Review of Bernard Lewis' The Political Language of Islam

I remember as a visiting student at Hebrew University, the first week there was a get-together of sorts for all the new students in the overseas program. There was mostly music and chit-chat, all of us in our broken Hebrew, of course trying to communicate with the Russian, French, and miscellaneous students with whom we only shared broken Hebrew as a language. The entertainment was this guy and his band singing these hippy songs, one in particular stands out in my mind. The Song was basically the word "salam" repeated over and over again, with an occasional "shalom" thrown in. Reading Bernard Lewis' The Political Language of Islam I have come to understand that why that song could only have been written and sung by an Israeli. The word "salam": was never used to indicate peace between any Muslim and a non-Muslim. There were other words for that.

The book is an interesting historical/linguistic study of the vocabulary of power and politics in Islam. It starts out with a discussion of what the significance of metaphor and language is for Muslims, and how that is reflected in the modes of discourse and how it reflects Islamic views of politics. For example we discover that unlike for Westerners, power is not thought of in terms of hierarchies. It is thought of in terms of being closer and farther from the power center.

There are chapters on The Body Politic, the rulers and the ruled, war and peace, and the limits of obedience. Over the course of the discussion we encounter the various forms of the word for ruler, and where and why each one was applied. We learn what a jihad is and when the term is really applied (only in religious wars, and never against Muslims). We learn the lingo of obedience and usurpation, as well as that of tyranny and oppression.

Overall the book was pretty interesting. Those with an interest in the language of politics in the Muslim world will be greatly enriched by this book.