"the Kingdom" by Robert Lacey, published in 1981.
(ENG)
Not a fiction book, it’s a historical piece about the foundation of modern Saudi Arabia and its evolution up until the 80’s (I also bought the sequel by the same author which deals with Saudi Arabia from the 80’s up to nowadays, «Inside The Kingdom»). And I just finished it yesterday and loved it.
Despite some out-of-date vocabulary and depictions (a bit orientalistic), it gathers everything I love : one of the arab countries that interests me the most (Saudi Arabia), subjects that interests me the most (geopolitics, arab culture and old traditions) and History. And the way of telling it all is so enjoyable, and typically british, that you forget that the book is actually big and deals with all sort of foreign or complicated notions. You read it like and epic more than like a history book.
I expected, being written by a westerner, that it would be like all the usual stuff written about that country and the neighbouring ones and which is focusing on digging up the scandals and the clichés that will frighten you, «reel bad arab» style. But on the contrary, even though he does bring up everything that can be brought up, good and bad, the book made me even more fascinated with this country than before. I’m in the process of buying everything I can about it, both in english and in arabic.
And through this book I’ve been discovering a legendary character in the person of the state founder, Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the sort that you meet only once in a century, the likes of Napoleon. You can critizise some of his actions all the while applauding others, and as a westerner you might be more than puzzled by such a character, but in the end you’re fascinated (for Robert Jordan’s fans, he is a 20th century ta’veren). I wonder if anyone made a movie about him, because his story is the stuff of legends. Story of a handsome and ruthless old-school arab warrior, it has even got the battles and the swords and the castles, not only oil and modern stuff which come up only later. The man himself sounds dashing, with everything to make for an awesome biopic.
And Saudi Arabia of the beginning of the twentieth century sounded so beautiful, with deserts, palm groves and mud castles, and no cars or modern constructions to smear the scenery, and the last possibility of witnessing bedouin life.
I know that modernity in several aspects is a good thing (i.e. hospitals) but the price paid for if so high, it will always make me sad that now anywhere I’ll be travelling, the world will look the same, or try to look the same. Ugly buildings, same cars, pollution. And this is why I always admire anyone who try to keep some of their heritage, and try not to get wiped out by modernity (or rather westernization, you can be modern without being westernized). Even though I can't say that today heritage is well preserved in Saudi Arabia, from what I read in the newspapers of old buildings' desctruction ...
Anyway, digressions apart, some parts of the books shows that the author really tried to understand the country and its people, i.e :
(after writing about censoship) «On the other hand, ordinary Sa’udis can, and do, voice the most direct and bitter criticisms to the king, princes and ministers to their faces - and here perhaps is a clue. You can say what you like in the Kingdom within the intimacy of the personal bond, face to face. That is acceptable; it is dignified; it is your right. But to make a public criticism is different : it implies disrespect; it invites shame». (p.506)
And sometimes, you feel the author is confronted but something unfathomable for him, even though he sees it well : «If you come in to land at Jeddah, Riyadh or Dhahran airports any Friday around sunset you will see the desert around the towns dotted with the little groups, many of them lit, as darkness falls, by the blue glow of a portable television ont the corner of the rug. (...) This is where they have come from. The desert is the source of everything they hold dear - their religion, their code of honour, their ancestry, their black gold - and regularly the inhabitants of the Kingdom flee the modern pyramids their riches are creating to return to the bleak void that they find so consoling. (...) Do they catch wind of some secrets, these Arabs, as the desert breeze blows ? Do they find answers to their problems ? What does this communion with emptiness telle the men and women of the Kingdom about themselves and about the world in which they live ?» (p.522-533)
It’s not always that lyrical of course, but it shows how the author catches glimpes of everything or almost, but, at times, using his own western perception of the few things that are out of his grasp : «bleak», «emptiness», that’s how deserts look to him, and to many who never lived near one. But I guess everyone has places and situations like that will stay out of their grasp forever . A lot of aspects of western life looks like that to me : out of my grasp (which is a shame, since I was born and grew up in Europe). But deserts, I would most definitely not describe them as «bleak» and «empty». My dream is precisely to live near one, so that I can do exaclty that : have a night out in the desert every week or so, so far and so close to everything. It was what I loved best in Australia when I lived there, the central desert, and what I loved best in Jordan : driving trough it (and more cliché, cameling through it, tourist-style, but I don’t care, it was the best thing ever).
