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The Image of the Other in
History Textbooks in some Mediterranean Countries
(Spain, France, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia)
by Dr. Fauziya Al-Ashmawi
Dr Fauziya Al-Ashmawi, assistant lecturer in the
Department of Arabic Language and Islamic Civilization in the University of
Geneva, Switzerland, has prepared a contrastive study in French (80 pp) dealing
with the "Image of the Other" in History and Social Education books in countries
of the Mediterranean basin; four countries from the southern coast of the
Mediterranean - Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Lebanon; and three from the northern
coast - France, Spain and Greece. This study comes within the framework of the
on-going north-south dialogue and aims to shed light on the negative factors
affecting the way the other is regarded by children in the 5th and 6th primary
classes on the two shores of the Mediterranean. In countries to the north of the
Mediterranean, the other is the Muslim Arab, and in countries to the south the
other is the Christian European.
The study is the first of its kind which deals
with primary school books, although there have been many similar studies which
have dealt with secondary school and university books. Everybody is aware of the
importance of the last two years of primary school and their effect on the
psychological and intellectual growth of the pupil. At the age of ten, the pupil
is becoming acquainted for the first time with the history of other nations and
civilizations. It is therefore very important that this first meeting with the
image of the other be untarnished by any bias, and be totally removed from any
prejudices about Islam or Christianity.
Believing that the teaching of history plays an
important part in the development of European youth and forming their attitudes
to other nations, the Council of Europe has given a special place to the
teaching of history in the educational curriculum of the Council of Europe.
Within this framework, a large number of conferences and seminars were held
between 1953 and 1983 on the theme of teaching history in European secondary
schools, i.e. to children between the ages of 11 and 19. We do not claim that
this study of ours has the same importance or comprehensiveness as the studies
which the Council of Europe has prepared, but we hope that our study will
supplement these studies.
It is very important to draw people's attention
here to the fact that the driving force behind education on the southern shore
of the Mediterranean, especially in the Islamic countries, is the Arab Islamic
culture, whose dynamic is Arabic, the language of the Quran, the Muslims' holy
book. This unity of language is the prime dynamic for intellectual, cultural and
spiritual life in this region, whether Islamic or not. This dynamic is at the
heart of the amazing cultural and educational possibilities possessed by these
countries. Unfortunately, however, political struggles in the Arab Islamic
countries have always been a stumbling block in the way of the various joint
educational projects that have been prepared by the Arab League and ISESCO.
In this study, we have tried to depict the image
of the other, how he is presented and described, and the factors and motives
which distort this image. We have paid special attention to negative and
disputed issues and events. The aim of this is to minimize disagreements and to
put a stop to the contradictions which frustrate dialogue between the north and
the south. We have proposed some modifications in the way history books are
compiled in order to correct prejudices and inherited beliefs and thus produce a
better understanding of the other and a clearer presentation of history in order
to create a Mediterranean consciousness.
We have chosen a simple plan for our research in
order to show the constant interaction between historical theories and events.
At the same time, we have sought to define the referents of expressions and
abstract concepts, and to put forward workable methodologies for the analysis of
the contents of history textbooks in a manner devoid of partiality, focusing on
putting over the intended meaning in a systematic and objective way.
Although we are well aware that it is natural and
to be expected, during the final years of primary school and the initial years
of the intermediate stage, that priority be given to the teaching of the pupil's
own history, we believe that this principle should not be exploited to justify
totally or partially ignoring the history of other civilizations, or to justify
wide differences between the presentation of historical events relating to our
own culture and those relating to the civilization of the other. A quantitative
balance must therefore be achieved between events of the two cultures. We
believe that this balance can be achieved by devoting one page to the
civilization of the other for every ten pages devoted to our own civilization.
Our basic task was to undertake a full review of the way the same historic
events are presented and explained in the countries on both shores of the
Mediterranean, in order to be able to obtain a deeper understanding and to
deduce the motivations and factors which may facilitate dialogue. Our greatest
concern was to deepen our perception of historical events in order to find the
perspectives from which we may obtain the best view of these events.
