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Sunday, 24 August 2008
Morris: The Darker Side
 Benny Morris has a surprisingly good review of Andrew Bostom's new book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, contrasting it favorably with David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann's book Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam which like Matthias Küntzel's work, locates the genesis of modern Islamic antisemitism in Nazi Germany rather than Islam. Of the Dalin/Rothmann book, Morris writes, "The problem is that, while putting their finger on important affinities, they decidedly over-reach, and, given the poverty of their scholarship, they often fail to persuade, leaving the reader with the bad taste of propaganda." He also fills in some interesting episodes in the life of Haj Amin al-Husseini, dubbed "The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem" by the British High Commissioner, which Morris says was neglected by Dalin and Rothmann, which is curious, given their topic. Read the full review in The New Republic. Posted on 08/24/2008 8:24 AM by Rebecca Bynum
Comments
24 Aug 2008
Rebecca Bynum I thought he was quite far-left and basically pro-Arab in the past. Am I wrong? I assumed he would be unsympathetic to Bostom's book. 24 Aug 2008
 Hugh Fitzgerald
He has had a change of heart. He's a revised "revisionist" historian. The unrevised form is Ilan Pappe. Neither the "revisionist historians" nor the "revised revisionist historians" in Israel are to be confused with the Revisionists, those who, following Vladimir Jabotinsky, did not accept the sealing-off of all of Eastern Palestine to Jewish immigration and buying of land. 24 Aug 2008
Andrew Bostom
I have blogged about Morris review of my book here: The conclusion to Benny Morris’ otherwise attentive and favorable review of “The Legacy Islamic Antisemitism” in The New Republic contains false claims about materials ostensibly “omitted” from the book. I have been in communication with the book editor at The New Republic and an abbreviated version (certainly minus the extracts) of my reply, below, should be appearing in the magazine soon. [For detailed responses see: http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2008/08/24/like-prego-pasta-sauce-benny-%e2%80%9cit%e2%80%99s-in-there%e2%80%9d/]
...Morris’ errors of omission appear, in my humble opinion appear to have “justified” his closing ambivalence about the book, sadly negating the earlier diligent and respectful attention he gave to the initial segments of the tome. Thus it seems plausible to me that had he been more attentive to the book’s actual contents (admittedly not a trivial task given its length, and the dry, depressing materials it contains), he might have amplified upon his statement, “Bostom’s book is important and deeply discouraging…,” and never have added the negative, inaccurate remarks “…but there is no mention of the massacres of Jews in Aden in 1947 and Morocco in 1948, and there is almost no material (since he purports to cover the medieval centuries as well) on the vast pogroms that took place in Spain and North Africa during the Middle Ages. The volume is clearly not a product of systematic research or compilation. The mixing of excerpts from medieval Islamic texts with articles by modern Western scholars of Islam is somewhat confusing (especially when these scholars abundantly quote from the earlier material); it is not always clear where the one begins and the other ends.” A more careful reading would have revealed copious materials (my reply to The New Republic merely included a very focused synopsis which refers only to Spain and North Africa, not a host of other geographical regions also assessed) “covering the medieval centuries” just as “purported.” Moreover, there is actually quite a clear delineation between scholars by both Islamic versus Western background, and by historical period, within, and most distinctly between, the separate chapter sections.
Hence my disappointment. But let the record stand corrected.
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