THE ARAB CHARACTER
Before studying a country and its people it is essential to endeavor
to arrive at some conclusion regarding that people’s character.
All nations have their outstanding characteristics, characteristics
which will always make it so difficult to carry out the ideals of
the Bolshevik or even to make efficacious the worthy efforts of
the League of Nations.
The Briton, adventurous, conservative, law-abiding; the Frenchman
with his horizon and ambitions limited by his home and his family
circle, his thrifty instincts, his sentimental patriotism; the
German, persevering and disciplined, believing only in himself—give
us at once well defined mentalities. The man in the street knows
this, the most advanced idealist can not deny it, so that the
various nations of Europe remain, as hitherto, defined nations.
It is not possible, however, to say this of the Arab, for though
the words _Inch Allah_, (If God wills it), is the main doctrine
of the Mohammedan, it is not absolutely Arab. In the first place,
who are the Arabs? A race originating in Arabia is the obvious
and not entirely erroneous reply. But the Arab is more than this,
for since Mohammed appeared and made of his nomad followers a great
force the race has passed through a great many evolutions.
There is not space in this book to write a long treatise on this
subject, but to those whom this matter interests let me recommend
the works of Lothrop Stoddard and Gustave le Bon.
For the moment we are dealing mainly with the character of the
Arab of Algeria, or rather the character of the real Arab of the
South, and not that of the Europeanized waster one meets in the big
centers, or of the effeminate and overcivilized chiefs one sees at
tourist-infested centers such as Biskra and Bou Saada.
With few exceptions those men have lost all their fundamental
principles and are but the apes of a rather poor class of European.
The real Arab of the South belongs to a race to himself, and in
spite of this very definite personality his character is difficult
to study to any satisfactory conclusion.
Those who have attempted the task will put forward various reasons
for this difficulty, but I am certain that the main obstacle is
the way in which the question is envisaged.
It is out of the question to try to look at this people from any
Western standpoint, utterly impossible because the whole of the
conception of life is different from ours. In Europe and America of
to-day it is the laws which follow the evolution of the people. As
the races become more emancipated, more educated, they require
new laws to suit the new conditions of life. Among the Arabs it is
the reverse.
Mohammed made the laws, laws which were good and which in many
cases remain good, but it must be remembered that they were more
applicable to the days of the Arab splendor than to the daily life
of the Faithful in the twentieth century.
How can one then attempt to look at these people as having any
sort of relationship with us, how can we place ourselves in their
position and look through their eyes? It is impossible.
All that we can do, if bent on this study, is to live among them
and try to understand their reasoning. This I have attempted to do,
and the conclusions I have drawn are set down here for what they
may seem worth.
The Arab is primarily before all the world a man of great calm and
dignity. His dignified walk down the street in his long robes is
typical of his attitude in both private and public life. I have
heard the foolish remark:
“Well, he could not hurry anyway in those cumbersome clothes!”
Perhaps not, but has an Arab ever been seen to hurry with his
meals, with his prayers, with his ablutions? Does an Arab ever
break into a trot or a canter when riding without some definite
object of winning a race or hunting game? Never. The Arab eats,
prays, washes, rides as slowly as he walks; the humblest shepherd
will look dignified while some millionaire sheep-merchant shouts
and gesticulates over the price of a ewe.
After his dignity we notice his courtesy. An Arab is never rude
deliberately. He may be insincere and say what he thinks will please,
but he will endeavor not to jar on any one’s sensitiveness.
His temper is quick where honor is concerned, and he will strike with
the knife or shoot with the gun if the matter deserves his attention.
His hospitality is proverbial. No one coming to his house at the
hour of a meal will be left waiting; rich man or poor man, relative
or infidel, he will be asked to come in to share the repast. There
are many chiefs I know who never sit down less than twelve to dinner
year in, year out, and usually the number is more like twenty.
Charity and fraternal equality, being the chief principles of the
Koran, are carried out rigorously. A beggar is never turned away
empty handed, no man is despised because he is poor or not of a
great family; at the same time those men well-born are very proud
of their names and titles, and will tell you at length all about
their lineage. One of the questions the chiefs always ask one when
meeting some European is:
“Is he, or she, of good family?”
Often and again has my friend and partner in sheep-breeding said,
referring to my lonely life in the oasis:
“What you ought to do is to return to England and marry somebody
well-born, somebody we can know.”
The arrogance of it! And yet there is not the slightest tone of
superiority in the statement. It is a foregone conclusion that
I must realize that they could not have some one sharing their
intimacy who was not a lady by birth.
“All that counts is the blood,” is another of their favorite
phrases; “we are all brothers, but it is the great families who
give the example to the less fortunate.”
With this, however, they are very simple in their tastes. It is
true that they enjoy putting on their scarlet burnouses smothered in
decorations for official parties, and that they have a very extensive
wardrobe, but they get tired of their finery in a few hours and
return gladly to their more simple daily dress. Their life at home
is not at all sumptuous. Few sleep in beds, practically none eat
with knives and forks, and the meals, though sometimes lengthy,
are all homely dishes cooked by their womenfolk.
Generally speaking, laziness is predominant in the Arab. A few
work very hard, but they are in a great minority. The remainder
do nothing which is not necessary for their livelihood, and those
who are obliged to earn their daily bread just earn it and no more.