Needless to say, every country teaches its
national history as well as teaching world history, i.e. the history of other
nations. This is done through the relationship of the mother country with the
different countries of the world.
We have also had to bear in mind that history
textbooks are no more than an academic product, composed, reviewed and revised
according to specific criteria by the current political authority in a
particular country in the light of current attitudes towards the country whose
history is being formulated. It is also necessary to mention that the history
that is taught in schools is totally different from the history which is related
in the home. Family memory is different from the official history and the family
often seeks to confront the official formulation of history which is taught to
its children. As an example of this, we can take the history of the Palestinian
people. There are three totally different formulations of Palestinian history :
the version taught in Israeli schools; the version taught by Palestinians to
their children either in the occupied territories or in the diaspora; the
version presented in world history books.
It is therefore very important to distinguish
between the educational goal, and the political and propaganda goal which we
deduce from history textbooks.
This study is divided into two parts : the first
part deals with the image of the Muslim Arab other in history textbooks in
France, Spain and Greece (with specific reference to government textbooks
published between 1990 and 1994); the second part deals with the image of the
Christian European other in history textbooks from Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and
Lebanon (1990-1992). The study highlights the fact that most history books in
the three European countries begin by presenting a picture of the spread of
Islam in the world of the seventh century and talk about the personality of the
Prophet of Islam who took possession of some European countries by 'brute
force'. The history books of the three countries (France, Spain, and Greece)
agree in presenting the Muslim leaders who liberated the countries of the world
in the seventh and eighth centuries as taking over these countries with awesome
speed because of their great numbers. They seized everything they could put
their hands on; and they were characterized by ferocity and barbarism and their
unsurpassed capacity for conquest. They are an ambush for the unwary, a great
threat to their neighbours.
We have noticed that the majority of European
history books make Europe the axis around which revolve the historical events of
the Middle East and the rest of the countries of the world. Martin Stroehmer,
the author of a comparative study of Turkish and German history books arrives at
just the same conclusion when he says :
"The great fear of the foreigner which has
affected all strata of society has its roots in history teaching focused on
European ethnocentricity."
These remarks apply to the majority of school
history books which are intended to help children memorize lists of historic
events. What arouses one's astonishment is the absence of any dates of
significance to non-European countries. Thus the history of civilizations and
peoples to the south of the Mediterranean is no more than a footnote to world
history, which revolves around Europe. If this remark applies to European
history books, it applies also to history textbooks from south of the
Mediterranean. Their history revolves around the bygone glory of its
civilization. This leads us to a definition of the general phenomenon which has
been called ethnocentricity. The American researcher William Summer was the
first to define this phenomenon in a book published in New York by Falconer
Press under the title Ethnocentricity.
"Ethnocentricity is the tendency in man to make
his people and his clan the centre of everything. He evaluates others in terms
of himself. Thus every group develops its pride and conceit and claims that it
is better than others, and magnifies and honours its beliefs and looks at
foreigners with disdain."
Ethnocentricity is an important motivation in
explaining the sensitive difference in the presentation of the same historical
events in school history books north and south of the Mediterranean.
Ethnocentricity can also be argued to be the root motivation of the cultural
domination which the west has exercised over the world for several centuries,
and of the tendency to dominate the other which exists in the minds of
everybody.
Perhaps the most astonishing example of European
ethnocentricity is the presentation of the great voyages of exploration which
took place in the fifteenth century History books in countries north of the
Mediterranean describe their effects on the people of Europe while making no
mention of the original peoples of these countries. Thus the European child
comes to the belief that these new lands had no inhabitants prior to the arrival
of the Europeans. In history books south of the Mediterranean, the voyages are
presented as if they are a continuation to the voyages of the Phoenicians and to
the voyages undertaken by the Arabs in the Indian Ocean. In this way, we
understand that the Portuguese and the Italians of Genoa would not have made
their great discoveries were it not for the geographical and scientific
discoveries made by the Arabs, and especially the invention of cartography and
the astrolabe.
