Notes on a Century: Reflections of A Middle East Historian by Bernard Lewis & Buntzie Ellis Churchill

Author:Bernard Lewis & Buntzie Ellis Churchill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780297867036
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2012-05-30T21:00:00+00:00

8.

The Neighborhood

From the time when I began to read classical Arabic and later other Islamic texts, I was struck, and fascinated, by the rich vein of humor in Islamic civilization. I suppose that most if not all civilizations have their own distinctive form of humor but I cannot think of any other remotely comparable with the centrality and antiquity of humor in Islam. From the time of the Prophet in the seventh century to the present day Muslims have been telling, and recording, jokes about themselves, their rulers, their societies, their customs, even their sanctities. There are jokes about muftis and qadis, about imams and dervishes, and about every aspect of Muslim life, not excluding religious life. What is somewhat remarkable is that this humor is richly and amply documented in literary and even religious writings, in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and no doubt other Muslim languages, from the earliest times to the present day. The tradition continues to our own time notably in the form of the political joke. Political humor flourishes in every society but particularly in those that are repressive. There are no other outlets for frustration. In the Middle East, Egypt has perhaps the richest tradition of all.

A sample joke from the Nasser era, when there was a shortage of everything in Egypt: A man living by the Nile bank, desperately hungry, went fishing and managed to catch a fish in the Nile. He brought it triumphantly to his wife and said, “Here’s a fish, this should provide us with one meal.” And his wife said, “Only if you are prepared to eat it raw. We have no oil, no butter, no power; there is no way I can cook it.” And the man said in disgust, “I don’t eat raw fish,” and he threw it back in the river and the fish rose above the waters and yelled, “Long live President Nasser.”

A friend relayed to me that Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, who was on friendly terms with President Nasser, told him that Nasser was a keen collector of Egyptian jokes about himself and was even willing to share them with suitable companions. (As a curious aside SOAS decided to confer an honorary fellowship on Haile Selassie; as I was acting dean at the time it fell upon me to make the formal presentation. I greeted His Imperial Majesty with the appropriate formulae and placed the diploma of his appointment in his hands. He thanked me and then asked, “Do you also have problems with students?”)

There is even a joke about Nasser’s collection of Nasser jokes. As the Egyptians tell the story, Nasser decided one day that enough was enough. He summoned his chief of police and ordered him to find and arrest the man who was inventing and circulating all these jokes. A week later the chief of police reappeared at the presidential palace bringing with him a man whom he had arrested. “This,” he said, “is the man who has invented all these jokes about you, Mr.

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