The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - BBC4's recent documentary

Sadeq Saba's recent documentary "The Genius of Omar Khayyam" was awkward to watch at times but saved only by a subject matter that is interesting because of its own virtues. Saba seemed more like an inexperienced rider, unable to rein in a vigorous and lively stallion, but thinking that its virtues somehow rub off on him. There is no doubting his genuine interest and enthusiasm for the subject, but one is left wondering half an hour into his documentary whether his overall aim was simply to glorify Persian cultural achievements at the expense of Iran's Muslim identity. In one scene, where he discusses Khayyam's poetry with a publisher, the familiar face of Iran's former Shah peers out seditously from the wall behind him. The parts of the documentary focusing on Omar Khayyam's mathematical and astronomical works were absolutely fascinating, but again Saba seems bewildered and the topic simply flies past his head. Another reason he may not have found this as interesting is the murky dividing line between his clean cut "Persian" civilization and the Islamic/Persian/Arab cosmopolitanism that Khayyam actually lived within.

At another point, it is quite telling to see one of the experts he interviews lament the one dimensional view of Khayyam as he is portrayed popularly, as a lover of wine and women. Yet the irony is lost on Saba when he begins and ends his documentary sitting in a wine cellar with a tasting glass beside him. Saba's Khayyam has been appropriated into a Green "revolution" style narrative, where the big bad bogeyman of orthodox religious authority is being challenged by the plucky original thinker and his defiance through hedonism; that Khayyam is telling his readers not to worry about some afterlife but to live joyously in the present - wine glass in hand and fair maiden close by. What Saba does not comprehend, and he does this I suspect because he selectively reads Khayyam, is that the Rubaiyat are not just about scorning an afterlife for the present - in fact even scorn is a harsh word. In section 32 of my copy of Fitzgerald's version, Khayyam ominously says this:

There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil past which I could not see:

Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee

There seem'd - and then no more of Thee and Me.

These are profound philosophical ideas rooted in an Islamic philosophical perspective. The references to the door for which no key to be found tell us that there are things we cannot touch upon with anything that we have, the veil past which he could not see is death. In the Qur'an, the *veil* is removed on the day of judgement so that mankind can finally see. The futility of trying to push past this veil, of opening the door, is of a philosopher trying to make out what becomes of him, his thoughts, his person, once he dies. Other Islamic philosophers wondered about this such as Avicenna or Averroes. Averroes had a complicated idea of a group mind, a group consciousness that is the sum collective of the knowledge that humanity has accumulated. A bizarre precursor to the Hegelian Geist or Universal Mind, "some little talk a while of me and thee, There seem'd - and then no more of Thee and Me". It is as if Khayyam is entertaining ideas of his self being absorbed into something greater perhaps, or at least that the religious message of the prophets of destroying the ego can be attained beyond that forbidding door with no key. This is a continuation of his earlier theme mentioned in the Rubaiyat, of being "with Yesterday's Seven Thousand Years" (part 20).

In section 49, Khayyam says something that can be no coincidence:

The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,

But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes;

And He that toss'd Thee down into the Field,

He knows about it all - He knows - HE knows!

The Qur'an is also called the "Furqan" or divider. It divides between peoples, those who believe when they read it and those who increase in disbelief. His reference to a ball game is his reference to the hardships and conflicts which cause Man strife and suffering. This is a person who is not infected by the nonsensical idea that evil in the world means God does not exist. "HE knows!" why we suffer like this, why it does not matter which way an argument goes, or who wins and who loses. The "He" that Khayyam is talking about is beyond good or evil, in a Nietszchean sense, that is, that such questions are just on a different plane from what the "He" is concerned with. We and our morality, our demands and our accomplishments or tribulations are but flecks of dust, irrelevant. Again, the timelesness in Khayyam's writing comes in, a sense that we do not grasp all that there is. But "He" knows...

