The Arab Mind

by Raphael Patai, Norvell B. De Atkine (Foreword by)

The classic study of Arab culture and society is now more relevant than ever. Since its original publication in 1983, the revised edition of Raphael Patai's The Arab Mind has been recognized as one of the seminal works in the field of Middle Eastern studies. This penetrating analysis unlocks the mysteries of Arab society to help us better understand a complex, proud and ancient culture. The Arab Mind discusses the upbringing of a typical Arab boy or girl, the intense concern with honor and courage, the Arabs' tendency toward extremes of behavior, and their ambivalent attitudes toward the West. Chapters are devoted to the influence of Islam, sexual mores, Arab language and Arab art, Bedouin values, Arab nationalism, and the pervasive influence of Westernization. With a new foreword by Norvell B. DeAtkine, Director of Middle East Studies at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg, N.C., this book unravels the complexities of Arab traditions and provides authentic revelations of Arab mind and character. A later printing. from 2007, contains a revised foreword by Norvell DeAtkine but is otherwise identical to this, 2002, edition.

Genres: Middle East, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, Islam

466 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Raphael Patai (Hebrew רפאל פטאי; born Ervin György Patai, was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer, historian, Orientalist and anthropologist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael...

Reviews

[محمد سعيد · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very unscientific, biased and full-of-lies-book. I am really astonished at how the author claimed living between Arabs, yet most of what he talks about is nonsense. I will try to make my review as short as possible, but i want to indicate something that no one talked about; Patai was Jewish, he lived in the time of Arab-Israeli conflicts, so i can't trust him a bit, and it's understandable that he might sided with Israel, but come on, why relying on his account while i have much better books (Arabs: A Japanese perspective & A World without Islam). Now let me start :

01. Mothers don't caress their sons' penises, this is a twisted and hideous idea i don't know where he got it from.
02. His obsession with Bedouin life-style and values and elevating them over Islam are grave errors. Pre-Islam Bedouins used to bury their daughters, i don't see that happen now.
03- Arab men are circumcised in front of their brides? really? who does the circumcision? The bride i assume! Not true at all. Circumcision are done on the first week after the boy is born.
04- Sexual Hospitality? Now for God's sake who would believe such crap? Arabs are known to be jealous on their women and care for women's dignity. another error.
05- The relying on folk aphorisms and cliches to paint a wide spectrum with a single brush.
06- Arabs are aware that the majority of Muslims are not Arabs. Ask any primary schools student and hewill tell you the biggest Muslim country is Indonesia..The author lied again.
07- Sex is not a bad thing to Arabs, if it was how the hell did they come to existence? Wi-Fi signals?. What we consider bad is pre-marital sex, because it destroys societal foundations and spread adultery and fornication.
08- There's nothing called Arab culture, it must be Arab "cultures".. The Egyptian Arab's culture was formed by many aspects (Pharonic + Coptic + Arabic + whether Northern city dweller, or Middle and Delta peasants or Oasis Bedouins or Southern Tribal..etc).. Then you have The Saudi's culture (Hijaz, Najd, or Tohama..coastal or inland, city or desert..etc. The same with Syrian's culture (Bedouin or city dweller or peasant. coastal or inland "sharing borders with Turkey or Iraq..Sunni Muslim or Shiite..etc. The North African Berber aspect of culture differs from the Byzantine and Persian influences in the Levant. I can go on and on and on. But that's enough for this point.
09- Arab men's honor doesn't rely on women's behavior, yes it does some damage, but honor is apparent in many other aspects (i.e. never hit a woman, never spy on people, do your best when you have guests "extreme hospitality", never be treacherous, respect your word, never lose heart, defend your family..etc.
10- Sex is not humiliation, on the contrary, Arabs want to marry in an early age, because they respect their women and don't want to do them any harm.
11- I agree with him that there's an obvious hypocrisy in the behavior of "some" Arab men when they have pre-marital sex but forbid their sisters to do the same. For my part i am 29 and i have never had sex before, not even a kiss because i want to get married and see that later, also i make sure that none of my two sisters does anything like that, and the best thing is that i don't have to give them advice as they know that it's in their best interest. I wrote that not to brag but to tell people reading this that i am not a unique guy, all my neighbors, friends _save a few of them_ and relatives didn't have sex before marriage. It's so common that people save themselves till after marriage.
12- After accusations of being racist, the author made a book about the Jewish mind, did he exposed the Jews? no way, he criticized them for what? guess! : Over-working, being genius, and a little bit alcoholic..yeah that's right, that was his critique..Awesome.

