The theory is not far-fetched given archeological discoveries which may confirm that temples were built before there were settled communities. Göbekli Tepe, in present-day southeastern Turkey, was built 11,600 years ago and used for religious ceremonies. It was built by hunter-gatherers. Agriculture developed around the temple to sustain the feasts held there (Dietrich et.al., 2012; Mann, 2011).

To organize these feasts, it’s likely that one of the world’s first bureaucracies was formed. There was no separation of religion and state: religion was the reason for the state – or in this case, the community.

Human civilization has come a long way since those times, and yet religion is still important in the lives of many people. Even in the most secular of societies religion plays a role in individual identity. In the United States, church attendance is much higher than in Western Europe, and in many parts of the world there remains no separation between religion and government.

In 2009, Gallup released the results of a poll that surveyed residents across the fifty states as well as across the world. They polled respondents on their views regarding the importance of religion. Gallup declared that the people of Alabama and Iran had one thing in common: their views on the importance of religion. Eighty-two percent of people in both Iran and Alabama stated that religion was an important part of their daily life. The difference between Iran and Alabama is that one is a declared theocracy and the other is secular, with constitutional constraints on the establishment of religion (Crabtree & Pelham, 2009).

At its core, religion represents a set of values and these values are still important, even in highly secular societies. Public administration has become the modern-day science of government – and within it, values have become a part of ethics.

The concept of values or principles is an extremely difficult subject in public administration, but it is important. Many of the reactions against established values or principles led to utilitarian or pragmatist ideas. These ideas were considered “scientific.” One of the earliest paradigms in public administration in the United States was known as “scientific management.” The values embodied by the “higher law” were viewed as an irrational dogma handed down from former generations.

Dwight Waldo, one of the foremost scholars of public administration, did not associate this higher law with the normative or cultural values of a society, but pointed out the need to educate administrators in both the normative values of a particular society and utilitarian concepts. These future administrators might then consider both sources in his or her professional life (Waldo, 2007).

Another intellectual heavyweight in public administration, John Rohr, believed that public administrators needed to be steeped in the constitutional values of the nation, and these values have origins in western Europe and its political, cultural and religious history. He identified three core values in the United States: freedom, equality, and property. Other values that are often associated with public service are the common good and serving others, which could be meta-values for those values listed by Rohr. These values have origins in religion, although they are not monopolized by it (Rohr, 1989).

There are many values that drive individuals to pursue a career in public service, regardless of if they’re elected or hired to the office. These values are associated with the common good, service to others, and social equity. There are also deeper values like benevolence, which can be defined as a love for others. Many of those who pursue these careers see it as a calling in which they have a strong communitarian impulse. These are all fundamental values found in religion (Lowery, 2010; Cunningham, 2005).

Cunningham (2005) argued that in public administration there is a space for mythos-thinking. This kind of thinking is focused on meeting the emotional and spiritual needs of those who serve and are served by the government. This type of thinking may be necessary to create social bonds between the citizens and the government, and may be more relevant in the United States since, “spirituality / religiosity plays a larger role in American lives and culture than we logos-thinkers are willing to acknowledge” (Cunningham, 2005 p. 951).

One of the key values that public administration and religion share is a belief in the importance of civil society. The United States was founded on this idea. McConnell (2010) asserted that the founders saw religion as a part of the formation of public character and opinion. The First Amendment, which outlines the non-establishment clause, was adopted to prevent the government from exercising control over religion. The founders sought to create space for religion, and thus the freedom of religion and to act on those religious beliefs became entrenched in the United States (McIntyre, 1993).

Unfortunately, public administration scholars rarely consider the influence of religion on government in the United States. This attitude has been shaped by the Progressive Era and the negative impression of the political activity of religious conservatives in the modern era (King, 2007). This has led to a situation in which “the academic discipline of public administration has largely ignored the religious or spiritual impulse that runs deep in American culture” (Lowery, 2010 p. 326).

A study by Houston, Freeman, and Feldman (2008) explored the religiosity of public servants in the United States. They found that people in government-related public service occupations were more likely to be more religious than people in non-public service occupations. This was even higher and more significant for government occupations than other types of public service occupations.

