FYI France: the Institut du Monde Arabe
For all of us with new - found, or rediscovered, interests in the
Middle East and Islam and the Arab world, the Institut du Monde
Arabe in Paris has a wonderfully - useful W3 site.
The utility of the site is at least dual: you can read
fascinating material about all of this, and you can read about it
in French. In addition there is a French approach, to the Middle
East and its many possibilities and problems, which is very
rarely heard in all the sound and fury emanating from the US news
media recently -- la diffe'rence franc,aise, again, for a
geopolitical issue on which they really are very different. For
those of us who truly believe that "Everything has Changed",
since September 11 last year, as well as for those of us who
truly don't, a tour through a foreign take on fundamental aspects
of the problem can offer revelatory balance.
The Institut du Monde Arabe site offers several major resources,
at,
http://www.imarabe.org/
-- among these,
* Architecture
A photo - tour through the Institute's remarkable Left Bank
buildings, with their glass and steel, and sunken patio, and
"tour des livres" -- "en marbre blanc. Sa forme he'licoi:dale
rapelle les minarets des anciennes mosque'es" -- and the famous
"diaphragmes" -- "La fac,ade sud reprend les the`mes historiques
de la ge'ome'trie arabe dans la conception des 240 moucharabiehs
qui la composent. Ces diaphragmes s'ouvrent et se ferment a`
chaque changement d'heure."
http://www.imarabe.org/perm/ima/batiment_main.html
* History
An outstanding introduction to the history of the Arab world --
first stop, for both anyone unfamiliar with the area and anyone
desiring a quick and easy online review "in these troubled times"
-- the beautifully - illustrated presentation is divided in two:
a) Le Monde Arabe -- "an historical approach, presenting the Arab
world in its entirety, its civilization, its history, and its
relations with other cultures" --
http://www.imarabe.org/perm/mondearabe/theme/index.html
"Introduction"
Vous avez dit Arabe ?
-- the crucial distinction: what is "Arab" / what is "Islam"?
Les plus anciens te'moignages
-- "Saracens (in Greek Sarake^noi, in Latin Saraceni)...
people who live in a tent (in Greek, Ske^ne^)..."
La question de la langue
-- expressed in the elegant French of the site,
"Cette langue qu'on 'lit des yeux' comme on reconnai^t
des signes, des ide'ogrammes, est une langue de la
re'pe'tition, de l'inte'riorite', du souffle de
l'e'vocation : un mot renvoie par sa racine a` tout un
univers de sens.:
L'Oralite'
-- fans of Milman Parry and Homeric epic take note -- also
those of us interested in the "orality" of rap music and
MTV... and of the Internet...
"Arabia before the 7th Century"
De la mer au de'sert
Nomades, se'dentaires, citadins
Organisation sociale et valeurs
La Mecque
Les forces en pre'sence
"The Emergence of Islam"
Muhammad, homme et prophe`te
Le message coranique
Les cinq piliers
"The Expansion of Islam"
La question de la succession
Chiites et sunnites
Les e'coles juridiques
Les grandes dynasties
"Arab Civilization"
L'he'ritage grec
Arabisation et Islamisation
Parlez - vous l'arabe sans le savoir !?