I got tired of writing all these, but believe me it's a worthless book, it's only use could be to study how propaganda against certain people works.

If you need a respected un-biased book on Muslims and of course Arab Mind, Check Graham Fuller's "A World without Islam" it explains nearly everything on the subject and the best thing is that it was written by a man who studied Middle-East and Islam and worked for the CIA as an adviser, so he knows what he talks about.

[Charles Haywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking at other reviews of “The Arab Mind,” it appears readers divide into two camps. The first group, for whom ideology matters more than reality, hate this book. The second group, largely military, for whom their lives depend on an accurate perception of reality, love this book. This divergence alone suggests the book is worth reading.

“The Arab Mind” was once an obscure book by an obscure man. Its rise to semi-prominence began in 2004, when during the Iraq War the American military, desperately short of soldiers who knew anything about Arab culture, but desperately needing to insert thousands of soldiers into that culture, began (informally) distributing the book to officers. To all accounts, the book was extremely useful to those officers.

However, the book also came in for a great deal of criticism, led by agitprop artist Seymour Hersh, because it is not politically correct. It dispassionately analyzes Arab culture, and offers a clear roadmap for interacting with that culture. But it also recognizes that Arab culture is very different from American and Western culture, and in some ways inferior. This dispassionate analysis does not serve the ends of the social justice warrior crowd, so they cry racism.

The irony of all this is that Patai actually is very sympathetic to Arabs. He likes Arabs and Arab culture. He lived for decades in Jerusalem (pre-Israel). And, in fact, his conclusions about Arab culture (he last updated the book in 1983, shortly before he died, though it was first published in 1976) are generally quite optimistic about the future of Arabs and Arab culture. If you actually read his book, you see that Patai is far from anti-Arab. But you have to read the book.

There’s the rub. It’s entirely obvious that most or all of those who criticize the book haven’t read it. The critics never have any specifics—they object to the very idea that Arab culture could be perceived as anything but wonderful in all regards. These critics are the people who are slaves to the multicultural ideal, which in brief is that no culture is better in any way than any other, except that all cultures are superior to evil Western/Christian culture. Closely tied to this “ideal” is oppression theory—that cultures and peoples deemed to be oppressed by the West are necessarily particularly virtuous. Because any objective observer can easily discern a range of problems and defects in Arab culture, cognitive dissonance results—given that Arabs are presumed to be and have been oppressed by Western colonialism/imperialism/racism, how can they be anything but perfect and wonderfully virtuous? Because the answer is “they can’t be,” therefore scholars like Patai must be liars. No need to read any books or address any arguments! More time to join the latest howling low-information Twitter mob!

The major criticism of Patai is always variants of “there is no such thing as ‘the Arab mind’—that’s racist and ignores that people are different.” The reality is that Patai is extremely careful to repeatedly note that he is merely drawing a picture of the Arab “modal personality.” (“Modal” is a much better chosen word than “average” would have been.) He emphasize that this involves generalizations of qualities that contain many variations among individuals. Patai exhaustively demonstrates that Arabs themselves have always held that there is a common Arab approach to some things (as any culture has), for example: “As can be seen from these quotes from Maqrizi, educated Arabs in the fourteenth and fifteenth century were well aware, not only of the existence of an Arab national character, but also of the character differences between the Arab peoples inhabiting different countries.” One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how Patai uses historical Arab sources to buttress his own conclusions, from Ibn Khaldun on forward.


So the criticisms are misplaced. In fact, what’s apparent is that other authors on this topic who actually spend any time with Arabs, even those who loathe Patai, agree with Patai. You can see that Patai is largely or totally correct in his general conclusions about Arabs by comparing his analysis to the bizarrely awful book “Understanding Arabs,” by Margaret Nydell. That book, which is pushed as an alternative to Patai’s for soldiers and diplomats, says the exact same things about Arabs that Patai does. The difference is that Nydell’s entire book is an attempt to excuse that behavior and to excoriate America and Americans. Patai (writing in 1976) was merely interested in objectivity; Nydell in propaganda. But the facts they offer the reader are close to identical.

