Babelonian Broadband
There is so much mis-information and propoganda flying around about the Middle East that I thought you might like to read something that is actually sound. Bernard Lewis is the smartest man I know on Middle East history. I got to know Bernard when we were both sitting in a meeting organized by the White House 2 years ago, briefing the young team on their way to Iraq. He has travelled the Gulf region since the mid-1930’s. Bernard is not a Bushie. He is not an anti-Bushie. He just thinks.
As a first-read, I suggest Bernard Lewis’s beautiful book “From Babel to Dragoman” (2004), a collection of short pieces written over six decades. While reading it today I could not help thinking of a G.B. Shaw line, “he writes so well he makes me want to put my quill back in my goose.”
(Note: Unless explicitly stated you can assume that everything that I write has been stolen from somebody. And my citations, although rare, are frequently to the wrong person. When interrogated I intend to take the Alzheimer’s defense, incognito, ergo sum. Yes, that was stolen too.)
You will learn a lot about the legacy of learning we inherited from the Arabs and Persians. The early Persians, for example, invented the stirrup (the one on the horse, not the one in the doctor’s office), which both revolutionized warfare and allowed them to develop the first postal system, complete with couriers and relay stations, just like our pony express. The Greeks later referred to the Persian postman’s horse as a paraveredo, which later became the German word Pferd. This created the world’s first high-speed communications network, the broadband of its day. (Note: The Chinese created a similar system in the 14th century AD, including a set of paved roadways that enabled them to send information from the capital to the south in only 5 days. This was the firt G2 broadband.)
JR
