I published my last post watching the evacuation of Afghanistan. I have since written a short article on the evacuation of Afghanistan but I will not post it in full. My central theme was and remains that the Iraq War, renamed the War on Terror, in an effort to legitimize hostilities, was an intrusive armed conflict that took a life of its own. It had a domino effect.
As for the Iraq War, which seems a continuation of the Gulf War, “[a]n estimated 151,000 to 1,033,000 Iraqis died in the first three to five years of conflict.” (See Iraq War, Wikipedia.) It also took the life of journalist Daniel Pearl who was beheaded in 2002.
On 2 May 2011, United States’ Navy SEALS, an élite corps, assisted by a dog named Cairo, found and killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, was the leader of al-Qaeda until his death. The Iraq War ended in 2011, but hostilities in the Middle East continued beyond 2011.
In 2014, the Beatles terrorist cell tortured and beheaded James Foley and Steven Sotloff, innocent Americans, as well as British aid worker David Haines. The Beatles terrorists made their victims blame the United States and its allies for their death. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh and are in custody. Kotey has admitted involvement in the torture and death of James Foley. Between 2013 and 2017, retaliation led to terrorism, in and out of the Middle East.
As for the war in Afghanistan, the coalition led by the United States was defeated by the Taliban. Two suicide bombers, members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (Isis K), struck at the Kabul airport, killing and wounding servicemen and civilians. US troops had been deployed on a humanitarian mission. Yet, Isis K attempted to thwart the evacuation of Afghanistan. It was nevertheless as successful as could be. Hostilities had lasted twenty years. The war had to end. Afghans must now shape their own future prudently and without recourse to punitive measures that would be an infringement of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration of 10 December 1948.
Reproduction of the world’s oldest example of animation, dating back to the late half of the 3rd millennium BCE, found in Burnt City, Iran (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many of us are confused. Who is a Muslim? Who is an Arab? Are Arabs Muslims and / or Muslims Arabs?
Arabs are people indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula, also called Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an Arab country and most of its citizens are Muslims, a religion. Saudi Arabs are Sunni Muslims (a religion) but many are Wahhabis, a fundamentalist Muslim sect. However, Saudi Arabia is home to a Shia Muslim population.
The people of Iran/Persia are notArabs, but most are Muslims, Shia Muslims. Syrians are Shia Muslims, but Syria is also inhabited by Sunni Muslims. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite Shia Muslim.
Arabian Peninsula
Persia/Iran
The Arabian Peninsula (left) and Iran/Persia (right)
The Arabian Peninsula is home to Arabs, but the people of Iran were Arabized in the 7th century CE. (See Arab Conquest of Persia, Wikipedia.)
The map below shows the three expansions of Patriarchal Caliphates, or Arabization.
Arab Conquests from 661 to 750
Age of the Caliphs. Expansion under the Prophet Muhammad, 622-632. Expansion during the Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661. Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750 (Photo credit: Caliphate, Wikipedia.)
Saudi Arabia
Sunni Islam (± 75%)
Wahhabism: fundamentalism
an Absolute Monarchy
Human Rights violations
Raif Badawi
Saudi Muslims are Sunni Muslims, but many are Wahhabis. As described in Wikipedia, Wahhabism is “ultraconservative,” “austere,” “fundamentalist,” or “puritan(ical).” Saudis behead, crucify, mutilate, flagellate and imprison unjustly. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, which means that King Salman has divine rights. (See Divine right of kings, Wikipedia.) Raif Badawi has been in a Saudi jail for five years because he had a website in which he advocated greater liberalism in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Badawi appealed his first sentence: 6 years of imprisonment and 600 lashes. Upon appealing his sentence, in 2015, Raif was sentenced to a 10-year term in jail, 1,000 lashes, and a fine of approximately $250,000.00. Upon his appeal, Raif Badawi was also accused of apostasy, an accusation which carries a death sentence. Mr Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, a human rights activist, lives in my community with her three children by Mr Badawi. They are our cause, but it could be a desperate cause. Saudi Arabia is an extremely rich country. It was the first country President Trump visited in his official capacities.
Iran / Persia fell to Islam in the 7th century. Iran is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, dating back to Sumer: 4000 BCE. It was Elam and Elamites spoke the Elamite language. It flourished as the Achaemenian Empire or Achaemedid Empire (ca. 550 BCE – 330 BCE). Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemedid Empire. It was conquered by Alexander the Great (334 BCE) and Hellenized. It was the Seleucid Empire (312 BCE – 63 BC; defeated in 238 BCE), the Parthian Empire (247 BCE – 224 BCE) and the Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 CE, or the Arab conquest).
It was named Persia from the Greek Persis (see Persepolis, Wikipedia). The Arab conquest of Iran saw the decline of the Persian language as well as the religions of Persia, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. Iran had much to contribute to the Islamic Golden Age, from the 8th century to the 13th century. It’s conversion to Shia Islam occurred under the Safavid Dynasty (Safavid Shahs) in the 15th century. By the 18th century, under Nader Shah,
“Persia briefly possessed what was arguably the most powerful empire at the time.” (See Iran, Wikipedia.)
Iran is multicultural. It comprises Persians (61%), Azeris (16%), Kurds (10%), and Lurs (6%). Iran is not a member of the Arab World. (See Iran, Wikipedia.)
Panel with striding lion Neo-Babylonian, ca. 604 – 562 BCE, Mesopotamia (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)
The magnificent lions shown above date back to a pre-Islamic Persia. Works I showed in a post entitled Islamic Art featured the art of Iran and other Muslim countries. The second lion is a hybrid or zoomorphic beast. His hind legs are those of a griffin, a legendary animal.
Turkey is also a Muslim country. Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, (Eastern Orthodox Christianity) fell to the Seljuk Turks in 1453. Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but although it is home to Muslims, 75% of whom are Sunnis, and others Alevis, Shia Muslims, Turkey was not Arabized. Turkey became a Persianate society. Wikipedia quotes Marshal Hogdson:
“The rise of Persian had more than purely literary consequences: it served to carry a new overall cultural orientation within Islamdom. … Most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims … depended upon Persian wholly or in part for their prime literary inspiration. We may call all these cultural traditions, carried in Persian or reflecting Persian inspiration, ‘Persianate’ by extension.”