For example, Nydell says “Arabs consciously reserve the right to look at the world in a subjective way, particularly if a more objective assessment of a situation would bring to mind a too-painful truth.” This is exactly the same thing Patai says, though in different words. When Nydell leaves off her propaganda and gets around to actually talking about “Arab values,” friendship, emotion, male/female relationships, social structure and formalities, and so forth, she in essence says the same things as Patai, though in less detail. Patai and Nydell also address improvidence, predestination, the tendency to substitute words for action, violence of words, control of temper, etc. (Later sections of Patai’s book address more technical subjects that Nydell doesn’t, such as the Arab approach to decorative arts, literature, and music. Patai also addresses what to Westerners are obscure points like what is apparently a very large and very important cultural difference between Arabs from the north and south of the Arabian peninsula, so-called dual descent, either Qays or Yaman.)

Another important point to make when reading and analyzing Patai is that he focuses relatively little on Islam. Nowadays, Islam gets all the ink in the West, for obvious reasons. But in Patai’s analysis, Islam is important, but largely subordinate in the formation of the Arab mind to Bedouin culture and the idolization of Bedouin culture. Patai also carefully distinguishes “Arab” from “Muslim,” and criticizes other authors who don’t (including many Arabs and Muslims). “Bravery and manliness, hospitality and generosity, and the honor syndrome, all pre-Islamic concepts of Bedouin origin, are the dominant concerns. Yet, with one exception, none of them is part of the ethical system of the Koran; and conversely (again with the same exception), none of the ethical teachings of the Koran have developed into a dominant feature in the actual Arab ethics of virtue.” Patai further addresses sexual behavior and how Bedouin values play into sexual shame, particularly familial shame, in way that leads to behavior like honor killings of female relatives perceived as lacking sexual virtue. (He is not remotely obsessed with Arab sexual behavior, contrary to occasional criticisms, but he does discuss it, as he should.)

Occasionally the book shows its age, though generally its analysis is timeless. For example, Patai states “The days of religious wars between Christians and Muslims (although not between Muslims and Hindus) are gone.” He was wrong about that, and Samuel Huntington was right about Islam’s bloody borders. But then, Patai, as I say, was very positive about the Arab future, in a way that has not been borne out in the past three decades. For example, he extensively addresses, positively, the question of Arab unity and its implication for the Arab future, primarily through a theoretical discussion buttressed by behaviors during Arab/Israeli conflicts during the 1960s and 1970s. Contrary to his hopes, though, Arab unity has declined greatly, with the fragmentation of nation-states brought by the Arab Spring, and the rise of crypto-Kharijites like ISIS.

One point about the Kindle version—it literally makes the frequent Arabic phrases that Patai uses unreadable. Weird symbols like apples are substituted for Arabic characters. It’s not critical unless you speak Arabic, I suppose (which I certainly don’t), but it does sharply detract from reading the book on the Kindle.

If you’re interested in the Middle East, reading clear-eyed analyses like Patai is important. We, and our government officials, soldiers, businesspeople and diplomats, do ourselves no favors by deliberately blinding ourselves to reality, both its ugly and its pretty faces. Ignoring reality is the luxury of an opulent society. A short-lived luxury, usually, if history is any guide.

[Kameel Nasr · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book became a standard text for American foreign service employees after it came out in the 1970s and is responsible for distorting America's relationship with the Arab world. In a word, the book is racist. It globs together hundreds of millions of people in a series of cliches and distortions. If the book was about any other ethnic group, African Americans, Roman Catholics, Latinos, there would be a thousand condemnations. Gore Vidal said that America never got it right with its intervention in the Arab world, and one reason is this very flawed work.

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

While at times it gets a bit academic, overall, this is an outstanding reference for those trying to gain a better understanding of Arab culture and society and the drivers and influences behind them. I enjoyed this book a great deal and found its information absolutely fascinating.

