Information AboutBernard Lewis |
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Bernard Lewis (born May 31 , 1916 , London ) is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University . He specializes in the History Of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West and is especially famous for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire as well as his often considered right-wing positions in his intellectual debate with Pr. Edward Said on the israelo-palestinian conflict. Lewis is at the same time the most widely-read expert on the Middle East and one of the most controversial scholars specialized on this region. His advice is frequently sought by Republican policymakers, including the current Bush administration concerning the war in Iraq, for instance. In the ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'' Martin Kramer , whose Ph.D. thesis was directed by Lewis, considered that, over a 60-year career, he has emerged as "the most influential postwar historian of Islam and the Middle East." 1 BIOGRAPHY He graduated in 1936 from the then School of Oriental Studies (SOAS, now School Of Oriental And African Studies ) at the University Of London with a B.A. in History with special reference to the Near and Middle East, and obtaining his Ph.D. three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the History of Islam. [http://www.princeton.edu/~nes/faculty_lewis.html "Bernard Lewis Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus"], Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Princeton, retrieved May 26, 2006. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a barrister, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University Of Paris , where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. 3 He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History . During the Second World War , Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps in 1940-41, before being seconded to the Foreign Office . After the war, he returned to SOAS. and in 1949 -as he was one of the very rare specialists- he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History at the age of 33.Lewis (2004), pp. 3–4 In 1974, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute For Advanced Study , also located in Princeton , New Jersey . The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on the previously accumulated materials.Lewis (2004), pp. 6–7 In addition, it was in the U.S. that Lewis became a public intellectual. Upon his retirement from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. Lewis has been a naturalized citizen of the United States since 1982. He married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm in 1947 with whom he had a daughter and a son before the marriage was dissolved in 1974. RESEARCH Martin Kramer , whose Ph.D. thesis was directed by Lewis, claims Lewis as "the most influential postwar historian of Islam and the Middle East" whose authority extends beyond the academe to the general public. He is the pioneer of the social and economic history of the Middle East and is famous for his extensive research of the Ottoman archives. Bernard Lewis began his research career with the study of Medieval Arab, especially Syria n, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years.4 However, after the creation of the State Of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in the Arab countries where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives, which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of the Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics. Lewis argues that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th century european colonization. In his 1982 work ''Muslim Discovery of Europe,'' Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the west and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Lewis, Bernard, ''Muslim Discovery of Europe'', Norton Paperback, 2001, p.22 Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades. . Revolted by the Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of Anti-Semitism ''Semites and Anti-Semites'' (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was startlingly disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world: the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian civil war (1992–98), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88).Lewis, Bernard, ''The Crisis of Islam : Holy War and Unholy Terror'', Modern Library, 2003, p.90-91, 108, 110-111 In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: ''The Arabs in History'' (1950), ''The Middle East and the West'' (1964), and ''The Middle East'' (1995). In the wake of the '' (written before the attacks) and '' The Crisis Of Islam ''. VIEWS AND INFLUENCE ON CONTEMPORARY POLITICS In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East, and his analysis of Dick Cheney remarked: "...in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media."5 A harsh critic of the Soviet Union , Lewis continues the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book ''The Origins of Ismailism'', Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the Left-wing current of Third-worldism , which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies. Lewis advocates closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey , which he saw especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision ever since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In a seminal essay ''The Roots of Muslim Rage'' (1990), he saw the struggle between the West and Islam gathering strength. It was in that essay that he coined the phrase " Clash Of Civilizations ", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington .6 In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper '' Al-Quds Al-Arabi '' a declaration of war on the United States by Osama Bin Laden , a person of whom Lewis had never heard before, despite his terrorist attacks in Africa and the Middle-East. Recognizing in bin Laden's language what he considered as the "ideology of Jihad ", Lewis wrote an essay ''A License to Kill'' in which he warned about the danger presented by the holy warrior. But this was actually long after the Clinton administration and the US Intelligence community had begun its hunt, first in Sudan and then in Afghanistan. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran , Lewis wrote in the '' Wall Street Journal '' about the significance of August 22 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power; Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world." "August 22. Does Iran have something in store?" , ''Wall Street Journal'', August 8, 2006. The article received significant press coverage. August 22 coverage:
CRITICISM AND CONTROVERSIES Debates with Edward Said Lewis is known for his literary sparrings with April 2 , 2003 , accessed April 26 , {Link without Title} . Edward Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance."Said, Edward. "The Clash of Ignorance," The Nation October 22 , 2001 , accessed April 26 , [2007]. Lewis' response Rejecting the view that western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, despite its 18th century origins in the european imperialist policies, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed since then as a facet of Europe an Humanism , independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"Lewis, Bernard, ''Islam and the West'', Oxford University Press, 1993, p.126 Allegations of denial of the Armenian Genocide In a November 1993 '''', p. 11, June 23 , 1995 When Lewis received the prestigious , November 10 , 2006 . Retrieved April 26 , 2007 . Lewis' response Lewis argues that: Lewis thus believes that "to make Genocide , a parallel with the Holocaust in Germany" is "rather absurd." In an interview with '' Haaretz '' he stated: Noam Chomsky In a 2002 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Hot Talk" program, Noam Chomsky detailed what he claimed was a series of comments from a declassified Eisenhower Administration memo:
Chomsky claimed that Bernard Lewis, in his writings on the Middle East, omitted this and other evidence of Western culpability for failures in the region. Chomsky claimed: Lewis' response On the same program the next month, Lewis responded:
Stance on the Iraq War Most recently Lewis has been criticised as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq", who urged regime change in Iraq to provide a jolt that — he argued — would "modernize the Middle East". "AEI'S Weird Celebration" Critics of Lewis have suggested that Lewis' Orientalist theories about "What Went Wrong" in the Middle East, and other important works, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. "Bernard Lewis Revisited" , Washington Monthly , November 2004. Accessed April 26 , 2007 . BOOKS
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