Response to Serge

Take a look at the first (long, and quite articulate) comment on my previous post. Serge makes a number of good arguments that merit discussion, so I’m going to take the opportunity he provides to clarify and expand upon a few of the points he questions.

“The Arab Question” (A refutation of Gamal Abd al-Nasser and Golda Meir)

In nearly every instance, the myth of “pure” ethnicities is busted by the facts of history; any student of history understands that the very concept of cogency, to say nothing of uniformity, among a so-called ethnic group is complicated to a large degree by the movement of people across political, national and ethnic borders throughout spans of centuries. If, for example, all Europeans (and a good deal of non-Europeans as well) are descended from Charlemagne, then whatever ethnocentric ideological delusions we may uphold in our minds, the fact remains that we are all, to some degree, a) related, and b) Frankish.

The Epic Tale of the House of Hashim, Part 1: From Empires, Kingdoms

The House of Hashim, or the Hashemite dynasty, is the royal family that had ruled Jordan since its inception in 1921. The Hashemites claim descent from the prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima, and as such carry some heavy credentials. What follows is a little history lesson.

In 1908, the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire appointed the Hashemite notable Hussein bin ‘Ali Sharif of Mecca and Emir of the Hejaz. During the first World War, Hussein initially supported his Ottoman overlords and their ally Germany, but once he discovered that the Ottomans were planning to depose him after the war, he turned on his superiors and is now rightly hailed as the leader of the great Arab Revolt of 1916.

Umm Qais

Yesterday, Jacqui took her class on a field trip up north to Umm Qais to see the ruins of Gadara (pretty much the only thing to be found in Umm Qais). None of them, despite many having lived their entire lives in Jordan, had ever been there before. A funny thing about Jordanians is that they live in a country with multitudes of ruins, parks, and gorgeous landscapes, but never go to see them (I guess that’s not actually so surprising–most New Yorkers never bother to visit their city’s landmarks). Jacqui wanted to take me along, but for reasons involving personal politics between her and her boss (who apparently decided that I was a “security concern”), I wasn’t allowed to come on the bus with them.

Books@Cafe

Friday morning, Jacqui, Walid and I went in Walid’s jeep to visit Hilda at her studio, which just so happens to be right next door to the Israeli embassy, which just so happens to mean that Hilda and her family live in a perpetual state of sustained anxiety.

(It also means that you can’t take any pictures of her street without having your camera confiscated and perhaps also having yourself subjected to some Krav Maga, which I’m to understand is quite effective, so although her house is quite nice inside and out, if I do happen to post pictures of it, please don’t expect any exteriors.)