De Bagdad a` Cordoue
La litte'rature et la poe'sie
Les arts
Mathe'matiques et astronomie
La me'decine
Physique et chimie
La philosophie
"The Confrontation with Europe"
"The Ottoman Empire"
"European Colonization"
"From Reform to Independance"
Les re'formismes
Re'formisme et inte'grisme Islamiques
Les nationalismes
Panarabisme et socialisme
"A Changing World"
"The Arab World in Statistics"
and --
b) Pays par Pays -- "a geographic approach, furnishing basic
facts and statistics for each country" --
http://www.imarabe.org/perm/mondearabe/pays/index.html
[As only one of many examples, which might be gleaned from this
W3 site, of la diffe'rence franc,aise with regard to their view
of the current Middle East situation, the Institut du Monde Arabe
lists "Palestine" among the various "pays" of the Arab World --
Nom officiel :
Autorite' nationale palestinienne
Chef de l'Etat :
Yasser Arafat (Pre'sident de l'Autorite' nationale
palestinienne, chef de l'OLP)
Capitale :
Je'richo (sie`ge provisoire de l'Autorite' nationale
palestinienne), L'Autorite' palestinienne revendique
Al - Qods (Je'rusalem est) comme capitale du futur Etat
Palestinien (1993) 567 100 hab., dont 155 000
Palestiniens
Superficie :
Palestine historique 27 009 Km2
Cisjordanie 5 879 Km2
Gaza 378 Km2, dont 42 Km2 occupe's par des implantations
israe'liennes...
(etc.)
-- in significant contrast to the CIA World Factbook for 2001,
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
in which no such "Palestine" entry is to be found. The Institut
du Monde Arabe is a "fondation de droit franc,ais", which leaves
its affiliation or lack thereof with official French governmental
policy undefined -- perhaps there is none, perhaps there is some
-- they are "un lieu de culture fruit d'un partenariat entre la
France et vingt - deux pays arabes", they say.]
* Library
The bibliothe`que of the Institut has mounted extensive and
extremely - useful bibliographies online:
http://www.imarabe.org/perm/biblio/bibliographie.html
including,
"Getting to know Islam better"
"Several Translations of the Koran"
"The Contribution of Islam: contacts and influences"
"The Dialog of Islam with Other Religions"
"Islam in the World"
plus materials on the Arab World for children --
http://www.imarabe.org/temp/activitejeunes/sdl/bibliomaghreb.htmhttp://www.imarabe.org/temp/activitejeunes/sdl/selection/imaselection.pdf
and in Paris, at the Institut, on the rue des Fosse's - Saint -
Bernard 5eme, a full schedule of events and activities for both
adults and children, plus access to library book, photograph,
film, music, and Arab television collections, all are offered.
A Note:
At least two civilizations are bleeding themselves to death in
the desert, in the Middle East this month, again. It would be
useful if all of us were to look at both, very closely, and from
as many angles as possible, before any of us begins to advocate
the inevitably - simplistic solutions which will be imposed on
that terrible situation.
That was one of the problems in Afghanistan -- nobody could find
it on a map. At least, in the Middle East case, the map is well -
known. But that sometimes can pose an even worse problem: of
mistaken assumptions, and preconceived notions, and partial
understandings based on rumor and bias and the darker ghosts of
our own histories -- a little knowledge can be a thing as
terrible as no knowledge at all.
So the Institut du Monde Arabe W3 site offers correction: if not
of the politics involved -- which may not be corrected, by
anything, until several generations of both peace and justice
have passed in the region -- at least of our own ignorance of the
depths and complexities of the people involved, on all sides.
There are Monophysite Christian Arabs, and Baptist - Anglican
Arabs, and Jews are protesting Israeli policies in the San
Francisco streets this week... Hindu Indians live in Beirut...
And the Institut W3 site offers all this in French, in a very
attractive online presentation, and using an "aesthetic" approach
-- for which the French are justifiably famous -- a view notably
absent in the "soundbyte and immediacy" newsmedia reportage
currently informing and to some extent forcing decisions being
made now on the Middle East region's fate.
One problem, with the ancient "the enemy of my enemy is my
friend" explanation for Middle East politics, is that to use it
you have to know who your friends are -- didn't work so well in
Afghanistan either, recently, for this reason. You also have to
know your enemies. Ignorance helps neither judgment, nor the
situation as a whole. But one ray of hope, for a situation which
currently is pretty bleak, is that the more you get to know
people in fact the less they seem so clearly to be divided into
simply "friends" and "enemies".
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
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| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
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Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
all rights reserved except as indicated above.
--hjlm--