[Hassan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would not help you to understand Arab but rather judge them. It Also assume there is one Arab mind

[Wissam El Cheikh Hassan · Rating 1 out of 5]

It started somewhat interestingly with good historical and social contextual analysis of the Arabs. At some point after about a third of the book it seems the writing just starting putting words next to each other without any sense about Arabs., particularly images of mothers' caressing their sons' penises, or Arab men being circumcised in front of their brides, and a whole chapter on sexual hospitality where men would offer their wives to their guests. As a work of sexual fantasy it might be a mediocre read, but nothing more.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this before living in Saudi Arabia for two years (1983-1985). Was an invaluable preparation for the different thought processes I'd find. I found more diversity among Saudis than the book led me to expect, but it was right on in the different vector between Western and Middle Eastern thought.

I rated it three because it was not then a very readable text. Hopefully accessibility has improved in later editions.

No, I can't explain it in a few sentences. You need to read the book.

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a detailed anthropological study of the Arab race, Raphael has indeed done a pretty thorough job. He has demonstrated the Arab conscience, both internal and external in great detail with countless examples from the current history. Questions like why Western colonists are hated so much more than the Ottomons who colonized all of the Arab countries far longer, the Arab relationship with modernity, its treatment of women, episodes of sudden and inexplicable emotional outbursts are adequately covered by numerous examples from arabic literature.

I would highly recommend this valuable book to any one interested in the Arabic race.

[Robert Krenzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book about a year and a half prior to my first deployment to Iraq. I read it again prior to my second deployment, which had me embedded in an Iraqi unit. This book is not the absolute last word on the subject, but it is a useful introduction to Arab psychology and culture.
There are some bits that may be a bit overdone, but I will admit to experiencing things in Iraq that made me think, "Oh, THAT'S what Patai was talking about!" Perhaps I was just that ignorant, but this book inspired me to study, to read, and to learn. I still have quite a lot to learn, but "The Arab Mind" was an excellent starting point.

[William Meadow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating intellectual exercise but should be read while keeping in mind that there have been significant shifts in the Arab world since its writing, and that Rafael Patai is not himself Arabic. While his close observation of Arabic people he lived amongst has value, it is still the perspective of an outsider.

[Leib Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review
"The Arab Mind"
5/5 stars
"The detailing of a VERY different conceptual space"

*******
Of the book

-322 pps/20 chapters= 20pps/chapter
-587 point citations for 322 pages of text.1.8/per (=well sourced)
-10 hours of reading time

This book is just a little bit too busy.

Preface to the 1976 edition, one to the 1983 edition, and then another full preface on a personal note; At the end, we have a 1983 postscript that consists of 8 parts and 46 pages. And then TWO appendices after that, one about the judgment of historians Spengler and Toynbee and the other--a comparison of the Arab world and Spanish America.

It must be clear that this author was actually someone who:

1. Lived in Arab countries for many years--not merely an armchair academic. (He puts me in mind if somebody like Eric Harper or Ernest vanDenhaag.)

2. Spoke and taught Arabic in what later became the State of Israel. (The author is deceased, and he was born in such a way that he was teaching Arabic in the 1930s; also, a lot of his observations are from before the '70s, and so they are out of date with respect to demographic numbers. But, a lot of what he says still makes sense in the present day).

3. Completed two PhDs

4. Portrayed the Arabs actually very sympathetically, but a lot of what he observes people will find unflattering--Which does not make it any less true.

*******
This book was originally published in 1973, revised in 1983, and republished in 2002. (Author died in 1996.)

In spite of its age, I think it is still worth reading because:

1. It was written just before it became fashionable to assume that all human beings are the same and all cultures are equal in every way and it is "racism" to say anything otherwise; lot of failed initiatives and blood and treasure have been wasted going to places and assuming that the Arabs are tabula rasa.

2. It is a snapshot of what a perceptive observer saw at that time. (And perceptive observers are a rare thing.)

3. Some of what is written here is testable; some of it may be explanation that has stood the test of time.

*******
Second order thoughts, first:

1 It seems like when you study great civilizations, they have a lot of resonances to each other.

a. It seems like, by this book, the Arab civilization has a Bedouin/tribal substrate. And in Arab eyes, they are the things to be emulated. (India is a society with an Aboriginal substrate and a superstructure created by invasions from 20 centuries ago. )

b. China is a society with a glorious past that they keep replaying over and over because in their mind, the perfect days were in the past at some indeterminate point. And that seems to be the exact same thing that is repeating itself in the Arab world. It feels like they have a very schizophrenic relationship with modernity.

c. Closed civilizations have a VERY HARD time with the fact that they are not the center of the world once they wake up. (Japan only found out the emperor was not Divine in 1945; China/The Middle Kingdom only became aware that it was not in the center of the world around 1979.)