Turkey was not Arabised and Iran differs from Saudi Arabia. Iran is home to Shia Muslims and Saudi Arabia is inhabited by Sunni Muslims and Wahhabis. They are different entities. Iran is not a member of the Arab World. The 22 states making up the Arab World are listed under Arab World (please click). Iran’s cultural heritage is extremely rich. As well, it has a parliament. As noted above, in 1979, Iran refused to be Westernized.
A map of the Arab world, based on the standard territorial definition of the Arab world, which comprises the 22 states of the Arab League (Comoros is not shown). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Not only has a reversion of Arabization begun, but so have attempts to create a more liberal Islam. The Arab Spring started with the Tunisian Revolution on 17 December 2010. (See Arab Spring, Wikipedia.) The Tunisian Revolution was successful. It led to greater democratization. However, other Muslims societies are also seeking reforms. Raif Badawi is in a Saudi jail because, as noted above, he advocated a more liberal Saudi Arabia. The Saudis still behead people.
Saudi Arabia is an Arab country, but Iran is not. Iran, however, is a Muslim country. It is home to Shia Muslims mainly, There are other religious groups in the Middle East. Islam however is one of the Abrahamic religions. Jesus, Isa ibn Maryam, was a prophet in the Abrahamic religions. (See Jesus in Islam, Wikipedia.) However, Muhammad, who was born in Mecca, founded Islam. He was 40 when the archangel Gabriel, brought him messages from God. Christianity is rooted in Judaism, one of three Abrahamic religions, the third being Islam:
Judaism (seventh century BCE),
Christianity (first century CE),
Islam (seventh century CE).
I will close by quoting Wikipedia
“The Abrahamic religions, also referred to collectively as Abrahamism, are a group of Semitic-originated religious sects that claim descent from the practices of the ancient Israelites and the worship of the God of Abraham.” (Read more under Abrahamic religions, Wikipedia.)
My last post was published on 3 June 2017. I have not been able to work since. However, in the wake of the London Bridge attack and previous attacks on Britain, three in as many months, I reflected on terrorism, wondering if it could be stopped. (But not if the United States sells weapons to Saudi Arabia.)
Terrorism is extremely difficult to quell. The mind of a terrorist is inflexible. He or she has been radicalized through indoctrination. A terrorist probably thinks his victims deserve to die. Moreover, ISIL terrorists kill in the name of Allah and are probably looked upon as martyrs by fellow terrorists.
Martyrdom may explain why ISIL claims responsibility for acts of terrorism perpetrated by a Muslim, even if the attack has little to do with promoting the Islamic State. ISIL claimed responsibility for the Orlando, Florida attack by Omar Mateen. Omar Mateen did not mention ISIL until he was about to be shot to death by the police. He had attacked innocent civilians enjoying a night out at an LGBT facility, the Pulse. He had been taught that his sexual orientation was not acceptable.
It seems terrorism is permanent, but that movements such as ISIL aren’t. ISIL will probably be defeated in the not-too-distant future, but a new movement could replace the one that has been abolished and several of its members will justify killing on the basis of the destruction of ISIL. Human beings retaliate and so do terrorists. Attacks follow one another and new movements avenge the old. It’s a vicious circle.
It is difficult to neutralize or defeat a group of terrorists. They are radicalized. Many ISIL terrorists are heroes without a cause who converted to Islam and travelled to the Middle East. Attackers often see their victims as deserving to die. They kill in the name of Allah and may be looked upon by other terrorists as martyrs. I wonder to what extent ISIL militants realize that they harm moderate Muslims fleeing terrorism and war and who have lost everything. ISIL fuels Islamophobia and hurt Islam. The refugees started to walk towards Europe in 2015 and many drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea in fragile crafts. Migrants are Muslims for the most part, but they include minorities: Yazidis, Assyrians, Mandeans, etc.
With respect to the Migrant Crisis, I should note again that William Lacy Swing, Head of the International Organization of Migration, reports that people smugglers make $35 bln a year on the Migrant Crisis. It’s an industry.
Nearly 1,500 migrants in 12 boats were rescued from the Mediterranean by Médecins Sans Frontières in just 12 hours last month. This rescue ship has a capacity of 600 people. Photograph: Cesare Abbate/EPA
Islamophobia helped Donald J. Trump’s election to the Presidency of his country. He looked upon all Muslims as dangerous, which is a generalization, but atrocious crimes were being committed in the name of Allah. However, recently, President Trump allowed a large number of Muslims to enter the United States. The European Migrant Crisis also led to nativism. Many French citizens rallied behind Marine Le Pen‘s Front National.
It could be that France’s National Front party influenced the Brexit vote. A little over half of Britons voted in favour of Brexit. However, support for Brexit may wane following a significant loss of seats for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party.
The “West ” as Villain
The West has made mistakes. Colonialism was a mistake and so was the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. The creation of protectorates by the League of Nations was also a mistake. The Arab-Israeli Conflict began when Mandatory Palestine was partitioned and Israel created. Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948, the day the British Mandate for Palestine ended. (See Israeli Declaration of Independence, Wikipedia.) At the moment, matters are sensitive and Israel is making a mistake. Israel has yet to return the territory it conquered during the Six-Day War, in 1967. Israelis are settling outside the territory Israel was apportioned in 1948, often deporting Palestinians. Israel has been granted protection from the United States, but the United States did not veto United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 adopted on 23 December 2016. (See United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, Wikipedia.)
However, we need to focus on the present. On 14 May 2017, the French elected centrist Emmanuel Macron to the leadership of their country and British Prime Minister Theresa May failed to obtain the clear majority she was seeking in the British general election held on 9 June 2017, three days after the London Bridge attack. Consequently, a shift to the extreme right, in France particularly, has been averted. As for Britain, the Brexit vote did not show convincingly that Britons wanted to leave the European Union. It showed division and division is what the general election has confirmed. Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour Party secured 30 more seats in Parliament, a substantial increase, while Prime Minister Theresa May lost 12 seats.
For a while, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was managing the daunting European Migrant Crisis almost unassisted, but she is supported by France. Jeremy Corbyn is expected to smoothen the Brexit negotiations, if indeed Britain leaves the European Union.
ISIL claims that the London Bridge attack was retaliation against American airstrikes in the Middle East. It has declared an “all-out war” on the West, in the name of Allah, and did so during Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims, which this year began on 26 May and will end on 24 June 2017. The Atlantic reports “staggering loss of life” in the fight against ISIL.