Saba does not comprehend that Khayyam is not being anti-religious or nihilistic when he proclaims "Drink! - for once dead you never shall return" in section 34. Again, Khayyam is drawing deep from the well of Islamic mysticism, that those who die in this world shall never return to it. But his constant reference to wine puzzles Saba, and even the answer given to him by one of the interviewees does little to dent his own one dimensional view of Khayyam as a womanizing drinker. Wine is always mentioned in Sufi and mystical Islamic poetry as expressive of a present, or of an ecstasy and joy in a moment. That in reaching our beloved, in attaining paradise, the muslim to Allah experiences the ecstasy of being close to the Divine. The Qur'an speaks of rivers of wine for those who reach paradise, the Prophet himself was offered a choice between wine and milk. Wine is not that radical a subject matter for poets who are Muslims or writing in a Muslim context, its prohibition notwithstanding.

Ultimately this documentary tells us more about Saba's own opinion on current geopolitical events and religion than it does about who Omar Khayyam the man really was. In doing this he has made a poor documentary of only limited benefit and one which will be, as expected, celebrated by the Middle East's many pseudo-intellectuals and rebels without a clue. Those people, to quote from the Qur'an, "who do not know". You can watch the programme on BBC iPlayer within the UK for another few days before it is taken offline.

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Hamza El Din - La Salam

Thanks to Yaman for sharing this link with me, amazing oud playing from Sudan.

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The Arab League 2010

I was going to post something about the Arab League meeting and its wider implications on the latest developments in the Middle East and the Arab world. I couldn't be bothered so here is something more intellectually stimulating for my readers.

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Syrians spreading out into the world..

The Syrian Ibn Batouta, Yosef Halabi is travelling across South East Asia and chronicling his journey on his travel and photography blog. A fascinating guy and a fascinating journey. I think his photo albums are on the right side and well worth a look.

www.yosefhalabi.com/blog

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The army that cannot be defeated

Made me laugh..

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يا بنات المكلا

"The Girls of Mukalla" - an area in Yemen. They are known in the Arab world for their virtue and charm. Fahd Balan sings about them and contrasts them with the girls from different Arab cities.

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What type of heart do you have?

Whilst having dinner at Abu Zad last week, I noticed the people having dinner near to us were a family of extremely religious Muslims. The wives were wearing full niqabs, the husbands had full beards. They were quite fair skinned and to be honest, they had a certain distant look in their eyes, not quite crazed, but like somebody who was just not with it. I recognise that exact same look when I see fair skinned Jews from England or America talking about their "divine right" to live in Palestine. I'm not judging anybody, but this is just an impression that I got from looking at these individuals.

As I learn more about Islam and how the Prophet used to behave, I see striking similarities between some Jewish practices and beliefs, and how early Muslims behaved. I also see the distinction, ever so subtle, between a heart that is dead and follows slavishly the letter of the Law, and a living, beating heart that is trying to follow the spirit of that Law. That is the straight path that a Muslim* man or woman should always try to find, not the path of those who are lost or those who have wrath upon them.

Deep thoughts for a Thursday night...

* I don't subscribe to the view that being Muslim is necessarily being a part of a team or civilization, it is more something you do than something you are, to submit.

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In the back of my mind I still retain romantic notions of being able to call to account the British government for its 'excesses' in the Middle East, my homeland. Studying law has opened up a panorama of possibilities and it is an exciting field, albeit tedious because this is not *my* law, as a Muslim and as an Arab. Law is a function of society, a society which is free and confident in its rules, culture and place in history. Whilst my own heritage has no shortage of resources to draw upon, there is no country remaining where this culture is truly still expressed. A situation that leaves me frustrated but through which I must persevere. I've come to the conclusion that more people who are passionate about resistance and about resisting occupation need to learn the systems of government, law and philosophies of these countries that are sending their armies and gentlemen spies over to us. But the task is daunting, the books to be covered are mountainous and the mental and physical strain seems to almost crush me at times. There is also the small issue of having to work for a living, of having to deal with the pathetic remants of that thing I used to call a life. There are glimmers of light that shine through every now and then and these cheer me up considerably, but a combination of deep scars from the past, a crushing work load and a merciless atmosphere of competition and deadlines, from work as well as on the course all bear their crushing weight on me. I walk slowly, step by step, upwards through this tunnel, viewed as an oddity by the passerby and long abandoned by loved ones.