2. Surprisingly, Arabs in the United States have some of the highest rates of interracial marriage--but WHITE/ASIAN ONLY. (Andrzej Kulcycyzski: over 80% of them have non-Arab spouses, and by the third generation only 1% of them are married to each other.) Their interfaith marriage is 39%.

3. The section on "unity and conflict" was very eye-opening. I couldn't even pull all of the good quotes out of it because they were so many, and I think the upshot is: factionalism and protracted and bloody antagonisms are idiosyncratically Arab and pre-Islamic.

They do not depend on any colonial power or, indeed, anything except the Arabs themselves. If it was not *these* two factions fighting against each other, it would just be *those* two.

4. Intra-Arab fighting used to be mostly/symbolic ceremonial, and with a minimum of bloodshed; but the addition of Western weapons has made them much more deadly than they would otherwise have been.

5. The book was written at a time when the number of children per Arab woman was 9; today, it is just barely over 3. Dramatic improvements in primary and tertiary education have been observed.

*******
For brevity, I will present direct quotes from two sources:

1. Arabic proverbs/Quotes from other authors;

2. The most striking observations of the author, as direct quotes.

*******
>>>Proverbs:

(p.28) Character impressed by the mother's milk cannot be altered by anything but death.

(p.44) I against my brothers; I and my brothers against my cousins; I and my cousins against the world.

(p.85) Blood demands blood.

(p.155) Labor for This World of yours is if you were to live forever; and labor for the Other World of yours as if you were to die tomorrow.

(p.117) The shared kettle does not boil.

(p.117) Better a mat of my own than a house shared.

(p.134) Whenever a man and a woman meet, the devil is the third.

(p.263) [Edward Atiyah] Until 1798, when Napoleon set foot on Egyptian soil, the Arabs were still living in the Middle Ages.

(p.265) They live in a splendid past as an escape from the miserable present.

(p.297) Piety and virtue lie in obedience and conformity, while nothing is more repugnant than change and innovation.

(p.302) [Hans Tütsch] Proud peoples with a weak ego structure tend to interpret difficulties on their life path as personal humiliations and get in tangled and endless lawsuits or through themselves into the arms of extremist political movement.

>>>Author:

(p.29) A man who has only girl children is derided as an abu banat ("father of daughters").

(p.31) A boy is breastfed for 2 to 3 years; a girl, for one to two.

(p.34) This comforting and soothing of the baby boy often takes the form of handling his genitals.

(p.14) The world, in the traditional Arab view is divided into two parts: "House of Islam," and an outer one, "House of War."

(p.36) In the meantime clashes occur, and with them comes the bitter taste of the father's heavy hand, the rod, the strap, and at least among the most tradition-bound Bedouin tribes, the saber and the dagger whose cut or stab is supposed, beyond punishing the disobedient son, to harden him for his future life.

(p.67) The intention of doing something, or the plan of doing something, or the initiation of the first step toward doing something - - any one of these can serve as a substitute for achievement and accomplishment.

(p.75) This means, of course, that to the mind of Muhammad, The Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt (13th century BCE) and the foundation of Xtianity were practically simultaneous events. [Talks about the use of aspect in Arabic, as opposed to tense.]

(p.79) Among the Arabs, with their typical ahistoricity, the heroic age is actually timeless.

(p.91) By practicing hospitality lavishly, one "whitens" one's "face," that is, one's reputation; contrarywise, a show of inhospitality can "blacken" one's face.

(p.98) The most preferred marriage is that between children of two brothers.

(p.94) A number of games are voluntarily engaged in by adolescent boys in which their courageous tested. Lashings are administered to them or their arms are burned with pieces of duracaine or cigarettes or cut with a knife..... The most painful form of the circumcision is performed among some Arab tribes in the Hijaz and Asir, where the skin of the entire male organ is removed, as well as the skin of its environs on the belly and inner thigh.