The researchers also found that public servants were less likely to believe that religion should be in its own sphere compared to other types of occupations. In general, the authors found that public servants were not secular, and that “religious values influence a wide range of behaviors, including voting and volunteering, and play an important role in the decision making of elected officials” (Houston, Freeman & Feldman, 2008 p. 428).

Religion can be a source of some of those lofty values that modern-day secular regimes cherish without divulging into the church-state divide discussion. Ignoring the reality that public servants serve while being inspired by these values or that public policy is heavily influenced by these religious values does a disservice to the field. It also forces a scientific, utilitarian rationalism on the human being that is rather alien to it. As pointed out by the example of the Göbekli Tepe temple, humans are motivated through community values that are often embodied by religion.

The idea of the community being greater than the individual, and the individual fulfilment that is attained through that process, has been appreciated by social psychologists for some time. Jesus addressed it in the Gospels. From Mark 10:42-45, according to the New International Version: “Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (pp. 1065-1066).

In the above set of verses Jesus is distancing him and his community from those who do not believe, i.e. the Gentiles. Those without faith rule over people and expect those they rule to serve them. Those with faith do the opposite. Their position of authority is not for gaining power and forcing their will upon others, but to serve others. How much better would our world be if those in power served their people instead of expecting the opposite? Positions of power are not for exploiting, but helping and facilitating the well-being of the people.

In Islam, this tradition is represented by the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his Companions. It is known that even though he sat at the seat of what would become one of the greatest empires in the world, he lived in poverty until his death. His condition even caused Umar ibn al-Khattab to lament, noting that the kings of Rome and Persia lived lavishly while God’s Prophet slept on a cheap mat on a dirt floor. The Prophet retorted that it is the next life that is better than this life. He did not come to amass riches, but to serve God and the people. Did not Jesus come to do the same thing? Did not all prophets, all of whom passed to the next world in a state of poverty?

Umar ibn al-Khattab would go on to become one of the greatest Caliphs. There is a story in which, during a famine, he roamed the streets of Medina at night. He came upon a widow and her children, who were crying in their house. The woman was cooking, but explained to Umar that it was only water and stones so that the children would think it was food and fall asleep from their exhaustion. Umar immediately felt guilty and responsible for the plight of this woman and her family and immediately fed them. He then made it a point to ensure that he would ascertain the conditions of his people and not rely on them begging to know that they were needy. He exemplified public service that is directly linked with the meaning of the term khalifa in Islam.

We live in a changing world and in challenging times. The prophets came with sound advice couched in essential values. These have real meaning and utility that could be highly applicable today. Our societies are better off by appreciating and learning from these values. The world’s faithful are better off by understanding each other and how these values are the same or similar across faiths. Those that administer are better off by viewing themselves as responsible for the ills in their society and serving and upholding the will of the people. Communities are better off when they value each other and value the community and its maintenance. Selfishness only hurts the community and ultimately the individual. These values are just as important today as they were in the past. It would be advantageous if people learned from them even if they did not embrace the religious connotations behind them.

References

• Cauvin, J. (1997). Naissance des divinités, naissance de l’agriculture: La révolution des symboles au néolithique. Paris, France: CNRS éd.
• Crabtree, S., & Pelham, B. (2009, February 9). What Alabamians and Iranians Have in Common | Gallup. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/alabamians-iranians-common.aspx
• Cunningham, R. (2005). Religion and Public Administration – The Unacknowledged Common (and Competitive) Ground. International Journal of Public Administration, 28(11-12), 943-955.
• Dietrich, O., Heun, M., Notroff, J., Schmidt, K., & Zarnkow, M. (2012). The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities. New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. Antiquity, 86(333), 674-695.
• Houston, D. J., Freeman, P. K., & Feldman, D. L. (2008). How Naked Is the Public Square? Religion, Public Service, and Implications for Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 68(3), 428-444.
• King, S. M. (2007). Religion, Spirituality, and the Workplace: Challenges for Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 67(1), 103-114.
• Lowery, D. (2005). Self-Reflexivity: A Place for Religion and Spirituality in Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 65(3), 324-334.
• Mann, C. C. (2011, June). The Birth of Religion. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text
• McConnell, M. W. (2010). Religion and Its Relation to Limited Government. Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, 33(3), 943-952.
• McIntyre, P. (1993). The Collision of Public Policy with Belief-Based Values. Journal of Church and State, 35(4), 831-857.
• Rohr, J. (1989). Ethics for Bureaucrats: An Essay on Law and Values (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Marcel Bekker.
• Waldo, D. (2007). The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public administration. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Auguste Escoffier was not just a chef; in Paris in the late 1800s he was the chef. He had opened the most glamorous, most expensive, most revolutionary restaurant in the city. He had written a cookbook, The Guide Culinaire. And, he also created meals that tasted like no combination of salty, sour, sweet, and bitter; they tasted new. He offered a spectacular new sauce that seemed to deepen and enrich the flavor of everything it touched.