This is partly due to the climate and partly to the precept of the
Koran, which forbids man to provide for the future as, in so doing,
he will lack faith in the infinite power of God alone.
Sportsmen they all are—loving a gun and a horse more than anything
else in the world, and ready for any form of hunting.
These, roughly, are the good points in their character, and we must
perforce turn to the other side of the picture. To the uninitiated
the calm mask of haughty indifference which characterizes their
faces conceals a great deal of Oriental wisdom. I do not think this
is the case. From an intellectual point of view the Arab is densely
stupid, very ill-read and utterly inartistic. With an Arab of good
upbringing there are two subjects which he can discuss—religion
and sport. If he is interested in business he will talk about his
own particular line but nothing else. They have not heard of the
most world-famed authors. Shakespeare, Goethe, Voltaire, are not
even names to them except when they happen to have been applied to
streets which they have frequented.
Music outside their own is an unknown quantity; pictures other than
photographs of people they know do not exist. All that which counts
for us in the literary, musical, artistic world is as complete a
blank to them as a Babylonian cuneiform to an able seaman.
It is staggering sometimes to realize their ignorance. Even those who
have been to the French Lycée do not seem to have absorbed anything
beyond reading, writing, arithmetic and a little geography. And
yet they travel abroad. They go to France, some go to England and
Switzerland, and what do they bring back? A recollection of streets
and people and race-meetings and gaming-tables.
“_Un point, c’est tout!_”
I think that the appellation of “Wise Men of the East” as
it applies to Arabs must come from their profound knowledge of
the Koran and its precepts, which in many ways imbues them with
utterances of some depth and of a veiled meaning.
I do not say that they would be better off if they had all our
Northern learning; probably not. I merely set down what is a fact
about the reverse side of the impenetrable mask!
In business the Arab is honest if it is worth while. That is to say,
the poor and uneducated shopman or pedler will cheat as much as
possible, but the well-to-do merchant or landowner will not risk
his name to gain a little more unless he is quite sure of passing
undetected. This, however, applies in some degree to most races.
The nomads in their sheep deals are usually quite straight.
The Arab has a sense of humor and will tell a good story; he will
lie when required, but it is very rare to find one who will do so
on oath with his hand on the Koran.
One side of the Arab is rather unpleasant, and let it be said at
once that it applies more to those who have come in contact with
Europeans than to others. I refer to their dealings with European
women. Their own are sacred subjects not to be mentioned, whose
names and position are respected, but the European woman, and
chiefly American and English women, do not share the same regard.
This again is greatly due to the foolish attitude of a minority
of Anglo-Saxon women who come to the country and are carried away
by the glamour of the surroundings, by the starlit nights and the
graceful robes of their admirers. If only they could see these men,
as I have sometimes in Europe, in bowler hats, they would shudder
at the contrast. Now they only see them in their robes under the
African sky and—well, they fall very easily.
The only altercation I have had with my Arab friends has been on
this subject. A common remark one often hears is:
“_Oh, les Anglaises!_” or “_Oh, les Americaines!_” and a
knowing wink. French women and Italian have not this reputation,
and what is so lamentable is that through the fact of a few of
our race acting in this way, believing they are far from home and
unnoticed, these morals are attributed to us in general.
There is little else to add about the Arab; some of these remarks
have been elaborated in subsequent chapters, other points dealing
with the superstitious side of the character have been raised.
One little story to illustrate the childish side of their nature
seems appropriate here:
I was sitting one evening some years ago in the Casino at Biskra
with a _caïd_ friend of mine. As we sat sipping our coffee an
Englishwoman, whom I knew vaguely, came in, and the _caïd_ pointed
her out to me excitedly, asking many questions about her. I gave
him all the information I could, and it then transpired that he was
deeply in love with her, but that as she could not speak any French
their conversation was somewhat limited. He sat for a while and then,
turning, asked me rather diffidently if I would teach him a few
words which would express to the object of his passion all he felt.
I was rather amused at his anxious tone and laughingly gave him
the following formula:
“I love you.
“Kiss me.
“Forgive me.
“Forget me.”
He repeated it again and again until he had got it quite fixed in
his mind, and then left me, presumably to offer it to the lady.
I did not see my friend again nor the lady, so I do not know how
the courtship, based on my nine words, fared, but one day some years
after this incident I was reading a novel, written also long after
the little English lesson, by an author who could not have known
of the incident; the scene was laid at Biskra; a fictitious _agha_
was speaking:
. . . “I am learning English,” he said gently; “tell me,
please, if my pronunciation is correct.” And in a curiously
indefinable accent he proceeded to recite the little set piece that
some one had mischievously taught him:
“Love me.
“Kiss me.
“Forgive me.
“Forget me.” . . .[1]
The Arab mind had learned nothing more, but he had kept that sentence
fixed in his brain to repeat when the opportunity presented itself!
They are all children, delightful children who never grow up.
Twelve hundred years ago they came to Algeria with their customs
and their clothes and their sheep, and they are still in the same
place with the same customs and the same clothes and the same breed
of sheep. And, _Inch Allah_, they will be there in the same way
when Jesus comes to judge the faithful.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Quotation from _Make Believe_, by
Clare Sheridan.]