(p.89) Bedouin values: hospitality, generosity, courage, honor, self-respect.

(p.155) There is belief in innumerable demons and spirits jinnis, ghouls, ifrit, the evil eye, as well as belief in and ritual worship of numerous saints who, especially at their tomb sanctuaries, wield great supernatural power.

(p.195) The second type of bilingualism is found in all parts of the Arab world.... of literary Arabic and local colloquial dialects.

(p.193) By 1971, more than 2 million Algerian students were learning French, a figure never even remotely approached during the period when Algeria was an integral part of France. (8.8 million as of 2024.)

(p.191) In fact.... There is an almost direct correlation between the degree of cultural and linguistic assimilation to the west and the intensity of anti-western feelings.

(p.182) Arab music is not tempered, and is based on quarter tones, 24 of which constitute an octave..... What western music considers as harmony is regarded in Arab musical tradition as dissonance ... Arab music is in its entirety modal and possesses dozens of modes. (Wow! So THAT'S why their music sounds like that!)

(p.181) Just as the decorative frieze has no beginning and no end, but simply starts and ends according to the space to which it is applied, so the Arab musical frieze fills the available stretch of time and is characterized throughout by the same level of emotion sustained unchanged from beginning to end.

(p.179) Having foresworn the use of animal in human figure even as a decorative motif, Arab art was left with only three elements...... The plant motif, the geometric motif, and the Arabic script.

(p.216) This idea of the national unity of all Arabs is a very new concept.

(p.144) Only in the outlying areas..... has homosexuality come out into the open with the sheikhs and the well to do men lending their sons to each other.

(p.229) According to tradition, one of the two original ancestors was Qathan, progenitor of all the South Arabian tribes, and the other was Adnan, ancestor of all the North Arabian tribes..... The Southern tribes are considered the true Aboriginal Arab stock, while the Northern tribes are considered merely Arabized peoples.

(p.251) Such willingness to go through the procedures of mediation again and again can only be understood as a conditioned reflex based on the reliance on mediation for countless generations.... The persistent Arab refusal to meet in direct talks with Israel can be considered as a case in point. It appears that in this instance, too, Arab behavior reflects the old tradition of considering the mediator conditio sine qua non for resolving the conflict without loss of face, while the direct peace negotiations, insisted upon by Israel, remain for them a psychological impossibility to accept.

(p.291) In historical perspective, the Arabs see the West as a young disciple who has overtaken and left behind his first world master, medieval Arab civilization. Now it is the turn of the Arabs to sit at the feet of their former pupil, a role which is beset by emotional difficulties.

(p.321) It is a psychological law that people nurture a greater hatred toward those who have been their inferiors in the past and then succeed in outdistancing them, than toward those who proved their superiority from the very first moment of their encounter.

(p.328) Turning our attention to the traditional components of the air personality, we find that they fall into two main categories: a pre-Islamic Bedouin substratum.... and the Islamic component, superimposed on the first one and often merging with it imperceptibly.

Verdict: Strongly recommended. I feel bad that I waited 7 years to read it.

*******

Vocabulary:

thawb
abā
abu banaāt
kūfiyya
iqāl
khamsa
muruwwa
razzia
bedizen
fellahin (Egyptian peasant)
mubazzira (female female circumcision/infibulation expert)
moiety
summum bonnum

Quotes

(Ibn Khaldūn, p.20): "Arabs can gain control only over flat territory.... On account of their Savage nature the Arabs are people who plunder and cause damage. Eventually the civilization they conquer is wiped out."

[د.نادر الملاح · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd say this is one of the few books I've seen written about Arabs by a non-Arab person, but in a fair and well explained manner. I might not really agree with all things brought in by the author in this book, however, I do accept them as being "what he sees and believes", especially with the fact that those view are presented by the author mostly with some supportive evidence.

This book has been recognized as one of the seminal works in the field of Middle Eastern studies. This penetrating analysis unlocks the mysteries of Arab society to help us better understand a complex, proud and ancient culture.

