If Ideas falls short, it is because of its heavy reliance upon secondary sources, some of which are quite dated. Also, errors appear that could have been avoided if the book had been authored by a team of subject-matter experts. For example, according to Watson, Muslims believe that Muhammad’s “only miracle was the Qur’an,” that “the Qur’an does specify that one of the duties of Islam is to keep pushing back the geographical boundaries that separate dar al-Islam … from the dar al-harb,” and that “in Arabic, beauty implies ‘delectation’ rather than the Platonic idea of moral good.” These are serious errors. Whole books were compiled listing the Prophet’s miracles; the terms dar al-Islam and dar al-harb do not appear anywhere in the Qur’an, they are the later inventions of jurisconsults; and the Arabic root H-S-N implies both the good and the beautiful.

A more serious shortcoming of the book is its at times caustically anti-religious bias. In a revealing interview with the New York Times, Watson was asked what he thought was the single worst human idea. He responded, “Without question, ethical monotheism. The idea of one true god … I lead a perfectly healthy, satisfactory life without being religious. And I think more people should try it.” His response would not be problematic had it remained a private conviction, but it emerges throughout his work, detracting from its objective tone. In a section on Ancient Israel, for example, he goes to great length— allocating two whole pages —to question the historicity of the Biblical patriarchs, and though he admits that “there is of course an opposing argument which is argued equally robustly,” he allocates only a third of a page to it. Throughout the work, religious experience is generally presented as inauthentic. The Israelites, he writes, “probably borrowed” prophecy from the Canaanites. That certain miracles attributed to Jesus in the Qur’an are found elsewhere in the Christian Apocrypha, “throws a glimmer of light on the books available to Muhammad in the 7th century,” suggesting that Muhammad, not God, was the author of the Qur’an. Such judgments are out of place in a work ostensibly about the ideas themselves and belie a materialistic worldview best separated from scholarship.

These caveats aside, the work is still highly recommended for its breadth, usefulness and readability. The vision of the world presented by a history of ideas is a porous one, in which knowledge and invention cross state borders though their progenitors may not. It is also a cooperative one. No modern discovery can be said to be the work of any one civilization. When America went to the moon, so too did the Hindus, Arabs, Greeks and Chinese. In an age preoccupied with “the clash of civilizations,” this is an important lesson—and Watson’s Ideas an important book to hold on to.

ART

WORD INTO ART: ARTISTS OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

by Venetia Porter [British Museum Press, 144pp., 2006]

Review by LUCIEN DE GUSIE
Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia

There are many surprises with this catalog. The first is that there was even an exhibition around which to create it. As the British Museum’s special adviser, Saeb Eigner, writes in his foreword: “Middle Eastern art in recent years has not been high on the world’s cultural agenda.” This is something of an understatement; it would be hard to find an art form that has made so little impact, until recently.

The growth of the Gulf economies now generates enough interest for a market to emerge, as reflected in phenomenally successful auctions such as Christie’s May 2006 sale in Dubai. Although the excitement is still confined mainly to the Middle East, the British Museum had anticipated such events two decades ago. Getting back to its enquiring roots, the museum began building a collection of contemporary work from what was seen as an unpromising cultural powerhouse. The year 2006 must have seemed right to finally put it on display.

Another surprise is that people actually went to the exhibition. A reviewer visited the show in August, just after the British government announced that it foiled a suspected plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners. Business was brisker than ever at the Word into Art exhibition. Perhaps people felt safer there than on an airplane, or maybe it was because this was one of the museum’s few special exhibitions without an entrance fee.

The visitors certainly seemed impressed. This is usually the reaction when Middle Eastern art is represented by calligraphy. Arabic as a written language has long had the ability to impress. The exhibition’s success confirms that the calligraphy continues to remove barriers, despite its incomprehensibility to those unfamiliar with it. As the exhibition title reveals, it is very much about words. Every one of the 96 works in the catalog has a written element. Some are more visible than others, but the theme of the exhibition is clear: to show the significance of the Arabic script.