefore, this was a force destroying Arab civilization. However, there was another force.

As time went on, the Turks eventually attacked what was left of the Roman Empire at the time (this would have been about 1000 AD). The Eastern Roman Empire was Christian, and, in reality, the only part of the Christian World which had any claim to civilization at all. Since the Empire was in trouble, the Emperor send out a call for troops to defend the empire.

And the troops came to attack the Turks. The Christians and Arabs were, at that time, fighting side by side against the Turks. The day came when the Turks were actually defeated. At that point, the Eastern Christian churches sent their troops (knights) home. However, the Pope in Rome, being uncivilized, decided that he wanted to capture Jerusalem while the troops were there.

To understand the state of the Christian, or, really, the Roman Catholic Church at this time, see the movie The Agony and the Ecstasy. The movie is from a slightly later date, but the state of the Church was similar.

While the defense against the Turks might be justified, the attack on the Arabs was not. They had allowed Christians and Jews to have their holy sites in Jerusalem, and for both the Christians and the Jews to visit those sites.

The Crusades went on for two hundred years, sapping both the energy of the Christian World, as well as that of the Arab World. After that, the Turks attacked again, and this time were successful in conquering the Arabs, and, as a result, in destroying their civilization.

The Turks continued to rule that area of the world until about 1917, when the Turkish Ottoman Empire was defeated during the first World War.

At that time, England and France divided up the Arab lands (which they had, in fact, already been doing). The United States had nothing to do with this (and, in fact, apposed it). If the Europeans had done this as a means of educating the Arabs, then this might have been defensible, however, that was not the case. Instead the Europeans treated the Arabs as they had their colonies in the past - places where they could exploit the local populations. If the Arabs object to this, they are justified.

The real solution is, therefore, to educate the Arabs as to their real cultural background. Their real background is not on the edges of civilization, but rather in the center of it. That is, not in picking up the pieces of the benefits of civilization, but rather, their civilization should be in the center of that civilization.

Of course, uneducated people are easier to control than educated people. Therefore, there needs to be a overthrow of the autocratic governments that currently rule the Arab world, as autocratic rulers want a population which is easy to control. (There is evidence of this in the United States, where the Christian Right is trying to discredit and destroy the educational system to try to make a kingdom of the free people of the United States.)