The book discusses the upbringing of a typical Arab boy or girl, the intense concern with honor and courage, the Arabs' tendency toward extremes of behavior, and their ambivalent attitudes toward the West. Chapters are devoted to the influence of Islam, sexual mores, Arab language and Arab art, Bedouin values, Arab nationalism, and the pervasive influence of Westernization.

[Wachlin007 Hotmail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about Arab culture. It is written by a non-Arab who has spent his lifetime studying the Arabic language and culture. The author has lived in the Middle East for extensive periods of time and has many Arab friends. I found it to be an enlightening book. He uses many historical examples to explain why Arabs are who they are and do what they do.

[Janna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I selected this book as research material for my next novel. Wow. What thorough insight into the Arab psyche. I encourage all Americans to read this book. It explains a lot of things that confused me about US/Arab relations. This book is not for entertainment, but it kept me engrossed.

[Natassia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough guide to the cultural differences between the West and the Middle East. As about as non biased as you will find and it cites a wealth of research.

[Rania A · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one racist, biased, and narrow-minded output. Avoid this book like the plague.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patai has a lot of insight on common patterns in Arab society, but it's a bit like he's telling Westerners "what's wrong with those people."

[Robin Rosenblatt]

A first source book to help each of us understand Arab Culture the is the complete opposite of Western culture. Personal relations in the Arab world. Between Arabs. I first read the book after two years in the Israeli Army 1973. Served in Gaza and Sinai. The book explains why Arab adults asked me to shoot their children.

On patrol in Jabalya, a small city in Gaza

While patrolling a side street with 3 three other soldiers we had a group of 20 to 30, 7 to 8 year old Arab children following after us throwing mud and stones at us, never very accurately or forcefully. They would also as small children do, run close to us tempting us to catch them. They were very fast and we seldom caught them. When we did the sergeant would tell them in Arabic, “ You should be ashamed of yourself, why are you not in school”. I didn’t think he was bridging the culture gap.

One afternoon while patrolling that same street, we had the normal bunch of kids behind us. We found it was far easier to ignore them rather then catch them. But, on that day we passed a coffee house were several male Arab adults were sitting. They saw what the children were doing and began to yell at them, the children yell back. This went back and forth several times an escalated to trading insults.

Then the adults told us in Arabic and gestured to us to shoot the children. These children were related and known to these adults. After the patrol, I check with the sergeant, who spoke Arabic, not believing what I saw. He confirmed to me, that the adults had told us to shoot their children.

I don’t understand how anyone can live peacefully next-door to neighbors like that.

Robin Rosenblatt, M.Sc. Animal Science, former Israeli Soldier and Past Anti Terrorist Agent
The Israel Longhorn Project
Nonprofit 501(c) 3 #74-3177354
7777 Bodega Ave. S-107
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Tele: 650.631.9270 / cell: 650.339.0269 / 03-722-6108
robin@longhornproject.org
http://longhornproject.org

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly practical book, in the line of ethnographic study of Alphonse de Custine and Alexis de Tocqueville. I would be very happy if I find a similar book analyzing the personality of a typical Chinese or Indonesian. This is a sharp and observant take on what constitutes a typical Arab personality, with all its stereotypes, but you can't deny its truth. I used to wonder when reading history books about the Arab-Israeli conflict (mainly 1948, 67, and 73) and used to be absolutely puzzled with the Arab response to their defeats. Why refuse to acknowledge and analyze one's defeat? For instance, right after the Israeli Air Force wiped out the majority of the Egyptian and Syrian air force, Egypt Air Force's leader Field Marshall Amer and President Nasser understood what happened, but instead told their ally King Hussein of Jordan that they were attacked by American and British aircrafts (!) so as to rationalize their defeat, and to claim that they have won a great victory. Why this need to save face? Why instead of trying to solve the problems of their country, for so many years they project it instead to the Imperialists (America and Israel)? This book gives a plausible explanation, one that an Arab might not necessarily agree or like because it is sometimes damning, and perhaps guilty of bias and 'orientalism'. However, this book's usage by US forces during the Iraq war probably attests to its accuracy of observation. It made me realize that to write a book of this kind, it is best to have an outsider of a culture to write it.