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فيروز من يوم اللي تكون يا وطني

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A steaming cup of tea, Fairouz playing in the background, and a breakfast of Zeit w Za'atar, olives, labneh. With the sun shining and the birds singing in the garden I begin to get the distinct feeling that things just might be ok...Sabah al kheir!

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Live all you wish, for you will die
Do what you wish, you will only sow what you reap
and love who you wish for you will part with them

-Gabriel to Muhammad...

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The "Firanj" and the "Saracen" - still at it.

I'm not sure I agree with a lot of Usama Hassan's article in the Guardian today, "East is not always best". But I do sympathise with it. What did strike me is the level of anti-Islamic vitriol that is becoming standard in the comments section of the Guardian. I mean with The Times that might be something that is expected, but in a supposedly progressive, left leaning newspaper? Very interesting, but not worrying. European culture has in my opinion, been historically unable to deal with foreigners, or the other, very well in spite of all the claptrap about harmonious multi-faith societies. There is also a deep rooted perception that Islam spread by the sword. That Islam is a religion which is anti-cultural.

When one looks at the history of the Roman empire after becoming Christian, the actions of Teutonic knights, the ethnic cleansing of the entire Balkans (both past and present), the Holocaust, the "Reconquista" which ethnically cleansed the Iberian peninsula, Malta and Sicily, the entire continent of South America and of North America oh and that small thing called the Crusades, Russian pogroms against Jews, the elimination of entire Middle Age communities of Muslims in Italy (refugees from Sicily and Andalusia who settled there for almost a century) and of course the entire period of European colonialism, with the French occupation of North Africa being particularly brutal, one quickly realises that Islam was actually quite mild in its spreading. We also forget that at one time two thirds of the world's landmass was controlled by European powers (through the barrel of a gun).

Now comparatively the oldest Jewish communities in the world lived in Islamic countries, the oldest Christian communities (which in fact predate Islam's arrival) are still in the Middle East (the language that Christ spoke is still used as a first language in some villages in Syria). Refugees from Armenia, Circassia, the Balkans and Malta have all settled throughout the Levant quite happily until the Turkish nationalists (not the Ottoman's) decided to ethnically cleanse their empire of Armenians. There were communities of Greeks throughout the region until fairly recently as well. Why are some of these communities not there? I will ask you to take a guess (hint: arrival of European colonialism and ideas of nationalism). In fact the arrival of nationalism(this secular ideology that is touted as the wonder drug for the Middle East) is the start of much of the tribulations of the Arab and Islamic peoples.

Secular means religion and the state are separate but can somebody please point out which Arab country is actually ruled by Islam? Yes there are rules which are Islamic that are applied, but European countries also have a legislation which is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition so that is inescapable. Do you want to say Saudi Arabia? Where in the Qur'an does it say that you should ally yourself with countries that are attacking Muslim countries, or that you can use fabulous oil wealth for gambling, prostitutes, alcohol and ostentatious riches whilst there are Muslims living in utter poverty all around you. So Saudi Arabia is NOT a country ruled by Islam, it is a kingdom belonging to a family, the Saud's (who gave it its name) and which happens to be Islamic. So which Arab country is actually ruled by "religion"? None, and nobody seems to realise that the Middle East is in fact a secular region where it is nationalism and not religion that has caused the problems of the twentieth century. Particularly "Arab" nationalism. The Lebanese can probably be heard howling with indignation, what about our civil war? Well, I think that somebody honest enough will find on close examination that it was a battle of nationalisms. The phalange, for example, are Christian nationalists, they wished to have political power for people who happened to be Christian, and not to create some Kingdom of Heaven in Lebanon.

Is the East perfect then? Of course not. Neither past nor present are so, but we should be careful about putting a three hundred year period of "Western" hegemony as some model which is better than the "Eastern other". In fact just using the terms "West" and "East" is to use the divisive language of this quite exclusivist culture. We have a saying back in Syria:

ضربني و بكى, سبقني و اشتكى

"He hit me, he cried

Then he complained about me"

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Such a strange feeling, to look into a window from the outside and see another man living your life. It is particularly cold in London tonight...