Terrorists attacked the Parliament building and the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the nation’s Islamic revolution. According to the WashingtonPost, approximately 12 people were reported killed and 42 wounded.
Conclusion
Allow me to express my condolences to the family and friends of the victims. These are the saddest of times. Many countries are accepting refugees, but attacks such as the three attacks on Britain scare host countries. Canada passed anti-Islamophobia legislation, which may not have been necessary, but Canada’s Muslim community had to be protected officially. However, I cannot imagine Canada accepting sharia law. Immigrants to Canada and refugees have to abide by Canadian laws. Canada respects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The War in Iraq was a mistake. It was, I hope, the last instance of Manifest Destiny. It is my conviction that the countries of the Middle East are capable of looking after themselves. But, following the Arab Spring, certain autocrats would not democratize their nation and heads started to fall. Muath Al-Kasasbeh was burned alive. Human beings were locked in cages that were lowered into the water. The genocide of the Yazidis began, and an American-led coalition started to strike. Drones were used, so attacks were targeted and civilians spared. Targeting is almost impossible. The villain was ISIL.
By 2016, thirteen million Syrians had fled their country to seek refuge in the safer West. But the West was divided. The European Migrant Crisis was a calamity. Were migrants friends or foe? Fear led to Brexit. In France, Marine Le Pen thought she had found the road to power. She ran a populist campaign, à la Trump, and she was defeated. But suddenly, terrorists were attacking Britain. The attacks occurred after Donald Trump’s inauguration. However, Mr Trump’s travel bans were blocked by the courts.
I believe we are nearing the end of this ordeal, but many have died and more could die.
All of us are human beings. We can hate, but we can love. We can love far more than we can hate. The planet is ours to save and the world is ours to shape and to share.
Love to everyone ♥
Tchaikovsky – Hymn of the Cherubim – USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir
(extraordinary music!)
Le Roman de Renart is a mock-epic. It is the underside of the chansons de geste and courtly love. This post excludes courtly literature to concentrate on France’s first and most important chanson de geste, the anonymous Chanson de Roland. Roland, King Charlemagne‘s nephew, and his twelvePaladinswere defeated at the Battle of Roncevaux (778). Roland died.
It has been said that the Chanson de Roland is now forgotten. The Internet tells another story. It is still the subject matter of masterpieces of European literature. As we saw in my last post, Roland is Ludovico Ariosto‘s masterpiece Orlando Furioso. The Chanson de Roland may at times have been put aside, but Orlando Furioso has endured and inspired several authors down to this very day. Wikipedia’s entry on Orlando Furioso is a who’s who chronicling the arabisation of North Africa and the decline of Eastern Christianity rooted in the Fall of Constantinople to the Seljuq Turks on 29 May 1453.
The Millet protected Christians under Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, called the Conqueror, but Anatolia was not a Muslim country before the fall of Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire was defeated during World War I and dissolved under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.
Ruggiero rescuing Angelica by Gustave Doré(Wikipedia)
El Cantar de Mio Cid is a celebration of the Reconquista. The Moors were in the Iberian Peninsula from 711 until 1492. In literature, el Cid is also Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid (1936). The play was produced shortly after Richelieu founded the Académie-Française. Le Cid, a very successful play, created the first querelle. It violated the rule of the three unities: time (24 hours), action (minimum) and place (single). Rodrigue, Le Cid, succeeds in pushing back thousands of Moors.
The Crusades are the backdrop to Le Roman de Renart. Crusaders aimed to recover the Holy Land from Islamic Rule. (See Crusades, Wikipedia.) Renart talks himself out of a death sentence by claiming he must go to the Near East and expiate before he is put to death.
According to The New Yorker‘s Robin Wright, Christians are leaving the Near East. The Coptic Church was founded in 42 CE (Christian era).
Philistines settled in Palestine in the 12th century BCE, which confirms that Palestine had long been a nation (see Palestine, Britannica). After the three Jewish-Roman Wars, fought between 66 CE and 136 CE, Palestine was renamed Syria Palaestina by Roman Emperor Hadrian (24 January 76 – 10 July 138) after he crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-136, thus named after Simon bar Kokhba (d. 135). The Bar Kokhba revolt is the third of three Jewish-Roman wars, but it is sometimes called the second, the Kitos War being omitted.
Emperor Hadrian renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, and Jews could no longer enter the city.
Expulsion of the Jews during the Reign of Hadrian
Nationalism
The concept of nationalism was not new to the 19th century. Traits and circumstances shared by a number of individuals such as language, religion, foklore, location, not to mention climate, lead to nationhood. We owe the théorie des climats (the climate theory) to Montesquieu as well as Madame de Staël, the author of De l’Allemagne(1810-1813).
Although nationalism was not born in the 19th century, the 19th century is nevertheless associated with an unprecedented surge in nationalism.
The Congress of Vienna, held in 1815, but suspended when Napoleon returned from Elba, the Hundred Days, les Cent-Jours, was one of nationalism’s first 19th-century location. France returned land conquered by Napoleon and Prussia returned Alsace-Lorraine to France. However, nations represented at the Congress of Vienna, France, England, Prussia, and Russia, quite shamelessly rearranged Europe. During the 19th century, European countries conquered by the Ottomans, as of 1453, fought wars of independence leading to the attrition of the Ottoman Empire. Also to be taken into account is the balkanization of several states. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, fragmented countries in Eastern Europe were victims of genocidal ethnic cleansing. The term balkanization was coined at the end of World War I.
Zionism
Zionism also grew out of 19th-century nationalism. Its founder was Theodor Herzl(2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904). Zionists dreamed of a land of Israel which it lost beginning in the 8th century BCE. The exile was completed in 135 CE, when Roman Emperor Hadrian had the Bar Kokhba revolt crushed. Israeli nationalism seems to be developing into a state and faith nationalism.
The Balfour Declaration
At the time Jewish scientist Chaim Weizmann (27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was negotiating the Balfour Declaration (1917), he said the following:
“Mr. Balfour, supposing I was to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?” He sat up, looked at me, and answered: “But Dr. Weizmann, we have London.” “That is true,” I said, “but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh.” He … said two things which I remember vividly. The first was: “Are there many Jews who think like you?” I answered: “I believe I speak the mind of millions of Jews whom you will never see and who cannot speak for themselves.”… To this he said: “If that is so you will one day be a force.”[1]
His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. (See Balfour Declaration, Wikipedia.)