During the study, one particular phenomenon drew
our attention, the phenomenon of wilful disregard. This refers to the conscious
or unconscious rejection of the history of the other, and the refusal to agree
to acquaint oneself with his personality, his role and his value. This neglect
of the other may be more cutting than hostility or denigration.
Perhaps the most striking example of the
phenomenon of wilful disregard is the West's refusal to give Arab Muslim
philosophers credit for the European Renaissance in the fifteenth century. This
intentional and conscious disregard is the most striking example in European
textbooks of European ethnocentricity by means of that disregard which is so
wounding.
It goes without saying that history textbooks in
countries south of the Mediterranean, especially the Arab Islamic countries,
glorify and embellish the scientific discoveries of Arab Muslim scholars and
philosophers, praise the golden age of Islam, and focus on the difference
between the enlightenment of the golden age of Islam and the darkness in which
westerners were living in the Middle Ages. Our study raises a number of
questions. For example : how does a history textbook writer go about choosing
the dates and events which he believes to be of exceptional importance ? Why
does the writer of a history textbook prejudge issues when speaking about
well-known historical events ? Why does the author disregard, either
intentionally or otherwise, important historical events which are mentioned in
history textbooks on the other shore of the Mediterranean ?
The history which is taught to European children
in countries north of the Mediterranean teaches totally different things from
what is taught to Muslim Arab children in schools south of the Mediterranean.
For example, school history books in countries north of the Mediterranean
intentionally present an understanding of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad which
is in agreement with the Judaeo-Christian understanding of Islam. It contains
information which hurts Muslims' feelings. Islamic concepts are not presented in
a scientific manner. Sometimes we find the Prophet of Islam presented as a
prophet and sometimes as an inspired poet who sees exceptional visions.
Moreover, in French, the conditional tense is used
when talking about Islam. The purpose of using this tense is to sow doubt in the
minds of children concerning the credibility of the Prophet Muhammad. What is
more, the Arabic word Allah is presented as referring to the God of the Muslims
rather than to the one creator God, not the same God as the God of the Jews and
Christians but a God peculiar to the Muslims, different to the one God of the
Jews and Christians. Again, the Quran is presented as "the book in which
Muhammad tells Muslims what God taught him" and not as the holy book of the
Muslims containing the words of Almighty God.
Often the authors of history textbooks in
countries north of the Mediterranean pronounce wrong judgements when they
present certain events in the history of Islam; their interpretations of these
events are sort of pre-evaluative, reflecting their particular point of view,
their obstinate prejudice against Islam, the extent of their partiality, and
their abandonment of the objective spirit.
We have remarked that before they explain the
concepts and principles of Islam, most writers of school history books in
countries north of the Mediterranean begin by talking about the swift and
fearful spread of Islam, the swift conquests undertaken by the Prophet of Islam
and his successors, and the way Arab warriors came in a specific and definite
mould; that is to say that they were fierce raiders who inspired terror, who
could not be defeated, and who constituted a continual and severe threat to
their neighbours.
History textbooks in countries south of the
Mediterranean, especially religious education books, present the culture and
civilization of Christian Europe according to Islamic understandings of the Jews
and the Christians as they are talked about in the Quran. In most of these
books, we find concepts of Christianity, the concept of the Virgin Mary, the
Christ and his miracles and his ascension into heaven, explained in terms of
what is in the Quran. Sometimes Quranic verses are quoted in confirmation of the
concepts mentioned.
In all history textbooks north and south of the
Mediterranean, the Crusades constitute an important chapter. We have remarked
that the writers of these books contrive by various means to give watered down
versions in order to maintain the relations of good neighbourliness currently
existing between the countries north and south of the Mediterranean. However,
this does not diminish the fact that reading the school history books of the two
sides gives us a feeling that the accounts are completely different and
sometimes totally contradictory. There is a clear discrepancy between the
crusades as they are presented by Muslims and the crusades as they are presented
by Westerners, those destructive wars which spread terror and death in the
Middle Ages.