But because it was neither sweet, bitter, sour, salty nor any combination of those four, as far as scientists were concerned, it wasn’t real. People may smack their lips, drool, savor, and pay enormous amounts of money to M. Escoffier, but what they tasted wasn’t really there. It was all in their heads.

Meanwhile, halfway across the world, a chemist named Kikunae Ikeda was at the very same time enjoying a bowl of dashi, a classic Japanese soup made from seaweed. He too sensed that he tasted something beyond categor[ization]. And it was, thought Ikeda, simply delicious.

But what was it? Being a chemist, Ikeda could find out. He knew what he tasted was, as he wrote, “common to asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and meat but… not one of the four well-known tastes.” Ikeda went into his lab and found the secret ingredient in 1908. He wrote in a journal for the Chemical Society of Tokyo that it was glutamic acid, but he decided to rename it. He called it umami (pronounced “oo-MA-mee”), which means “delicious” or “yummy” in Japanese. Ikeda then crystallized monosodium glutamate (MSG), the chemical ingredient responsible for umami, as a seasoning that would become popular worldwide, and began commercial distribution of MSG products. [1]

Almost 100 years after Escoffier wrote his cookbook and Ikeda wrote his article, a new generation of scientists took a closer look at the human tongue and discovered, just as those two had insisted, there is a fifth taste. When something is really, really yummy in a non-sweet, sour, bitter, or salty way, that’s L-glutamate you taste. This new taste was named “umami,” in Ikeda’s honor. [1]

Umami is a Japanese word that means “good flavor” or “good taste.” The closest English equivalent, taste-wise, is probably brothy or meaty. Umami describes the flavor common to savory products such as meat, cheese, and mushrooms. Bouillon cubes are the closest Western product that could be identified as umami. Unlike the other four tastes, umami is much vaguer and harder to pinpoint. All candies exhibit some sweetness, yet not all cheeses or vegetables will be umami. Although North Americans cannot easily identify this flavor, it’s quite easily recognized in many East Asian countries because the idea of umami is a part of the culture. Thai fish sauce, for instance, is pure umami.

Salts of umami, the most common of which is monosodium glutamate (MSG), are used as natural flavor enhancers which bring depth and balance to food without drowning out more subtle tastes. Valued at USD 4.5 billion, the global MSG market stood around 3,000 kilo tons in 2014. It appears in almost everything from fast food sausages to supermarket items like rapid-cooking soups, chips, bouillon cubes, ketchup, steak sauce, cheese, etc., providing flavor enhancement. What MSG has going for it is that it is a readily available, inexpensive, intensely umami ingredient with no off-flavors — just as sugar is a classic expression of sweet and salt is perfectly salty.

In many parts of Asia, it is as common to add a dash of MSG to dishes as it is for cooks here to toss in a little salt or sugar. But in the U.S., MSG has developed a bad reputation as a suspicious additive that many consumers believe causes allergies or headaches. [2] Concerns have been raised on anecdotal grounds. Hypotheses have been put forward that MSG may be associated with migraine headaches, food allergies, obesity, asthma, and hyperactivity in children, etc. Yet, subsequent research failed to present any causal association that MSG is responsible for these symptoms, even in studies with people convinced that they are sensitive to it. U.S. Food and Drug Administration “considers the addition of MSG to foods to be generally recognized as safe.” [4]