Chaim Weizmann‘s statement is misleading. Yes, the Jews had Jerusalem a very long time ago, but they had lost their land and had been exiled. As noted above, this process had begun in the 8th century BCE and was complete as of 135 CE, when the Third Roman-Jewish War was fought under Roman Emperor Hadrian. Although several Jews remained in the newly created Syria Palaestina, most left. Assyrians, a MesopotamianEast Semitic-speaking kingdom and an independent state since the 25th BCE, converted to Christianity “[b]etween the mid-second century BC and late third century AD, a period which also saw Assyria become a major centre of Syriac Christianity and the birthplace of the Church of the East.” (See Assyria, Wikipedia.)
Assyrians, who or many of whom had converted to Christianity, were not exiled. However, in the 7th century in particular (see Muhammad, Wikipedia), countries from Asia to the Iberian Peninsula were Arabised, a process that continued after Constantinople fell to the Seljuk Turks, in 1453. Ottomans were Muslims and conquered several countries in Eastern Europe that fought wars of independence in the 19th century.
Philistine captives being led away after their failed invasion of Egypt from a relief (Wermer Forman Archive/Heritage-Images)
Eschatological Connotations
As for Israel, its land of Israel and the dispersal of Jews, may find a correct description in the Encyclopædia Britannica:
Although the term refers to the physical dispersal of Jews throughout the world, it also carries religious, philosophical, political, and eschatologicalconnotations, inasmuch as the Jews perceive a special relationship between the land of Israel and themselves. Interpretations of this relationship range from the messianic hope of traditional Judaism for the eventual “ingathering of the exiles” to the view of Reform Judaism that the dispersal of the Jews was providentially arranged by God to foster pure monotheism throughout the world.[2]
The people of Quebec can understand the relationship between a people and a land, the pays du Québec. Quebec is a province, not a country. It has a Parti Québécois, consisting of Quebec nationalists, but Quebec has now chosen interculturalism, a form of humanist nationhood rooted in Martha Nussbaum‘s Cultivating Humanity.
Quebecers’ first homeland was its “literary homeland,” or patrie littéraire, a subject I have researched and pondered. One of my articles is online, in French. It is a reading of Antonine Maillet‘s Pélagie-la-Charrette.[3] Metaphors are taken from the Bible, mainly. I have lectured on this subject at the University of Stuttgart.
The Creation of Israel
In 1948, Palestine was a state. However, it had been part of the Ottoman Empire and was divided by the recently established League of Nations, whose blueprint was the Zykes-Picot Agreementof 1916. Mark Sykes, for Britain, and François Georges-Picot , for France, were protecting spheres of influence. Therefore, in 1920, Palestine was not free. From a possession of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was transformed into a protectorate of Britain. As we have seen, in 1917, under the terms of the Balfour Declaration, Britain supported the creation of a homeland for Israel, but its Israel was in Palestine.
When Israel was created in 1948, statesmen may have hoped Israel would be in Palestine. That would have been the two-state solution, but partitioning Palestine made room for a State of Israel that would expand. The Jews had been the victims of various persecutions culminating in the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust then weighed heavily on a collective conscience, so it may have obscured safer resolutions. United States President Harry S. Truman had befriended a Zionist and may not have foreseen that the partitioning of Palestine could lead to a lengthy conflict and considerable resistance on the part of Palestinians, not to mention decades of resentment on the part of Arabs.
Moreover, it may not have occurred to President Truman and other statesmen that the creation of Israel was an option rather than an imperative. There were options. Many Jews moved to the United States and to Canada. Moreover, after denazification, survivors of the Holocaust could return to their homes if they wished. As for the creation of a land of Israel, the means were questionable. Given the objectives of Zionists, the establishment of a “land of Israel,” creating Israel, could not be mere ownership of a part of Palestine. After the diaspora and the Holocaust, the land of Israel had acquired mythical dimensions.
—ooo—
On 23 December 2016, 14 members of the United Nations Security Council voted in favour of condemning Israeli settlements and the 15th member, the United States, did not veto their decision. In his Remarks on the Middle East Peace, Secretary of State John Kerry quoted Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations who stated that the United States had not acted according to “values that we share:”
Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who does not support a two-state solution, said after the vote last week, quote, “It was to be expected that Israel’s greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share,” and veto this resolution.
If the figures I published on 3 January 2017 are accurate, the financial support given Israel is staggering and it may have fostered in Israeli a sense of entitlement allowing it to occupy territory that it wasn’t apportioned in 1948. There is practically nothing left of Palestine.
Truth be told, Israel started encroaching on neighbouring territory almost as soon as it was created, and it has yet to return the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem which it conquered during the Six-Day War, in June 1967.
Conclusion
If the United States provides military aid amounting to more than 10 million dollars a day to Israel, Israel is truly privileged and the statement of its representative to the United Nations: “values we share,” is inappropriate. Israel can no longer settle beyond borders not allotted Israel in 1948. If it does, it will endanger its own safety as well as the safety of the United States. The United States stands to be attacked as it was on 11 September 2001 and its support of Israel may encourage terrorist attacks in Europe. It short, Israel cannot spill out of its borders.
Finally, how can the United States refuse to provide social programs for its citizens if the money it collects from taxpayers, the middle class mainly, is used to support a nation that will not respect Palestinians and consider peace.
The two-state solution cannot forever be kicked down the road, nor can time be wasted on agreements that are not implemented. We cannot rewrite the past, but the future is ours and, more importantly, it is our children’s.
Nationalism is fine, but it does not justify encroachment on a neighbour’s territory.
The Elephant Clock, from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by al-Jazari (MMA, NY)
“Cowards,” says Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations is perfectly right. They are cowards! Aleppo is dying and a convoy of supplies for 78,000 persons was bombed the moment the cease fire was lifted, killing twenty persons. To make matters worse, on Tuesday, medical workers were killed. Humans, homes, and architectural gems, some a thousand years old, are being destroyed. On Wednesday, the attacks continued.
