October 22, 2017 7 Opinion Contact editor at: [email protected]

Why the Middle East may Published by Al Arab Publishing House understand Trump more Publisher and Group Executive Editor Haitham El-Zobaidi, PhD than his own people Editor-in-Chief Claude Salhani Oussama Romdhani is a regular columnist for The Arab Weekly. The Iranians and other Middle Easterners understand that every tweet Trump puts Managing Editor out is for domestic consumption, even if it concerns international affairs. Iman Zayat Deputy Managing Editor iddle Eastern This level of immaturity at the the world, primarily the Middle be, than the behaviour of an and Online Editor leaders might highest level of government East. American president. Mamoon Alabbasi be better negatively affects the United Trump’s shenanigans — his Beneath the return rhetoric positioned to States and the credibility of its groundless accusations, veiled lobbed at Trump, some of the Senior Editor understand US secretary of state. Such squab- and cryptic threats through his accused seem to accept the John Hendel President Don- bling hampers the secretary’s daily Twitter barrages — are accuser’s bombast far better ald Trump than ability to conduct US foreign more the doings of a reality TV than his fellow countrymen. The Chief Copy Editor Mhis fellow Americans. Why? policy in the troubled regions of show host, which Trump used to reason is simple. Richard Pretorius Trump’s constant and contro- The Iranians and other Middle versial tweeting, often against Easterners understand that Copy Editor the counsel of his closest advis- every tweet Trump puts out is Stephen Quillen ers, has created confusion in the for domestic consumption, even political sphere of Washington’s if it concerns international Analysis Section Editor politicians and installed a degree affairs. They know and under- Ed Blanche of uncertainty regarding his stand the need a leader may East/West Section Editor administration’s ability to have to address one line of function in a cohesive manner. policy to a domestic audience Mark Habeeb Why the confusion? The and another to an international Gulf Section Editor president’s tweets offer one one. They know Trump’s Mohammed Alkhereiji point of view — his — often behaviour because they do the contradictory to what the official very same. From the ayatollahs Society and Travel US line is meant to be. in Tehran and Qom to the Section Editor Foreign politicians must be political leaders in Damascus, Samar Kadi asking themselves whether they Cairo and Beirut, many Middle should bother talking diplomacy Eastern leaders often reserve Syria and Lebanon to an American secretary of state one set of words for local Section Editor when his own president tells him audiences and another for Simon Speakman Cordall he is wasting his time, as was the international ones. case when Rex Tillerson was On the other side, when Contributing Editor trying to establish a political Trump dislikes something said Rashmee Roshan Lall solution to the crisis with North about him, he calls it “fake Korea. news.” His counterparts in the Senior Correspondents Trump’s tweeting has created Middle East call it “propaganda.” Mahmud el-Shafey (London) conflict within his own Republi- Sometimes the word “propa- Lamine Ghanmi (Tunis) can Party and has been the cause ganda” is preceded by “Zionist,” of turmoil and uncertainty within “capitalist,” “imperialist” or Regular Columnists the US administration. Some of “reactionary.” How you arrange Claude Salhani the president’s tweets make him them depends on which group is Yavuz Baydar seem like a competing high the villain of the day. schooler. In one tweet, Trump Tense relationship. US President Donald Trump (R), trailed by This is what Trump does, too, Correspondents boasted that his IQ was higher Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, arrives to speak to reporters at except he uses slightly different Saad Guerraoui (Casablanca) than that of his secretary of state. Trump’s golf estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, last August. (Reuters) terminology. Dunia El-Zobaidi (London) Roua Khlifi (Tunis) Thomas Seibert (Washington) Chief Designer were in Europe a Marwen el-Hmedi

