HH362/HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST
FROM: WILLIAM EDDY, OUR FAITH AND YOUR IRON (1963)
[Arabia entered the
Modern world in the twentieth century when the conquests of Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
(Ibn Saud) united much of the peninsula as Saudi Arabia. Late in the 1930's,
the discovery of vast reserves of oil brought the first modern industry to the
country. Although World War II prevented the immediate development of Arabian
oil, Saudi Arabia was saved from financial disaster. Its national income
increased from millions to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Until
Arabian oil became a major industry after World War II, the rule of Ibn Saud
was that of a tribal sheik. Any of his subjects could visit him to discuss
personal problems. The following selection describes Ibn Saud and how modern
life clashed with tribal life in Saudi Arabia. Its author, Colonel William A.
Eddy, was the first United States Minister to Saudi Arabia. Eddy served in the
Middle East during World War II and was Franklin D. Roosevelt's interpreter
during the President's 1945 meeting with Ibn Saud at the Suez Canal.]
Back in 1944-1946, Ibn Saud explained to me his simple rule of thumb in dealing with our godless, materialistic West: We Muslims have the one true faith, but Allah gave you the iron which is inanimate, amoral, neither prohibited nor mentioned in the Koran. We will use your iron, but [you] leave our faith alone.
Ibn Sa`ud spelled this out in conversation. The Koran regulated (from the cradle to the Resurrection) all matters of faith, family, education, marriage, inheritance, property, and home, which must not be touched by unbelievers. Our patriarchal authority and the veiling of women are none of your business. On the other hand, you have much which we need and will accept: radio, airplanes, pumps, drilling rigs, and technical know-how. This acceptance of technology was far in advance of his people, and the King had to fight many battles with bigots to win support for his suspected friendship with Christian governments and his cordial partnership with the Arabian American Oil Company [Aramco].
Fortunately for the old King's peace of mind, he died before learning that his "Faith and Iron" could not coexist insulated from each other for long. With the machine comes the educated machinist, and with the engine the enlightened engineer, who wants the more abundant life to which we were raised, freedom and education for his wife and daughters, the right to raise his voice in politics, religion, and sex—the three topics of every campus. However, Ibn Sa`ud was a brave pioneer in bringing in the "iron" which provided oil, income, railroads, transport, and, above all, more water [to] his thirsty land. But the opposition to him, for years, was stubborn and fierce.
Photography, for example. Islam takes seriously and literally the Second Commandment to make no graven image nor any likeness of any living thing. Sculpture and painting, impudent attempts to imitate the Creator, are [forbidden], sweeping away the idols of the polytheists [believers in many gods] who flourished in Arabia before Mohammed, but also casting a blight on all the fine arts so far as live subjects are concerned. And yet, Ibn Sa`ud was convinced by the engineers that photography was essential, especially aerial photography to locate roads and geological foundations. When American photographers began to operate with his permission, he was denounced by bigots for [betraying] Islam. He summoned his detractors and convened the ulama…and put forth questions: Painting and sculpture are idolatry, but is light good or bad? The judges pondered and replied that light is good; Allah put the sun in the heavens to tight men's path. Then asked the King, is a shadow good or bad? There was nothing in the Koran about this, but the judges deduced and ruled that shadows are good, because they are inherent in light, and even a holy man casts a shadow. Very well…said the King, then photography is good because it is nothing but a combination of light and shade, depicting Allah's creatures but leaving them unchanged. The battle was won in the King's characteristic way, by persuasion and not by force. The King again fell afoul of the bigots in the mosques when he introduced the wireless telephone, for him a godsend in his vast desert land…as it put him and his officials in instant touch with events in remote oases, and made it easy to eliminate tribal wars and banditry. The orthodox were horrified. For a man's own voice to be carried hundreds of miles, as clearly as though he were speaking in the next tent, meant that Satan and the jinn were carrying the sound. Black magic at the best and [the devil] at the worst. Our King has sold his soul to the devil of the American unbelievers! So the King gathered the rebel theologians and told them to divide themselves into two groups, one to remain with him at the capital of Riyadh, and the other to go to Mecca, 400 miles away. At the appointed hour, some days later, the King bade one of the mosque Imams [prayer leaders, to] read a chapter of the Koran at Riyadh into the transmitter, and one of the Mecca group then read it back, with the text attested as audible at both ends by many witnesses. "What does this test prove, except your guilt?" asked the critics. The King replied, "Read your Koran. Does it not say that the devil and his [followers] cannot pronounce even one word of our Holy Book? This miracle therefore is not of the devil but of nature." Another battle won.