Thus we have arrived in our analysis of history
textbooks to the fact that one needs to balance continually between the two
sides. The countries south of the Mediterranean strive to present the crusaders
as uncivilized people dominated by violence, while countries north of the
Mediterranean show Muslims as raiders knowing nothing of magnanimity. Thus the
majority of school history books of countries south of the Mediterranean portray
the crusaders when they seized Jerusalem in 1099 as uncivilized people who did
not recognize the inviolability of sacred places or civilians. These same books
give a glorious portrait of the Muslims, highlighting their magnanimity and
generosity towards Christians and Jews when the Muslims liberated Jerusalem
under Salah Al-Din Ayoubi 88 years after it was seized by the Christians.
Similarly, history books in countries south of the Mediterranean agree in
stressing that the Muslims did not try to take revenge on the Christians for the
tragic massacres which the Christians had committed when they had earlier seized
Jerusalem.
Examples of these are Egyptian history textbooks
which magnify the leading role played by Egypt during the last crusade led by
Louis IX of France. The Egyptians defeated him and imprisoned him in Mansoura,
the Egyptian city whose name derives from that victory, and which is a symbol of
the leadership by Egypt of the Arab and Islamic world during its struggle
against the crusaders, those raiders who attacked the countries of the east in
the Middle Ages.
History textbooks from countries north of the
Mediterranean give a completely different picture of the crusades. These books'
analysis makes us feel that since the crusades up to the present, the Europeans
want to continue to subjugate the Muslim 'infidels', as they used to call them
in the Middle Ages, and that the only thing for the Muslims to do is to submit
and surrender. Europeans point to the long submission shown by Muslims in the
past as a justification for the lethargy and laziness which characterizes the
eastern Muslim, and for his failure to accept progress.
We do not find in any of the history books from
north of the Mediterranean any admission of Europe's debt to the Islamic world
or to the Arab scholars who since the ninth century A.H. were the tutors of
Europe in the sciences and the arts. No history book from north of the
Mediterranean admits that Muslims attracted large numbers of new converts to
Islam, who embraced the religion after conviction by the word and not by the
sword. This conscious and intentional disregard by writers of school history
books in countries north of the Mediterranean was a cause of great astonishment
to us.
There is another instance of purposeful and
shameful disregard by writers of history textbooks north of the Mediterranean.
This is the failure to censure the barbarism of the crusaders and their lack of
magnanimity when they seized Jerusalem in 1099, while world history admits that
the crusaders slaughtered 70,000 civilians in Jerusalem. These crusaders, who
claimed that they had come to liberate the holy places of Jerusalem from the
hands of wicked Muslims (as they claimed them to be), these were the ones who
treated Eastern Christians, as well as pilgrims coming from Europe, so badly.
Similarly, these books maintain silence with regard to the magnanimity which
Muslims showed when they regained Jerusalem in 1187 under Salah Al-Din Ayoubi.
If writers of history textbooks north of the
Mediterranean use the weapons of disregard and unconcern to conceal the truth of
historical events, the writers of school history books south of the
Mediterranean resort to literary means to magnify and exaggerate their
evaluation of historical events in order to highlight the glory and greatness of
Muslims in the Golden Age of Islam These methods aim at reviving religious and
national feelings in the hearts of children to make them feel proud of their
glorious past and to sow hope in their souls that one day they will be able to
restore this glory and take their revenge on the west.
Among the techniques used in history books in
European countries are the simplification of historical events and their
explanation in extremely simple terms as if they were something natural not
worthy of comment. This is the method followed by French books for example, in
the chapter devoted to the history of the French colonization of Algeria. In
this chapter there is an amazing simplification of events; they are presented in
terms totally unconnected with the concepts of colonization, occupation, or
violating people's rights. They use 'ordinary natural' concepts like "the French
attempt to teach the Algerians the modern way of life, and French civilization
and language, and to help them develop and modernize their country in order to
catch the bus of modernity and civilization".
