The Arab Mind

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Summary: This book is a joke.
Review: Seriously, it's not valid at all. I'm a grad student in Comparative Politics at FSU. This book doesn't pass the laugh test. It's totally unscientific: you can't make a sweeping generalization and use single examples as proof: that sort of "scholarship" has been abandoned for 50 years. It is not used in any University that I know of, except in Georgetown, the foremost school of Middle Eastern Studies and a major recruiting ground for the Diplomatic Corps, where it's used as an example of bad science. This book IS racist; it is racist in the myths it perpetuates, in its design, and most of all, in its assumption that 200 million people are all exactly alike. The best reason to avoid this book like the plague is that it's chapter on the Arab Mind and sex formed the basis for the sexualized torture that is still being committed in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and in the CIA's global network of prisons. This book bears the responsibility for encouraging abuse by members of our military (not anywhere near a majority, mostly those in the intelligence branch) of Iraqis who the International Red Cross estimates are 90% innocent: just average Iraqis caught up in a drag net, and then beaten, tortured, electrocuted, and in some cases killed. And these methods are grounded in the "insights" from this book. Arabs only understand force? Threaten to kill their kids in front of them (this was done in Abu Ghraib by members of our own military). Arabs think sex is dirty? Rape their women in front of them, force them to masturbate on camera (again, US military). This book has not only reinforced racism, it is costing the US and our great military our very soul, and is a very large reason why we're losing the war on terror.

Rating:
Summary: Racist Garbage
Review: Substitute "negro" for "arab" and you have the idea behind this racist swill - the idea that a 'race' of people can have one way of thinking, acting, and behaving. I'd give it Zero stars if I could.

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Summary: An evenhanded, scholarly account
Review: The Arab Mind by the late cultural anthropologist Raphael Patai (who died in 1996) is a thoroughly researched, keenly insightful, psychological examination and analysis of the cultural, mental, and emotional factors predominant among Arabic nations and peoples throughout history and down to the present day. A meticulously researched and evenhanded, scholarly account, The Arab Mind deftly covers the influence of Islam on Arabic thought and character, child-rearing practices, insights found in a close study of Arabic, and a great deal more. The Arab Mind is very highly recommended reading and an enduringly valued contribution to International Studies, Islamic Studies, and Arab Cultural History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

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Summary: Behind the veil, and inside the soul of the Arab mind
Review: The Arab Mind-a Hungarian exploration

If you like to study ethnology or social anthropology, and are interested in the parameters that begin to frame the very periphery of the "Arab" or "Middle Easter" mindset, this is an excellent book with which to start. If, on the other had, you want a quick answer to a "clash of civilizations" set of questions, do not read this book.

The most current edition of Raphael Patai's "The Arab Mind" was first published in 1976, with a revised edition in 1983. In the intervening 19 years, much has happened, and an update was appropriate even before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The forward, by US Army Colonel Atkine (Ret) is also especially helpful as an introduction into where this book will take you, and where it will not.

This book is not a history of the "Arab" peoples; rather it poses, and explores, the question of what is Arab and what is its mindset, or weltanschuung. The first two chapters deal exclusively with the definition of the terms "Arab" and "mind." From there, the book takes an anthropological route, exploring child rearing customs, language, and Bedouin ethos as they each independently, and collectively, shape the Arab psyche. As a Jungian analysis (it is worth remembering that the author is a product of 1920 and 1930 Central European education) it is quite interesting. The transmutation and importation of Bedouin ethos and mystique is well written, and starts to peel back the layers of the onion in discerning the true face of Arabs behind the veil.

The next section of the book (as I have divided it here, not as so delineated by the author) focuses on sex, Islam, emotions and escapism, and the arts. The chapter on sex is, probably, overdone, while the chapter on Islam could be much more substantive. An understanding of the development of Islam, the original clash of civilizations, the long term impact of the Crusades would help the reader, I think, to better appreciate the later chapter of the book that deals with cultural and historical stagnation.

The last section focuses on trans culturalism, unity v dissension, the "stagnation" of Arab development, and the psychology of westernization. Patai makes a keen and telling observation, in that the sense of time does not seem to exist, neither in Arab history nor in Arab culture. I think that the lack of seasons, and a cool morning as distinct from a warm afternoon, such as are found in temperate climates, contribute to these. Further, an oral history tradition makes the dates of events far less relevant in the re-telling-after all, how much creativity can you use in repeating the dates, as compared with the exploits of Saladin.

Over all a rich book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: the title doesn't match the content !?!
Review: the author claims to work on a scientific basis, but he only makes use of hypotheses and subjective interpretation. Even more important is that he hasn't taken into account that there is a difference between a religion and a race. he parts the semitic race into the arabic people and the jewish religion.

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Summary: Not to be taken seriously
Review: The author wrote this book not to give the reader facts, I feel he wrote it to release his own anger, i hope he is better now.
The generaliztions are unbelievable and unmistakably raciest.

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Summary: A Must Read
Review: This book is a must read for anyone attempting to understand how Arabs think.

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Summary: Misinformed
Review: This book is a skewed, horrible misunderstanding of "arab" culture and thinking. Anthropology is such a pseudo-science.

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Summary: Doing business with the Arab population? READ THIS BOOK.
Review: This book provides excellent insight into how an Arab thinks, and why he thinks that way. Mr. Patai's roadmap of the Arab mind will direct you through a myriad of interesting, subtle behavioral traits and mannerisms. This is a scholarly work, and a substantial part of the book is dedicated to supporting Patai's somewhat stereotypical conclusions. Regardless, this book should be a Westerner's primer for conducting business with the Arab population

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Summary: important but unsettling in where it is off-base
Review: This is a must-read book -- not because it is necessarily brilliant or especially insightful, but because so many people cite it and it captures well many common conceptions of and judgements about the Arab World. I have read this twice since 9/11 along with many other books to come to understand the culture in which I now live and teach. Each time I come away more unsettled, especially as Patai seems all too often to be saying that because the rhetorical strategies and the logical patterns of Arabs may (or may not) be different from Western minds, they are inadequate. While he doesn't often say this directly, the judgementalism that undergirds his discussion screams aloud this view. In many instances, he makes sweeping generalizations about the nature of all Arabs by citing a single instance, whether in Palestine, or Morroco, or Iran, or where ever. He then uses this one instance to make a grand claim that sounds good, but which may or may not have any legs to it. The nature of Arabs is no more universal from country to country than the "West" is universal from France to the US to Germany. Some of his arguments are grounded in citations of the work of others, but it is difficult to know the value of those as, again, there is much that is done as case studies of a single village or situation but used by this author as evidence for a much wider conclusion of the nature of the Arab mind. As an American living in the Gulf, it saddens me that the richness of the people and cultures here become so caricatured in this work. Read it--but don't assume that its pronouncements are gospel.