India and the Middle East are the areas where numerous Indo-European languages started to develop. Knowledge of the Near to Middle East may survive and so may a large number of people, but crimes are committed by terrorists, autocrats, and other villains against the innocent population of Syria and other nations of the Near and Middle East. This process goes on and on. Humanitarian relief is sent, but demented individuals prevent supplies from reaching their destination. No, there is no excuse for ISIL militants to behave like barbarians, nor is there any excuse for Bashar al-Assad to allow his forces to wreak havoc on Syria. He is blaming the US for the recent attacks.
As for Donald Trump, if elected to the presidency of his country, he will not allow Muslims into the United States. He has made this clear. Surely he must know that the plight of Syrians and Iraqis is genuine. If he doesn’t, shame on him! A candidate to the presidency of a country should be well informed.
A Social Contract
When the day comes, if it comes, when Donald Trump is elected to the presidency of the United States, liberty will collapse and the French will have to take the famous statue back to France: Lady Liberty. The America Mr Trump wants to see reborn is a country that will not enter into a decent social contract with its people. In all likelihood, Mr Trump will abolish the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. How can there be progress?
Every human being should be protected, from birth until death. Even the poor have the right to be treated if an illness, possibly fatal, befalls them. Insurance companies? It seems to have worked, but one has to be very careful. Insurance companies are businesses. They seek a profit. They’ll destroy your life and will not own up to what they have done. Some of you do not know my story, which I can repeat, but not now and not here. Not as I write about great atrocities and the worst of genocides.
The Armenian Genocide
A few days ago, I found information about the Armenian Genocide in a French internet publication I read regularly: Hérodote. Young Armenian women were crucified in the same manner Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Others may have discovered the same story. Information is now posted under several entries on the internet. A video has been inserted in the Wikipedia entry on the Armenian Genocide. One can see a row of crosses and young women, girls, dying.
The Armenian Genocide EN
Forced pregnancies as a violation of Human Rights
genocides
Raphael Lemkin
In 1915 in particular, the year the Armenian genocide began, young girls were also raped, some to death. Many of these young women got pregnant. It is at that time in history that forced pregnancies were first seen as a violation of Human Rights, which is precisely what they were and remain. Rape is a crime, even in wedlock.
The term genocide was coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin who lost 49 relatives in the Holocaust. The Holocaust went on for six years, which is a longer period of time than the duration of the Armenian Genocide, but it would appear that the Armenian Genocide inspired Hitler. (See Armenian Genocide and Raphael Lemkin, Wikipedia.)
Donald Trump and Torture
ISIL beheads, mutilates, burns people to death, drowns them. It enslaves, rapes, and also crucifies some of its victims. ISIL does not crucify in the same way Jesus was crucified, but at some point the victim can no longer breathe.
Donald Trump would not go that far and it could be that Mr Trump was not speaking seriously, but he did say he approved of torture. A candidate to the presidency of the United States cannot condone torture. He’s disqualified himself.
“Trump’s false pronouncements are either believed or blithely ignored by a substantial chunk of the electorate. But we’ve seen no evidence that he’s persuaded a majority. Could that change?”
(Photo credit: The New York Review of Books)
It could be that Mr Trump will be elected.
I will close here and hope a permanent ceasefire is about to be declared.
My post entitled Orientalism: Good or Bad suggested that one could no longer use the word Orientalism. It had referred to paintings created by Western artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Horace Vernet who painted in a style called academicism, art as it was taught at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. However, the word Orientalism is still used and Orientalist paintings are sold at auctions and displayed in major museum Claude Piening describes Orientalism as a “genre.”
The link above takes one to publicity (3 minutes) about an auction at Sotheby’s in London. The auction took place in 2013. The word Orientalism was used to describe works by European artists depicting the East. Il was a two-day auction. On the first day, the works of Orientalists were sold. However, on the second day, Sotheby’s auctioned off Islamic art, rather than the paintings of 19th-century Europeans or Western artists featuring the Orient. Wikipedia gives a list of Orientalist Artists. (See List of Orientalist Artists.)
However, one now speaks of Oriental Studies, which includes Egyptology and the work of William Jones (28 September 1746 – 17 April 1794), the philologist who first recognized a relationship between European anguages and Indian languages. (See Indo-European languages, Wikipedia.)
Edward Said’s Orientalism
As for the patronizing Orientalism, studied in Edward Said‘s 1978 controversial Orientalism, it exists. The many depictions of voluptuous white nudes bathing and lounging in harems are examples of Dr Said’s Orientalism. Orientalism may be clichéd and, in this respect, can be associated with colonialism.
The East: Real or Borrowed
Despite its flaws, colonialism, British colonialism in particular, had the benefit of fostering an interest in the Orient, such as William Jones’ research Napoleon lost the Battle of the Nile, but the scholars who accompanied him founded Egyptology. Colonists, mostly British, also discovered objets d’art such as netsuke(s), small Japanese carvings used on belts for men, and cloisonnés, enamel, gems or glass poured into or inserted inside little metal walls called cloisons. They also discovered fine porcelain (now called china) and sumptuous Oriental rugs. These adorned their homes and to this day beautiful rooms often display fine Oriental vases and intricate rugs.
During the 19th century, members of the Arts and Crafts Movement replicated the motifs of the East. Artists and craftsmen associated with the Arts and Crafts movement could create homes decorated to reflect the East, Near or Far, including Japan. Ukiyo-e prints flooded Europe in the second half of the 19th century inaugurating Japonism. Oriental motifs adorned wallpapers, fabric, ceramic or class tiles made in the West. One could also purchase the finest china, made in England and other European countries.
Turquerie, however, was fashionable well before the 19th century. In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople today’s Istanbul. Eastern Europe fell to the Ottoman Empire. The craze for chinoiserie also preceded the 19th century. As for Orientalism, it dates back to Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798-1801). (See French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, Wikipedia.)
Harem by Théodore Chassériau
Harem by Théodore Chassériau
Reading the Letter, Ludwig Deutsch, 1899
Courtyard of House in Cairo, Willem de Farmas Festas, 1859
Orientalist Portraiture
I have focussed on Orientalist portraiture. We have seen Horace Vernet’s portrait of Mameluke Roustam Raza and Gérôme’s portrait of a black Bashi-Basouk. Both portraits are or will be housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but although taste varies, there are objective artistic standards. One may not wish to hang a reproduction of Gérôme’s black Bashi-Basouk in one’s home, but as a work of art, Gérôme’s Bashi-Basouk is an exceptional painting.