Umami in food

In the wake of breakthroughs in food science, umami is going mainstream. Chefs are offering dishes that pile on ingredients naturally rich in umami to reduce the fat and salt content of foods without sacrificing flavor. Just as a few shakes of salt can improve a dish, a correctly applied dash of cheese or ketchup can pump up the umami without overwhelming the dish. [2] Packaged-food companies are trying to ramp up the umami taste in foods like low-sodium soup to make them taste better. Companies that develop flavorings for the food industry are seeking ways of delivering the taste to foods while also cutting back on fat, salt, sugar, and artificial ingredients. These can range from natural ingredients to artificial flavors that are to MSG what saccharine and aspartame are to sugar. [2]

Umami blends well with other tastes to expand and ignite their flavors, and to awaken the taste buds. It is a subtle taste that occurs naturally in many vegetables and dairy products as well as in meat, fish, seafood, and their fermented or cured derivatives. However, it’s not as easily recognizable in the Western diet as sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. In Asian cuisines, umami is mainly found in beans and grain, fermented seafood-based products, shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, fish sauce, Kombu, and dried seafood. These are all inherently rich in umami, without additives or chemicals. The most common example in Western cuisine is tomatoes. [3]

Tomatoes are an indispensable ingredient that form the basis of a wide variety of dishes. The glutamate levels in tomatoes increase significantly in condiment forms such as juice, ketchup, paste, or sauce. Today, tomatoes are one of the most widely produced vegetables and their umami taste, especially present in ripe, juicy beefsteak tomatoes, is appreciated all over the world. [3]

Foods high in protein are the best for sensing umami. Glutamate is released when protein is broken down through drying, aging, curing, smoking, slow-barbequing, or slow cooking; for instance, mushrooms better contribute to umami when sautéed, and meat that has been marinated is tastier. Many kinds of meat become tenderer when matured: the enzymes contained within the meat break down its proteins to increase the levels of umami-imparting amino acids. Processed beef products have higher levels of glutamate than meats do in their natural state. [3]

Already rich in glutamates, milk further releases glutamic acid when it is cultured and aged to produce cheese. That’s why aged cheeses, such as cheddar and parmesan, are grated over or stirred into other dishes as seasonings or used as toppings to add a savory flavor. Parmesan cheese, also high in protein, is one of the world’s most popular hard cheeses. More than two years are required for the maturation of parmesan. The glutamate content is so high that even a rind tossed into a soup pot deepens flavor. A large chunk of parmesan cheese will have small but visible white glutamate crystals, which were formed during maturation. [3]

The sweetness and umami of green tea is provided by amino acids. Teas – such as green, black, and oolong – all originate from the leaf of the same tea plant, but variations in the production and processing result in differing beverages. Most of the tea consumed in China and Japan is unroasted green tea, where the essential elements of the tea plant are left largely intact. [3]

Another food combining umami substances is the cheeseburger. Its combination of beef, cheese, and ketchup creates a delicious synergistic effect. The effect further increases when it is accompanied by fried potato, as potato slices lose water content when they are fried up, which concentrates the glutamic acid in each bite.3 Piles of umami toppings on pizza – tomatoes, pepperoni, mozzarella, and mushrooms – could explain why people love its savory taste and the full, tongue-coating sensation it provides.

Another role glutamates play

Glutamates are important neurotransmitters in the human brain and play a key element in learning and memory. A sweet taste signals a source of energy, through sugars and carbohydrates. A salty taste signals the presence minerals that are essential to keeping the mineral balance of the body’s fluids. Sour tastes signal that something has gone bad in the food, and a bitter taste, meanwhile, signals that something is harmful to the body, such as a toxin. 

On the other hand, umami is the taste of amino acids or nucleotides, and plays the role of signaling the presence of proteins, which are essential to human beings. Just as sweets serve as an incentive for carbohydrates, glutamate helps us enjoy proteins.

Our body recognizes the various tastes via taste receptors on the surface of the tongue. Negating the opinion that each taste has its particular zone, research has revealed that all tastes can be detected anywhere around the tongue, as each taste bud has 50 to 100 receptors for each taste. Furthermore, separate taste receptors on the tongue with no purpose other than detecting umami have been discovered.

