´Le Naufrage des Civilisations´

 

Amin Maalouf is one of the most known - in translation - critical and lucid intellectuals from the Middle East. His lucidity, I think, is the result of his direct knowledge of historical facts of the contemporary Middle East. He was there, he saw it, he took part to the events. He is not observing from outside, watching the news from his couch. He is first there, living and breathing, and only after that he is sharing his views.

Le Naufrage des Civilisations is a collection of different essays about different historical life encounters, rooted in the Middle East. The events - the Six-Day War in 1967, the Iranian Revolution, the Cold War in South East Asia, the social and political changes underwent by Egypt, the war(s) in Lebanon - are placed into a larger historical and intellectual frame that may paint in the end a more disappointing and depressing landscape. The Middle East is suffering of a loser syndrome, at least some parts of it, particularly Lebanon. Maybe Iraq too. But there are part of it which are not included in the account and which are actually changing and do contradict the pessimistic narrative. There is modernity, at least in some part of it, and there are successful stories - partially, Jordan is an example as well. 

Although not a communist by principle, his perspectivea and information on the situation of the Communist movements in the Middle East during the Cold War are very useful for understanding at least part of this generational failure. The raise of the Talibans in Afghanistan and the hunting of Indonesian communists in the 1960s, a country with the thirds largest Communist Party in the world after the Soviet Union and China offers an extension of the outcome well outside the Middle Eastern realm. Thinking in terms of ´what if´ is a toxic intellectual habit, but nevertheless, without the turmoils created by the decades-long confronation between US and USSR, life would have been a better place. Maalouf does not dedicate at least the same amount of space to analyse the equally toxic influence of the Soviet Union in the Middle East and there is much more left to be said about the shortcomings of the local leadership, independently of the ´colonizer´ framework. However, it recognizes that both communism and anti-communist were equally a ´calamity´.

As I´ve read the book in the original French language, I can only add to the positive features of the book the beauty of the written words while maintaining the brevity and informative character. 

Le Naufrage des Civilisations is an important book for anyone looking for intellectual sources and resources about the Middle East. Although much more resources are needed about this topic in order to offer to the non-Arabic speaking reader a very comprehensive mindset about the historical and cultural complexities, it does offer a good ground for further building the necessary knowledge.