Conclusion
Therefore, although a work of art may be clichéd, it may nevertheless be beautiful. The West has depicted the East at times successfully and, at other times, less so. In other words, the art of European painters depicting the East can be good or bad.
I have featured Horace Vernet’s Head of an Arab Man. Today’s choice is Ludwig Deutsh’s Palace Guard.
Love to everyone ♥
Sources and Resources
Unless otherwise indicated, links are to Wikipedia
Photo credit: Chassériau, Wikipedia
Deutsch & Willem de Farmas, Pinterest
Entering the Mosque by Edwin Lord Weeks, 1885 (Photo credit: thephora.net)
Eurocentrism
Edward Said
Orientalism
Eurocentrism
the Migrant Crisis
Brexit
Palestine
“Orientalism is the exaggeration of difference, the presumption of Western superiority, and the application of clichéd analytical models for perceiving the Oriental world.”
(Edward Said, Orientalism, Wikipedia)
At first sight, the post that published itself on 1 September 2016 and was returned to the status of “draft,” seemed to indicate opposition to Edward Said’s Orientalism, which I took to be the art of Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904), Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (March 3, 1803 – August 22, 1860), Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 1789 – 17 January 1863), the Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (16 March 171- 25 June 1835), Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) and others. There is a difference between my view and his, but it is not opposition.
According to Dr Said, colonialism and imperialism rested on a sense of superiority on the part of colonialists. Edward Said studied “the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism, the West‘s patronizing perceptions and fictional depictions of ‘The East.’” Orientalism, Wikipedia.)
There can be no doubt that the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 epitomizes what is now referred to as Eurocentrism, the postulate governing both colonialism and imperialism. Colonialists viewed themselves as superior to the inhabitants of the countries they had discovered and/ or conquered.
It is within the nature of Empires to rise and fall. It could be therefore that, in 1916, the Ottoman Empire was about to collapse. However, it was not for Mark Sykes, from Britain, and for François Georges-Picot, from France, to partition the Ottoman Empire and to do so before it had fallen. The Sykes-Picot Agreement violated what we now consider a right: the right of nations to determine their future, a right which, in 1916, may not have been perceived as a right.
Nativism is also Eurocentric and, in 2016, Eurocentrism should be a thing of the past. However, it has resurfaced as a result of the European Migrant Crisis. Where will Marine Le Pen send the Muslim migrants who are now entering France? She could be elected to the presidency of France in 2017. More ominous is the possible election, three months from now, of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. If Mr Trump is elected, there will be no asylum for migrant Muslims in the United States. It is Mr Trump’s view that Muslims are terrorists.
Who would have imagined, a year ago, that British Jews would exercise their right of return to Germany because of the degree of racism that seemed to underpin the unexpected Brexit leave vote? There are consequences to colonialism and to imperialism. If a nation has colonized a nation, the identity of the colonized people may reflect the identity of the citizens who rule it. During the period its territory is considered home to another nation, inhabitants of the colony are educated in the schools of the colonist. All a society needs to ask of its inhabitants, whatever their origin, is that they be law-abiding citizens. “Je suis Charlie” and “Je suis Raïf.”
For that matter, “I am Dr Said.” One does not partition a country to make room for a people who claim as theirs a land they have not inhabited for two thousand years or more. Notions such as the concepts of “promised land” and that of “chosen” people are not literal. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 supported the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people, but the Jewish homeland Britain supported was in Palestine. That is all Britain could promise. If it is the right of nations to determine their own future, the matter should have been negotiated by the people concerned: the Jews and the Palestinians.
The Holocaust
Hitler’s persecution of the Jews
the United States and World War II
the partition of Palestine
the creation of Israel 1948
Orientalism
History took a wrong turn. Adolf Hitler and his Nazis rose to power in the 1930s and in 1939, they started invading European countries. They also built concentration camps and killed 6 million Jews, most of them in gas chambers. Intervention was needed, so Winston Churchill approached US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (30 January 1882 – 12 April 1945), a truly great American.
American intervention was required both to liberate occupied Europe and to save the Jews who had survived Hitler’s concentration camps. American help was also needed to rebuild Europe. Europe had been crushed. The United States is a powerful country, but seldom was it so powerful than after World War II. The State of Israel was created and the United States, under President Harry S Truman, was the first country to recognize it as a state. Israel would enlarge its borders in 1967, during the Six-Day War. In fact, nearly 50 years later, Israel has yet to return the occupied territories it conquered during the Six-Day War. We may still have autocrats, but colonialism is over.
I can understand why Mr Said finds fault with Orientalism. Although it has produced masterpieces, Orientalism conveys a view of the Orient that is conditioned by artists whose Orient is a borrowed Orient. It is not Islamic art and it may be purely of an ornamental value. By and large, the West does not learn the East. Lawrence of Arabia was an exception.
Jean-Horace Vernet’s Head of an Arab Man, featured at the top of this post, is quite an achievement, by artistic standards. However, it is not Islamic art. It is Orientalism, a movement that followed Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt and Syria. Which takes us to Egyptology.
“An unusual aspect of the Egyptian expedition was the inclusion of an enormous contingent of scientists and scholars (“savants”) assigned to the invading French force, 167 in total. This deployment of intellectual resources is considered as an indication of Napoleon’s devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment, and by others as a masterstroke of propagandaobfuscating the true motives of the invasion; the increase of Bonaparte’s power. (See French campaign in Egypt and Syria, Wikipedia.)
L’Institut d’Égypte
the Rosetta Stone
Champollion
I realize fully that Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and Syria was motivated by his wish to hinder British trade with a more distant Orient and that France, under Napoleon wanted to annex Egypt. It wanted to enlarge its Empire. Nevertheless, although the French campaign in Egypt was mostly self-serving, I rather admire Napoleon’ caveat to his troops as they approached Alexandria. They would meet Muslims and had to be tolerant of their culture. His caveat is quoted in my last post: A Mameluke & the Napoleonic Code.