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انا لله و انا اليه راجعون

I've just heard that the Sheikh of al Azhar, Mohamad Sayid al Tantawi, has passed away. I think he was a frail old man in a difficult position, and that was what made him say some of the ridiculous things he did regarding Palestine, or shaking the hand of Peres. I think that whilst the sensationalism of these mistakes has gotten a lot of attention, he should also be remembered for his work as the head of the second oldest university in the world. The oldest being al Qaraween in Fez, Morroco. The duty and responsibility of a man in his position was never going to be lightly accepted and in a time when the Arab and Islamic world's lights have never been so dim, even that such institutions exist is an achievement and defiance.

الله يرحمه و يغفر له

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When I have time I will be writing a post about my experiences and perspectives as an Arab ex-patriate living in the West. There are many things which we culturally adapt to and notice about living in these lands that range from the comical to the outlandish to the absolutely horrifying. Perhaps my post, which I'm considering putting in Arabic as well, would help Arabs about to travel here or thinking of settling here, so they can be better prepared and perhaps ease the culture shock. More about this in my next post.

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Britain's class system - alive and well

I must say, studying law in London with "Oxbridge" students has opened my eyes to the often stated fact that Britain is a society deeply divided upon class lines. Oxbridge is the term given to students who have graduated from Oxford or Cambridge and who usually come from a public school background. Public school in England is what people in other countries would call private schools, the most notable of these public schools being Eton. If you'd like to know what these schools are like, just watch a Harry Potter film, because that is almost the kind of environment those children are raised in. The only difference is that the *muggles* (people who do not understand or practice magic) in the film are really just the ordinary people who have to work for a living, unlike those special ones who understand magic.

It is remarkable for me that some people look you up and down before speaking to you, or that they would look the other way or purposely ignore someone not of their "class" even though they are standing next to them. I know now more than before that their smiles are fake, their compliments a lie and their generosity is non-existent. These are the people who will grow to fill the ranks of British government, industry and the defence establishment. There are rich foreigners who are allowed to the fringe of their social circles, and these are foolish enough from what I can see to really think they are being accepted as equals. I have never been prouder of being a Muslim, of being an Arab and of my working class clothes, background and struggle to be where I am today. In fact I revel in being as natural and common as possible around these ice cold automatons and I never, ever apologise or make myself defensive of my religion or background.

I made it very clear my deep amusement when the class elected to have a moment of silence for remembrance day, me...an Arab would stay silent whilst Britain supports Israel and helped occupy Iraq? On another day I found out that the Islamic society of the university had its prayer facilities shut down and they were offered smaller facilities that were inadequate. The Friday prayers as a protest were held in the square in front of the university. I noticed how these well heeled arrogant nincompoops looked with utter disgust at these bearded, working class, brown Muslims, and I took off my shoes and went to sit right there with everybody else. There was a bemused look of horror by many as we got up to do our prayers. I don't think I could have lived with myself if I just hid inside or, even worse, stood there with those same English upper class nits whom I resented, whilst they looked with disgust at my people...I'm an Arab and a Muslim, it isn't my problem if some people are stupid enough to think that is an insult.

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Arabic poetry

It has been extremely difficult to stay abreast of political developments or some of the rubbish being written by Middle Eastern experts. Studying law in such an intense and short period is taking up a lot of my energies. I will try to keep things going regularly and I apologise for being a bit silent here, in the meantime enjoy the classical Arabic poetry that I've been discovering. I had no idea, but the 10 معلقات (mualakat) were called so because they were hung from the Ka'aba before the arrival of Islam. The language used is mesmerising, but the poems themselves also hark back to an Arab culture that was deeply chivalrous and which still is in many ways, if you look hard enough. Reading these poems is like reclaiming something that is a part of my heritage. The other set of poems I am enjoying is Abu al Tayib al Mutanabi. The way he conveys ideas and sentiments is simply breathtaking at times (I downloaded sound clips from the internet with professional readers who sound fantastic) and there are so many verses that now come to mind for many occasions. If you can read Arabic, go memorise at least one poem now, you do so only for your own benefit and it is worth it. Great stuff.

Read more about the Mu'allaqat here (it seems a bit shaky here, I have read that there were ten, but the entry states there were only seven. Somebody please let me know).

For more about al Mutanabi, click here.

I have some excellent Arabic articles on these two subjects, but obviously I have very little time to translate and post. Perhaps later.

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