I could go on for long quoting the book, I highlighted practically one page out of two, there are so many incredible, unexpected stories and examples (for a western reader at least), it is really worth the read. It covers pratically all aspects and the differents elements that come crashing into that place during the last century (politics, culture, economics) and it’s a very good introduction, I think, for people who don’t know much about it. This book is reckoned a classic, and I understand why. If anyone is interested in this «mysterious» country (sorry for yet another cliché), read it !
(FRA)
Livre historique sur l’Arabie Saoudite au 20ème siècle (jusqu’aux années 1980. Publié en 1981, l’auteur en a depuis écrit récemment un autre, la suite). Malgré un vocabulaire un peu daté (orientaliste), c’est un des meilleurs livres que j’aie lu, toutes catégorie confondues. Au lieu de me faire détester ce pays, comme beaucoup de livres écrits sur le sujet le font (ou voudraient le faire), cela m’a encore plus fascinée par la péninsule arabique ... Je voudrais maintenant pouvoir acheter tout ce que je peux sur le sujet, en français, arabe et anglais. L’auteur passe en revue à peu près tout : politique, religion, culture, économique, et l’occasionnel inévitable scandale ... Pour quelqu’un qui ne connaît rien au pays, je pense que c’est un bon plan de commencer par ce livre. Il me reste à lire la suite par le même auteur, qui m’attend sagement sur le rayon ...
Pays inaccessible, ça me donne encore plus envie qu’avant de le visiter. Et je me demande ce qu’on attend pour faire des films sur la vie des rois de ce pays : le premier en particulier, Abdul Aziz, relève de la légende, style Napoléon. Il en existe une fois par siècle, ce genre de personnalité. Qu’on le déteste ou l’aime, il ne laisse pas indifférent, et tous les éléments sont là pour faire un biopic de fou, les guerres, les châteaux, le sabre et le fusil, la technologie qui vient se mêler de tout ça avec le pétrole, l’ancienne culture du désert, les mouvements religieux, la géopolitique mondiale, etc ... J’ai lu ce livre comme de la fantasy. Et j’ai en même temps compris pas mal de choses sur l’économie du pétrole, qui l’eût cru ?
Et comme toujours, le désert ... Un sujet qui reste mystérieux à l’auteur, la relation entre les habitants et le désert, qui est un des sujets qui m’attire le plus, et que je comprends le plus (un de mes objectifs étant de vivre vers un désert un jour).
فرني كما يريد كثير من الكتب عن هذه الموضوع لمؤلفين غربيين فأنا اللآن منجذبة للجزيرة العربية أكتر من قبل. كتاب تستوعب تقريبا كل شيء من التأريخ والسياسة في المعنى العام والعلاقات بالدول الخارجية والثقافة للشعوب في الجزيرة و و و ... وأنا الغربية أتساءل لماذا لا سمعت أبدا عن أفلام على حياة الملوك آل سعود. تحديدا على حياة عبد العزيز التي تشبه خرافة مثل يحبها الغربيين, أي فيها الحروب والقصور والسيوف والعالم الحديث والنفط وهذا الشخصية العظيمة, عبد الزيز, مثل نابوليون وغيره من الشخصية الإستثنائية تظهر إلا مرة في أي قرن. مهما تفكر في مثل هذه الشخصية وهذا التأريخ, الكل مثير للاهمام. المؤلف رغم مصتطلحات قديمة استشراقية تنجنح في فهم الكثير وأحيانا لا يمكنه أن تفهم عناصير مخصصة مثل العلاقة بين السعوديين والبادية (التيه ؟ الصحراء ؟ لا أعرف الكلمات المناسبة) وبشكل غريب هو تحديدا واحد مما افهمه ؛ واحد من أحلامي هو أن أعيش قرب صحراء مثل ما شفت في )الأردن وأستراليا ... أحلم بأن أزور السعودية ولكن أعتقد أن هذا مستحيل للوقت الحاضر ـ ما عندي محرم ولا فرصة للعمل هنا).
على كل حال الكتاب جعلني أريد أشتري كل الكتب أجدها عن السعودية بأي لغة ... يوم الأمس اشتريت إثنين بالعربية. لنرى اذا استمتع
بها مثل ما استمتعت بكتاب روبيرت لاسي
أعرف أن كثير من الناس عرب وغير عرب يكرهون هذا البلد ـ نفس شيء في فرنسا اذا تصبح غني فالناس يكرهونك ـ والثقافة الناس لا تهتم بفهمها يجعل الوضع أسوأ ... ولكن لا أجد ما هو أسوأ في النهاية في الجزيرة العربية مما هو الحال هنا في فرنسا. بل وعندهم الصحراء واللغة العربية وكل هذا ...