Interestingly, Napoleon took 167 scientists and scholars to the Near East and even if the discovery of the Rosetta Stone were their only finding, it was an important discovery and the stone’s ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered by Jean-François Champollion, who was a linguist whose research interest was ancient languages and whose linguistic research would lead to more research.[1]
L’Institut d’Égypte
Copies were made of the inscriptions of the Rosetta Stone were sent to various countries and a discipline was born: Egyptology. The scientists and scholars who travelled with Napoleon’s troops made several findings and, on 24 August 1798, 48 of Napoleon’s scholars met and founded l’Institut d’Égypte. As early as 22 November 1799, they decided to publish their Description de l’Égypte. The Institut d’Égypte was closed on 21 March 1801, when Napoleon returned to France.
At the time, an artefact such as the Rosetta Stone could be considered part of the spoils of wars. It was established that Napoleon had been defeated by Britain at the Battle of the Nile, fought from 1 to 3 August 1798. Therefore, under the terms of the Capitulation of Alexandria (1801), the Rosetta Stone was transported to England aboard l’Égyptienne, a frigatecaptured from the French. It was housed in the British Museum where it is still exhibited.
In Egypt, Napoleon had recruited an élite corps of soldiers whom he called the Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard. They joined his Armée d’Orientand followed Napoleon back to France. One Mamluk, Roustam Raza, a slave of Armenian descent, would be Napoleon’s bodyguard for 15 years. He had settled in France and would not follow Napoleon to Elba, where the Emperor was first exiled.
Taha Hussein
The Institut d’Égypte resumed its activities in 1836. Its scholars were English, French, German, Egyptians… Scholars from every nationality may choose Egyptology as a field of expertise. But l’Institut égyptien‘s major figure would be Egyptian scholar Taha Hussein (15 November 1889 – 28 October 1973) whose accomplishments include a book on Ibn Khaldūn (27 May 1332 – 19 March 1406). The Institut was severely damaged by a fire during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 (The Arab Spring). It is being rebuilt but some, if not many, of the documents it housed are forever lost. There may not be another copy.
As for Orientalism as subject matter or theme, the French campaign in Egypt and Syria (Wikipedia) did inspire artists, such as Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) and Horace Vernet (MMA, NY). Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867), painted the famous Grande Odalisque (Louvre). Earlier in history an oda (Turkish for room) had been a chambermaid, but Ingres’ GrandeOdalisque was a concubine, almost a secret, but she was the first of many. She may be elongated, but that is poetic licence. Among Orientalists, most had travelled to the Near East, but Ingres had not. His Grande Odalisque was the product of the imagination or Orientalisme. It was not Islamic Art.
The French campaign in Egypt and Syria also inspired musical compositions and literature. However, neither Victor Hugo‘s “Les Djinns,” nor Gustave Flaubert (12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) Salammbô, a 1862 historical novel, are Islamic literature. Gustave Flaubert, the author of Madame Bovary (1856), did visit Istanbul, in modern day Turkey, and Beirut, Lebanon, before he wrote Salammbô. At the time Salammbô was in progress, Flaubert also went to Carthage to research his historical novel. He needed information and couleur locale.
Quebec has a policy of interculturalism. It is based on the work of Martha Nussbaum and emphasizes humanity. Interculturalism involves “the recognition of common human needs across cultures and of dissonance and critical dialogue within cultures” Cultivating Humanity).[2]Humanism is precisely what Dr Said believes should be emphasized. We are all the same and it is this sameness we should recognized. Palestinians are not second-class citizens no more than Muslims in Algeria.
Conclusion
As works of art, musical compositions and literature, which is what I have shown, would not be criticized by Dr Said, not individually and not as paintings, musical compositions, and literature. All express an interest in the East. That interest can lead to a wish to understand and to accept what differs from the rest of us but only superficially. Works of art can be inspirational, including a depiction of the orient by an outsider. It may lead to an appreciation of Islamic art, which is where peace may begin.
What Dr Said bemoans is a human tragedy. Palestinians have been trivialized and they have been dispossessed. They are still, to this day, being relocated, like pawns. The exodus of Palestinians started in 1948 and, in 2003, United States President George W. Bush entered Iraq at British Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s instigation. Entering a sovereign nation is illegal, but it is also disrespectful, a human value.
Mr Said’s book, entitled Orientalism, has to do, first and foremost, with the humiliation Palestinians were subjected to when their country was partitioned and its citizens marginalized. But the more significant starting-point was the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by Britain and France. Sykes and Georges-Picot divided the spoils of war so their “spheres of influence” were protected. Countries were like pawns and the promise of a Greater Syria, made to Arabs through Lawrence of Arabia, was not reflected in the new map. As for the Balfour Declaration of 1917, it went no further than a decision to support the creation of a Jewish homeland, in Palestine.
Whatever its starting-point, l’Institut égyptien would have survived in its pristine condition as an Egyptian establishment which it had become, had rioters not thrown a Molotov cocktail through a window during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. We now have suicide bombers.
I have included two videos. One is difficult to understand and the other, too long for a post. They feature Dr Said. Dr Said may at first be difficult to understand. However he seems to be saying that ornaments, however beautiful, fall short of an understanding of the East.
I apologize for a lengthy absence. I’ve been unwell: anemia.
[1]Jean Lacouture, Champollion, une Vie de lumières (Paris: Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 1988). [2] Quoted in Beyond Bilingualism and Biculturalism (see RELATED ARTICLES)
When Napoleon arrived in Alexandria, he spoke to his troops and said:
“The peoples we will be living alongside are Muslims; their first article of faith is ‘There is no other god but God, and Mahomet is his prophet’. Do not contradict them; treat them as you treated theJews, the Italians; respect theirmuftisand theirimams, as you respected theirrabbisandbishops. Have the same tolerance for the ceremonies prescribed by the Quran, for their mosques as you had for the convents, for thesynagogues, for the religion ofMosesand that ofJesus Christ. TheRoman legionsused to protect all religions. You will here find different customs to those of Europe, you must get accustomed to them. The people among whom we are going treat women differently to us; but in every country whoever violates one is a monster. Pillaging only enriches a small number of men; it dishonours us, it destroys our resources; it makes enemies of the people who it is in our interest to have as our friends. The first city we will encounter was built byAlexander [the Great]. We shall find at every step great remains worthy of exciting French emulation.”