Designers Ibrahim Ben Bechir thousand years ago Hanen Jebali

Rashmee Roshan Lall Subscription & Advertising: is a columnist for The Arab Weekly. Her blog can be found at [email protected] www.rashmee.com and she is on Twitter: @rashmeerl. Tel 020 3667 7249 was not considered a threat but perhaps a curiosity, a revolutionary model for society. Mohamed Al Mufti Marketing & Advertising hose concerned unusual and riveting. It reveals Ibn Fadlan also advised Almis more or less a contemporary of Manager about a settled the easy commerce and human on the conventions for the ibn Fadlan and is sometimes Muslim presence in connectedness between Europe muezzin’s call to prayer and described as the Arab Herodotus. Tel (Main) +44 20 7602 3999 Europe might want to and the Arabs of the tenth inheritance laws, among other Having travelled far and wide, Direct: +44 20 8742 9262 note that it goes back century. things. He recounts his failure to Al-Masudi reported on the www.alarab.co.uk at least 1,000 years. Consider the circumstances in get the women to wear veils. Frankish people’s capital “Bar- Recent research by a which ibn Fadlan was sent by the While in the Bulgar encamp- iza” or Paris, the fierce battles TSwedish university claimed that caliph to the land of the ment, ibn Fadlan met the Rus, between the Andalus Muslims “Allah” in was embroi- , now part of the Russian Viking traders, whose unclean, and Galicians in what is now dered onto Viking funeral clothes, republics of and uninhibited ways he described north-western Spain and “the though doubts about the textile’s Chuvashia. The ruler of the with remarkable objectivity. The coming of Islam” to Rhodes and dating have been expressed by an Bulgars, Almis ibn (Shilki) meeting between Viking traders Crete. American academic. Yiltawar, had recently converted and an emissary of the Abbasid All of this is a rather long way of Whatever the truth about the to Islam. He sent an envoy to caliph was hardly as unexpected saying that the Muslim world of US Publisher: Viking garments, the relationship Caliph Muqtadir asking for help as many would think. By 921, the tenth century was not in between the Muslim world and in informing his people and when ibn Fadlan’s party set out active hostility to other parts. Ibrahim Zobeidi the has already figured in himself about the new faith. He from , Vikings had been Islam was not considered a threat (248) 803 1946 popular Western culture. Forty- also sought help to build a in contact with the Muslim world but perhaps a curiosity, a revolu- one years ago, American writer mosque. for more than 100 years. This was tionary model for society. ’s early novel Almis’s admiration for the at least partly through trade. Consequently, it should not be “” drew upon Abbasids was manifest in the The Abbasids, the world’s surprising that Uppsala Univer- the exploits of tenth-century imitation dirhams he coined in second Muslim dynasty, had sity textile archaeologist Annika Arab traveller ibn Fadlan. great quantities, which men- created a network of maritime Larsson claims to have found He was dispatched to Europe’s tioned Caliph Muqtadir by name. and land routes that linked ninth- and tenth-century Viking northern climes by the Abbasid Ibn Fadlan did his best to help Europe to China. The impressive funeral garments with “Allah” Caliph Muqtadir. Crichton’s novel Almis’s spiritual journey. As he connectivity allowed the Abbasid and “Ali” spelt out in silk and was republished as “The 13th recounts in his travelogue, he Caliph Harun al-Rashid to send thread. Larsson said they Warrior” to correspond with the suggested the right tone of humil- Charlemagne a unique present in are in Kufic Arabic script and that Al Arab Publishing House film adaptation, which starred ity for the khutba, the public 800 to mark his coronation as some of the buried may have Quadrant Building Antonio Banderas and Omar sermon. “… none but He, the Holy Roman emperor. It was an been Muslim. She has been 177-179 Hammersmith Road Sharif. All-high and the All-powerful, Indian elephant, which was challenged on her assumptions London W6 8BS Crichton would go on to should be called king,” ibn Fadlan shipped to Pisa from a port in by Stephennie Mulder, associate become a bestselling author, chided the new convert. He North Africa. professor of Islamic Art and creating the fascinating fantasy subsequently helped Almis adopt There are several accounts by Architecture at the University of world of “Jurassic Park” but his a Muslim name. Unsurprisingly, Arab geographers and historians Texas. Tel: (+44) 20 7602 3999 novel on ibn Fadlan is not a great in light of Almis’s admiration for of the Muslim world’s contact Even so, there is no doubt Fax: (+44) 20 7602 8778 read. This has little to do with ibn Muqtadir, the Bulgar ruler picked with Europe. One of the more about the interconnectedness of Fadlan’s account, which is Jafar, the caliph’s first name. notable is by Al-Masudi, who was our world then and now.