By Luke Swenk – Over half a millennium ago, the world experienced the so-called Islamic Golden Age—a period when Islam was the most enlightened, creative, and influential civilisation, stretching from the Middle East to North Africa, Southern Europe and Central Asia. Its cities, like Baghdad, were at the forefront of advancements in science, medicine, philosophy, and education. However, the Islamic world has recently become relatively poor and weak compared to the now world-dominating West. But how has this come to be? That is the question Bernard Lewis seeks to answer in his book What Went Wrong?Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response.

Bernard Lewis, a British-American historian, author, and professor, spent his life studying the Middle East. His insights were sought by political leaders, including the Bush administration in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, highlighting his unique perspective on the region.

The book has seven chapters in which Lewis underlines the different aspects he believed were the causation of the power swift between Islam, now predominantly in the Middle East and the West. The chapters are as follows: The Lessons of the Battlefield, The Quest for Wealth and Power, Social and Cultural Barriers, Modernisation and Social Equality, Secularism and the Civil Society, Time & Space and Modernity, and Aspects of Cultural Change.

Throughout the reading, Lewis systematically builds his argument that the Islamic world failed to modernise by resisting Western ideals, goods and services. Lewis also provided an extensive timeline for each chapter with specific events. For instance, in The Lessons of the Battlefield, Lewis specifically references the Great Turkish War, the Russo-Persian War, and the Reconquista, in which Christians expelled Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. All these conflicts resulted in Muslim defeats across an array of centuries, which Lewis used to build his claim that the Islamic world as a whole perceived changing and remedying their military as inadequate.

For the remainder of the book, Lewis continued to analyse how historical actions have shaped contemporary Islam. He contrasts the West’s willingness to adopt advancements from other civilisations with Islam’s reluctance to embrace Western progress. Lewis also covered how the ideas of secularism were beneficial in Western societies, caused turbulence within the Islamic world.

Overall, What Went Wrong is not only informative but also captivating. It skillfully demonstrates how the past shapes the future of the Middle East. Although some of Lewis’s claims may require further analysis due to some of his broad claims, his acknowledgement of the need for ‘fuller treatment’ adds to the book’s engaging nature. This engaging aspect of the book invites readers to delve deeper into the discussion and analysis of the Islamic world’s history and its relationship with the West.

(16/10/2024)