[Costangeles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book, which helped me understand the Arab culture much better. Even though Raphael Pati exposed and described all of the elements that make up their culture very well, I personally think that is very hard, if not impossible, for an European (Western citizen) to understand the Arabs completely. I lacked in understanding and emphasizing with a lot of things, that's why I'm giving only 4 stars to this book

Overall, the book is very well written and you can read it very fast. I finished it in one day, because it's super interesting and it makes you want to read more and more.

[Romi Elnagar]

This book is widely considered to be extremely racist. If a book entitled, "The Negro Mind," about all Africans AND African-Americans were to be published, it would almost certainly be castigated as racist, especially if it described behaviors of tribes in the Congo and generalized those behaviors as description of ANYONE with any African descent.

The idea that Patai "likes" Arabs is exactly equivalent to the claim of white Southern racists that THEY "like" blacks, and therefore cannot possibly be racist.

[Nesreen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is full of racist tropes and is wildly out of touch with reality. It was written by a Zionist man raised by a Zionist family, and that is very much the intentional lens it serves. It portrays Arabs in such a light that the average and majority western reader would be able to dehumanize Arabs, deidentify with Arabs, and create enough cognitive dissonance to excuse, or desire, Arabs and Muslims to be expelled as immigrants and refugees, or dead. Read it for yourself and decide what you think, what you feel.

[Gabriel Kaufman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dennis Prager listed this book as one of the books that has changed his life. Although, I'm certain that this book altered my past two weeks, I don't think it will affect me for decades to come. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a general overview of the Near-East, but I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a pleasant, fun, and exciting read.

[Yara]

This book was read by the monsters who were behind Abu Ghraib´s prison scandals. It is also one of the reasons that motivated Edward Said to write his book: Orientalism. Therefore, reading this book will allow me to have a glimpse of the minds of the Orientalists and the foreign agents deployed to the Middle East.

[Nicholas Sterling · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes arabs tick

Eye opening on Arab development from childhood and customs and character and interactions within Arab and non Arab peoples. Recommended

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

very insightful

[Henrik Öhman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremt lärorik, och ger en grundläggande förståelse för både delar av världspolitiken och lokala Svenska strukturer!

[Mohd.Shiraz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full of Oriental stereotypes based on "Beleive me, I lived there".

[Jinnie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purchased from my local library sale. I read 1/2 of this book but I'm going to call it "finished" because I read the part that was really directed at laypersons, and do not feel a need to read the highly-scholastic last half. Also, I checked with a friend who is (a) former Christian converted to Islam and (b) a religious scholar/professor, to make sure this book is considered credible and not too far to either end of the political spectrum - and she concurred that it has an acceptible reputation. SO, I found this book very fascinating and also enlightening. Learned some specifics about how males are favored over females from birth (much higher levels of attnetion, responseness, and touch) and the ways it impacts their development and societal treatment. Learned that features of the language (many fewer verb tenses than in English) impact the way they think, speak, and are interpreted. Learned the assumptions about womens' sexuality (that they are insatiable and cannot control themselves) that influences the societal seperation of the sexes, and how it also serves as something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Learned how the Bedoin (desert-dweller) history and lore creates the meme of HONOR that is so important. I was surprised to discover the extent to which these insights made it possible for me to UNDERSTAND (although still not excuse or approve of) things that seem so extreme about the culture - for instance, the killing of a daughter whose sexual behavior has "shamed" the family - and the statements we hear from personal friends or national leaders that sound like "threats" but may not really be. (I briefly dated an Arab and recognized things from that experience, and was able to re-interpret them with this new information.) It made me wish that we all had a glimpse into this information, because I truly believe it could broaden our understanding of and ability to build productive relationships with people who otherwise seem so different from ourselves. I recommend this book to anyone who shares that interest in cultural understanding and relationship building.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I consider this book to represent one academic's overview/analysis of an entire people group that is difficult to define. The author admits that a lot of oversimplification and generalization has to be assumed to attempt the conclusions he draws. I read this book looking to better understand the culture of the Middle East, and it does provide a lot of background cultural information. I assume that this book is already somewhat or very out-of-date, and I would absolutely have to defer to the people I know from that part of the world to educate me on their culture, world view, etc. Reading this book also really highlighted how deficient I am in the history of the Middle East, especially modern history. I have a lot more study to do!