What is more, recent research has discovered that there are glutamate receptors not only on the tongue but also in the stomach. It has been ascertained that the pneumogastric vagus nerve only reacts to glutamate. This suggests that when a piece of food enters the stomach, and glutamate receptors detect the presence of glutamate, this information is relayed to the brain by the vagus nerve and an order is sent from the brain to the stomach to prepare for digestion. 

As we see here, the whole system – of taste, sense, and digestion – is tied together. One can only marvel at the incredible design of such a complex system – maybe while enjoying a delicious, umami cheeseburger!

Notes

[1] Krulwich, Robert. “Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter… and Umami.” NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15819485.

[2] McLaughlin, Katy. “A New Taste Sensation.” The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119706514515417586.html.

[3] Umami Information Center. http://www.umamiinfo.com/.

[4] https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm328728.htm

Figure 1. Examples of umami food

About seven years before that, in May 2009, I received an award at the International Turkish Olympiad.  The festival was essentially a cultural event consisting of Turkish songs, dances, and poetry recitals performed by students from Turkish schools around the world.  It took place in a modern convention hall in Ankara with thousands of spectators in attendance.  The event was sponsored and organized by members of the Hizmet movement, a Muslim community inspired by the preaching and writings of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen.  When I, together with a handful of other recipients, mounted the stage to accept our awards, there to shake our hands was the smiling Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The incident underlines how less than a decade earlier relations between Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (known by its acronym, the AKP) and the Hizmet movement guided by Gülen’s teaching were characterized by cooperation and respect.  Foreign observers in Ankara even referred to Hizmet as “the religious wing of the AKP.”  Although inaccurate even in those days, such a characterization reflected a commonly held view among Turks and others that there was some kind of ideological link between the AKP and the followers of Gülen.

There is no doubt that the Gülen supporters had great influence in Turkey.  They ran the best high schools and college prep institutions, and students from those schools, year after year, obtained the top scores in the standardized college entrance exams.  Hizmet members published Zaman, the most widely circulated and highly regarded newspaper in Turkey, referred to by Erdoğan himself as “the guardian of democracy in Turkey.”  Hizmet members published scores of professional journals and popular magazines. They established associations of medical professionals, teachers, and business leaders.  They set up hospitals and clinics, and in Turkey’s highly polarized society they conducted national “dialogues” that brought together Turkish thinkers and leaders: Right and Left, Sunni and Alevi, Turk and Kurd, and Muslim, Jewish, and Christian.

However, storm clouds were gathering. Perceptive observers could see trouble ahead.  In a prophetic column in the left-center Hurriyet newspaper on October 5, 2010, the late political commentator Mehmet Ali Birand noted:

“I don’t know whether they are aware of it, but a danger that needs to be taken very seriously awaits the Gülen movement. In the eyes of Turkish society, which believes conspiracy theories, the Gülen movement is mythicized beyond its real dimensions.  The power and influence of the Gülen movement is being so exaggerated that if no precautions are taken, this imagined power will one day destroy it…  If the current trend does not change, future politicians will go after this movement with a view to annihilating it.” 

Birand, who claimed to be neither a member of Hizmet nor opposed to it, believed that, “The power attributed to the Gülen movement is enormously exaggerated.  It does not reflect the truth but the winds of exaggeration…”

The first overt sign of tension between Gülen, who lives in retirement in the United States, and Erdoğan can be dated to the pro-democracy Gezi Park protests of June, 2013, when Gülen criticized the Turkish government’s heavy-handed suppression of the protests.  The real break came later that year when investigators reportedly associated with Hizmet pursued charges of corruption leveled against the sons of various ministers of the Turkish government, implicating Erdoğan’s own son.  Since then, Erdoğan (President of the Republic since 2014) has sought to destroy Hizmet and break its influence on Turkish society.  After last summer’s failed coup, Erdoğan has accused Gülen of masterminding the coup and his followers of carrying it out.  The government has undertaken a “McCarthyite” witch-hunt, resulting in the dismissal and arrest of university presidents, police chiefs, military officers, and newspaper editors, and the imprisonment of an estimated 60,000 Turkish citizens.