The colonization of Arab Muslim countries by
European countries at the end of the nineteenth century is explained as being
because Europe was overpopulated and lacking in natural resources, while the
countries of Africa and Asia were rich in natural resources and lacking in
know-how and manpower. Therefore, the Europeans emigrated, leaving their
homeland and going to explore these countries, to populate them, and to bring in
newfangled ways to develop and modernize them.
The continuous popular revolutions and the calls
for independence and liberty are interpreted by the history books for children
in the following terms : "These peoples wanted to rule the country for
themselves, so they drove out the French [from Algeria] after the French had
begun to regard Algeria as their homeland. They were forced to return to France,
expelled in spite of the fact that some of them had neither house nor land nor
work in France. They had been born in Algeria, lived in Algeria, and had found
employment in Algeria. Nevertheless, they were expelled when Algeria became
independent of France."
It is vain to think that we will one day be able
to compose a true history focusing on objective facts. However, at least we can
hope to reach a history better than the forged history which glorifies our
homeland and disregards either intentionally or unintentionally the civilization
and culture of the other.
The time has come to grant the other the right to
be different, and to introduce him in the history textbooks used in
Mediterranean countries. The time has come to present him clearly without
distortion or belittlement; that is, to present a photographic picture of the
other rather than a caricature drawn by a skilled artist, creating what he feels
and not what he sees to be true.
Is it possible one day to compose a world history
of religion, focusing on examples taken from the Torah, the New Testament, and
the Quran, like the creation of Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel by Cain, and
the rescue by Abraham of his brother prophet Lot, like the Virgin Mary and the
miracle of the Christ ? All this is to convince children that all people are
brothers, and that they all have an individual and corporate responsibility to
one another, whatever their religion. Will all children in the Mediterranean
basin one day be taught that Islam developed in the same cultural and
civilizational atmosphere in which Judaism and Christianity developed, and that
Islam shares the same humanitarian concerns as the other heavenly religions ?
Teaching moderate and open-minded understandings
of religious values like this is the only way to inculcate feelings of genuine
brotherhood into the hearts of the youth of the next generation. That
brotherhood, focused on real shared responsibility, will lead them to a
progressive and sophisticated understanding of the concept of "the right of
humanitarian intervention" in any country, to help and support their brothers in
humanity whose lives are threatened by internal struggles.
Mutual admission of the other without attempting
to distort or belittle his image is one of the chief pillars upon which national
history and religious education curricula must be constructed in textbooks for
children in the countries of the Mediterranean.
This study is not the only one of its kind. It
shares a framework with numerous studies and pieces of research prepared with
the knowledge of a large number of able researchers, teachers, scholars and
educators who have been a great support to us. Here we mention the most
important of these studies, which have been a helpful guide to us in preparing
this research :
1. Islam in History Books : an international
research project prepared by 22 European countries in 1978 under the supervision
of Prof. Abdul Jawad Faltouri from the University of Cologne. The French edition
of this research was published under the title L'Islam pour les Instructeurs by
Cartela Paris in 1992. The writer's name is Roger Fossolrey.
2. A field study under the supervision of UNESCO
and FAO under the title Towards Co-operation in Education. This was published in
a book under the title History and Ethnocentricity. The names of the authors are
Rawa Barisfark and Dominique Perrot. It was published in Paris in 1975 by
Intropolis.
3. A group of papers presented at a conference
held by the Centre for Economic and Social Research at the University of Tunis.
The theme of the conference was The School Textbook and the Educational
Programme. The papers are published in a book in Arabic under this title.
4. Recommendations on the teaching of history and
the writing of history textbooks adopted by conferences and seminars held within
the framework of the Council of Europe between 1953 and 1983. The fruits of
their labours were published in a book entitled Against Stereotypes and Wrong
Beliefs in Strasbourg in 1988.
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