(See French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, Wikipedia)
When he was in Egypt, Napoleon recruited a guard made up of Mamelukes or Mamluks. Horace Vernet left us this extraordinary portrait of Roustam Raza (1783 – 7 December 1845), a Mameluke (un mamelouk) and Napoleon’s personal bodyguard from 1798 until 1814.
Roustam Raza was born to Armenian parents in Georgia. He was kidnapped and sold as a slave. He married in Dourdan, near Paris, and died in Dourdan on 7 December 1845. Raza did not follow Napoleon when he was exiled to Elba.
Raza is remembered for his memoirs of the years he had spent in the service of Napoleon.
The Napoleonic Code
As for the quotation above, it reveals a lesser-known Napoleon. Napoleon rebuilt France after the French Revolution. For instance, he restored Catholicism (see Concordat of 1801, Wikipedia) and had a civil code drawn up. He appointed a commission of four eminent jurists, including Louis-Joseph Faure who spent four years drafting the Code which went into effect in 1804. Napoleon and Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès chaired the commission. Québec’s Code Civil is based on the Napoleonic Code. Changes were made to the Napoleonic Code, but it remains France’s code civil and it has influenced legislation in a large number of countries. (See Napoleonic Code, Wikipedia.)
Sources and Resources
Les Souvenirs de Roustam Raza is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #33534] FR
Les Souvenirs de Roustam Raza is a BnF Gallica publication FR
Fantasia arabe by Eugène Delacroix, 1833 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Women of Algiers by Eugène Delacroix, 1834 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Egyptology and Orientalisme
The Rosetta Stone
There was a period of Egyptomania, just as there had been a period of turquerie. Interest in Egypt followed Napoléon’s campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798 – 1801).
Napoléon was defeated by Horatio Nelson of the British Royal Navy at the Battle of the Nile, in 1801. By then l’Armée d’Orient had spent three years in the Near East or Asia Minor and all things oriental had become immensely popular, obelisks in particular. Bonaparte’s objective was to undermine British trade with India. He failed, but, in 1799, Pierre-François Bouchard, an officer in theFrench Armydiscovered the Rosetta Stone. Egyptology was born. The Rosetta Stone was a rockstele with inscriptions in 1) Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, 2) Demotic script, a predecessor to Ancient Coptic, and 3) Greek script.
Jean-François Champollion (23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832), a French scholar, deciphered the Rosetta Stone’s Egyptian hieroglyphs. British polymath Thomas Young (13 June 1773 – 10 May 1829) had translated the Demotic script and had made some progress deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, success evaded Young.
The stone, a rock stele, had been transported to the British Museum where it is still housed. The British had defeated the French at the above-mentioned Battle of the Nile, in 1801, led by the legendary Horatio Nelson. The Rosetta Stone was therefore a British acquisition.
Deciphering: phonetic or ideographic
A main obstacle to linguists deciphering a newly found language is whether or not the symbols of the language are phonetic (sounds) or ideographic (images). In the case of the Rosetta Stone, they were both phonetic and ideographic. The Egyptian hieroglyphs were also a paraphrase rather than a translation of the Ancient Greek script. His knowledge of Ancient Greek and progress in mastering Eastern languages helped Champollion decipher hieroglyphs. He published his results in 1822. Later in the decade, after visiting Egypt, Champollion published further findings.
Rosetta Stone (National Geographic)
Obelisks
The exotic has always fascinated artists and all manner of designers. Obelisks, not to be confused with Odalisques, were plentiful and were taken by ship to Europe, or, at times, made in Europe. I have often wondered whether or not Maelzel, who invented the modern metronome in 1815, was influenced by obelisks. Mechanical metronomes are shaped like elongated pyramids. The Washington Monument is an obelisk. Many are located in Rome, Italy. has (See List of obelisks in Rome, Wikipedia.)
The Lateran Obelisk, Rome (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The largest obelisk, the Lateran obelisk, is located in Rome. When it was transported from Alexandria to Rome, it weighed 455 tons and stood at 37.2 meters (122 feet) After its collapse, a higher obelisk was built: 45.7 meters (149.9 feet). The Lateran obelisk was made for the temple of Amun in Karnak. At the very top of the rebuilt obelisk stands a crucifix, which could explain the difference in height. Most Oriental obélisques were viewed as precious and pillaged. Obelisks had several destinations and smaller ones were used in the decorative arts. Many are engraved with names or very intricate bas-reliefs.
Obélisque de Paris, gravure (Photo credit: Le Point.fr)
Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a Romantic painter as well as a lithographer. Lithographs are copies and therefore more affordable than an original painting. Movement is a main characteristic of Delacroix paintings and it suggests passion. The Romantics expressed their sentiments. Such paintings as the Massacre at Chios and the Death of Sardanapalus convey despair. The Massacre at Chios depicts Greek survivors of a massacre awaiting to be taken as prisoners or slaves. The enslavement of prisoners was a common fate after a victory and they could remain captives for many years, if a ransom were not paid. Before committing suicide, having suffered a final defeat, Sardanapalus has eunuchs kill his concubines.
It is said, however, that in real life Delacroix controlled his passions: reason over passion. He was with near certainty an illegitimate son of the very famous Talleyrand, a Prince and, arguably, the most powerful man in France. He was Napoleon’s éminence griseand may have orchestrated his defeat at Waterloo.Talleyrand is also the man behind the Congress of Vienna (1815), an event foretelling of such partitioning as the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
As for Delacroix, the leader of the French Romantics, his father protected him discreetly and promoted his career. After Talleyrand’s death, Delacroix was the protégé of the Duke of Morny, Talleyrand’s grandson.
Delacroix early in his career (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Conclusion
I intended to show the art of several Orientalists, one of whom is Delacroix who actually travelled to the Near East. My favourite orientalist is Jean-Léon Gérôme, but there are gems among Horace Vernet’s paintings and the artwork of other Orientalists. Orientalism crossed the English Channel and grew into an inspiration to members of the Aesthetic Movement, next to Japonism. The Orient became affordable as a decorative art.
In 2011, art critic Julia Cartwright exclaimed:
“There are lovely things at every turn, Persian potteries, hangings of every variety, cabinets and rugs. I fell in love with a sunflower paper at fourpence ha’penny a yard.”
(The Guardian)
Love to everyone♥
Massacre at Chios, 1824
Death of Sardanapalus, 1827
Arab Saddling his Horse, 1855
Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable,1860
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, 1826 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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