Erdoğan’s anti-Hizmet campaign has even affected U.S.-Turkish relations.  The Turkish government has demanded Gülen’s extradition to Turkey, while Secretary of State under President Obama, John Kerry, noted that the United States does not extradite residents on the basis of unsubstantiated requests, even those made by Heads of State.  He noted that the process of extradition must begin with the presentation of hard evidence of wrongdoing and that no evidence of the involvement of Gülen or Hizmet associates in the failed coup attempt has been forthcoming. 

Unsatisfied with the Obama administration’s refusal to bow under pressure, the Turkish government looked to the future: they discussed, with retired US Army General Michael Flynn, ways that judicial processes might be bypassed in order that Mr. Gülen might be “removed” from the United States and sent to Turkey.  The fact that such actions could violate U.S. laws does not seem to have been a deterrent either to Flynn or to the Turkish authorities concerned.  Flynn was at the time an advisor to presidential candidate Donald Trump, and he later briefly served as National Security Advisor to President Trump before being fired for lying about his relations with Russian officials.  It is evident that the Turkish government was willing to engage in underhanded and apparently illegal activities to get Gülen extradited from the United States.

Guilty or not guilty?

For those who know Mr. Gülen personally or have had contact with the open-hearted and idealistic members of the Hizmet movement, claims of subversive “terrorism,” (in Erdoğan’s words) seem incongruous.  I have known Mr. Gülen for over 20 years and find the retired, soft-spoken Qur’an-teacher to be preaching and living a particularly attractive interpretation of Islamic faith.  His bedrock concept is that of ikhlas, which means doing everything, no matter how modest or unassuming, wholly for God’s pleasure. This spiritual principle, which is hardly original or unique to Islam, has motivated Gülen’s followers to commit themselves to administering and teaching in schools in places as diverse as Phnom Penh, Brussels, Accra, and inner-city Milwaukee and Cleveland.  They are digging wells in Somalia and Mali, running clinics in Kenya, and establishing interreligious dialogue programs in more than 200 locations in the United States. 

Many Americans have come to know the Hizmet movement personally through the well-organized cultural trips to Turkey sponsored by these local dialogue associations.  For many non-Muslims, the trips are their first direct encounter with an Islamic community devoted to peacebuilding and being a living expression of God’s compassion and mercy.

I greatly admire these Hizmet members, of whom I know hundreds, and many of whom I count among my personal friends.  I have been to their annual retreats, where they encourage one another to live up to their lofty Islamic ideals.  I have heard the testimony of Catholic leaders in Turkey and Turkish Jews that the Gülen followers are their partners and allies in striving to build a truly inclusive Turkish society.  I have talked to Christian students from Mozambique and the Philippines, graduates of Hizmet schools, who are grateful for the excellent educational foundation they received.  Could all this good work simply be public posturing, a façade to hide a conspiracy aimed at achieving domination and power?  I suppose that it’s possible, but it seems pretty far-fetched and unlikely. 

One might say that an outside observer’s positive opinion of the Hizmet movement begs the question of whether members of the movement, with Fethullah Gülen as mastermind, were in fact behind the July 2016 coup.  Despite all his bluster, threats, and posturing, Erdoğan has not been able to produce any credible evidence linking the coup attempt to a Hizmet plot.  The most he has been able to offer are a few statements by implicated generals, obtained under duress, which could be interpreted as suggesting a tenuous link with Gülen.  For his part, Mr. Gülen has categorically denied any involvement in the coup, which he condemned, and called for an international impartial investigation into the coup and its background, a suggestion which Mr. Erdoğan has summarily rejected.   One must ask which of the two would like to see the truth come out, and which is trying to keep the facts from coming to light.        

I originally published a version of this article in Commonweal magazine in November 2016.  Since then, Mr. Erdoğan has continued to make unsubstantiated claims about Hizmet involvement in the coup.  He is not talking about the possible sympathy of one or another military officer toward Fethullah Gülen, but a centralized, organized effort conceived and directed by Gülen and carried out through the institutions and networking of Hizmet members.  This scenario has been investigated with the professional expertise of the intelligence services of the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO, who have clearly expressed their views of who they believe to have been behind the coup. None of them has been convinced by Erdoğan’s noisy but empty accusations.

I am not alone in asking Mr. Erdoğan, “Please produce evidence, if you have any, for your claims. Otherwise, why should anyone take your word for what appears to be a slander of this conscientious religious leader and a community that is doing much good in the world?  Could your anti-Hizmet campaign be an act of revenge for the whistle-blowing against your family members, or a distraction aimed at preventing a continuing investigation of the corruption charges?”

Of course, the city did exist – and it flourished, despite its desert climate and a cultural identity distinct from those of other African metropolises. Yushau Sodiq described Timbuktu as “one of the most radiant seats of culture and civilization in West Africa,” which has now “become a city of sand and dust.”  During its height, “West Africans perceived Timbuktu as the economic and cultural capital equal to Rome, Fez, and Mecca.” 

Located in the lower Sahara desert near the Niger River and founded in the 12th century by the nomadic Tuareg people, the site initially existed as a camp for traders before blossoming as a scholastic hub. By the 14th century it had become an Islamic center of learning, bringing students from across the region to its universities and libraries.  A century later, it would replace Djenné of Niger’s Mopti and Inner Delta region as the epicenter of scholarship in the Muslim world. One critique of the city’s education system was that instruction was limited to those who came from wealthy families, while many other learning centers throughout the Islamic world were not controlled by the hereditary elite. 

At its peak, Timbuktu’s Islamic Sankore University hosted 25,000 students who studied literature, philosophy, religion, and science. Natural science, geography, and medicine were also important areas of study for scholars, many of whom traveled from across the region to learn at the prestigious institution.   The grand mosques of Djingareyber, Sankore, and Sidi Yehia shone over the city and still exist centuries later, showcasing the dominant and lasting effect Islam had on the region. 

Timbuktu existed for much of its history not as a sub-Saharan or black African community, but instead as an Islamic center, more in line with other Middle Eastern cities.   No one is quite sure how, or when, this happened: the precise date Islam was introduced to the city has not been recorded. Trade with Muslims from Morocco likely first introduced Islam to the region. As trade expanded, it drew people from across the Muslim world to Timbuktu.   Other scholars point to Mansa Musa, who ruled over the city in the 14th century and built mosques and encouraged the expansion of Islam. He also stressed Islam’s teachings to his companions and successors, who followed his urgings. 

In 1964, researchers from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization studied works written by 14th century travelers to Timbuktu. They provided insights into the then-new idea that there existed sophisticated, free-thinking peoples in southern Africa at a time when Europe was still stuck in the Middle Ages. 

In the 15th century, Timbuktu surpassed Walata, in southeast Mauritania, as the chief southern endpoint of the trans-Sahara trading network, which supplied gold, Sudanese slaves, cotton, and grains to North Africa, the Middle East, and even Europe.  Among the famous scholars and explorers of the era, Ibn Battuta, Cadamosto, and Leo Africanus wrote highly of the wealth of the city from the 13th to mid-16th centuries. Africanus stated in 1526, “Here are great stores of doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men,” while also praising the standing army of 3,000 horsemen, waiting to defend the city.  Of the town’s residents, Battuta said that the people, “Were Muslims of old, and are distinguished by their piety and their quest for knowledge.”

Libraries and collections of books were the focal points of the city’s emphasis on education. Michael Dumper and Bruce E. Stanley referred to the land as the “city of books,” stating that the “the city literally lived off its books.”  During Timbuktu’s peak, many works were published in the city and then sold throughout the Islamic world. These were vital components of the trans-Saharan trade.  One native scholar, Ahmad Baba, owned a collection of 1,600 books and manuscripts, and was quoted as saying that his group of texts was rather small in comparison to other collections in the city. Baba, who wrote studies on Islamic law and biographies of Islamic scholars, was one of the three most prominent scholars from Timbuktu during the 16th and 17th centuries. Joining him were Mahmud Kati, who wrote the Tarikh al-Fattash, translated as the History of the Seeker of Knowledge, and Abd-al Rahman as-Sadi, the author of Tarikh as-Sudan, which has provided much of the known information about historical Western Sudan.  Public libraries were also formed under the management of the Songhai leader, Askia Daoud.

Trade flourished thanks to markets that saw western Sudanese goods, including gold, ivory, and tortoise shell, dealt for incoming commodities from southern African regions.  Timbuktu, a premier port town, owed much of its wealth to trade with areas further inland or south on the African continent.  The city was blessed with a good location: the presence of the Niger river, and the vast floodplain that it produced, allowed for rich farming and fishing industries during different parts of the year.  

Timbuktu survived the fall of the Ghana Empire, the rise and fall of the Mali Empire, and persecution by the Songhai Empire.  In fact, it was following an initial period of conflict between the Songhai and Timbuktu that the city achieved its golden age, thanks to dynastic leaders and accommodating attitudes from certain Songhai monarchs. In today’s Timbuktu, the majority of the population still speaks the Songhai language.  

Timbuktu’s decline began in 1591, when the city was destroyed by Moroccans invaders, who were attempting to control the lucrative reserves of gold and salt in the area.  Many of Timbuktu’s most highly regarded scholars were then kidnapped and forcibly taken to northern Africa.  This included Ahmed Baba, who was deported to Marrakesh along with his vital collections.  Moroccan mercenary armies utilized firearms to overwhelm Timbuktu’s army, and they stormed the city with English-made cannons and muskets. 

While the Moroccan invasion hastened the demise of the city, Riccardo Pelizzo stated that, “Timbuktu lost power and prestige because its market decayed. However, no single factor can account individually for this event.”  Other reasons for the city’s downfall include the decline of Mediterranean trade throughout the Eastern Hemisphere and internal strife following the fall of the Songhai Empire. These helped to set up the collapse of the once-great beacon of trade and education. 

The Moroccan conquest would give way to occupations by the Oulminden, the Peuhls, and the Tuaregs. The city, captured numerous times during this era, was viewed as a place of sin, impurity, and a haven for anti-Islamic ideology, thanks to the growth, in the rural and poor communities, of so-called “militant jihad” movements, beginning in the 1700s.  The eventual cessation of trade by Portuguese colonists and the decline of Arabic and Islam under the French occupation in the late 19th century furthered Timbuktu’s decline, as the city would never again reach its 16th century heights, when it had 100,000 residents and was a trading hub.  Outside of still-existing structures in modern-day Timbuktu, most of the city’s known history comes from Arabic chronicles, tārīkh, which have preserved the city’s records since the late 16th century.  These Arabic records again showcase Islam’s venerable legacy in the city. However, in comparison to other highly populated or well-traveled centers in Africa or the Middle East, there is limited documentation about Timbuktu.

In the 21st century, Timbuktu is a shell of its former self, with a population of 54,000.  Over the last few decades, historians and preservationists have shown a renewed interest in the city, marked by the placement of several of Timbuktu’s mosques on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988 and the establishment of the Cultural Mission of Timbuktu in 1993, both meant to conserve the city’s historic area and educate those in the region about its history.  Sankore University has received restoration funds, while international donors have contributed to the preservation of the city’s approximately 70 libraries and the valuable collections held within them.

The bustling universities and vibrant shopping centers of half a millennium ago may no longer be Timbuktu’s beating heart. However, the legacy of the city lives on in the historical records left by scholars and explorers who saw the ancient city in its heyday. They serve as an illustration of Islamic learning and culture in a climate unique to its characteristics.

History is rich in examples of human health benefitting from animals – this is called zoo-therapy. Hippocrates, who lived during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, used cow’s milk, chicken eggs, mammal horns, and sea sponges for treatments. We know that about a thousand years ago, the Mayans used fly larvae to treat gangrenous wounds. In Mexico, bees, ants, chickens, and other animals have been used to treat different diseases since ancient times. In traditional Chinese medicine, it has been recorded that more than 1500 types of animals were used for medical purposes.

In ancient Egypt, historical sources refer to the use of cow’s milk, honey, lizard blood, ox organs, swallow liver, and bat wings, as well as ember and musk essences, to treat ailments and diseases. Likewise, it is reported that in Mesopotamia during the Assyrian and Babylonian periods fish oil, wax and honey, mongoose blood, tortoise shell, goat skin, the dungs of sheep, dear, and birds, and animal fats were all used as medicines or balms.

In the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean regions, 99 substances of animal origin have been used as medicine, from the early Middle Ages up to the present day. In the Islamic world as well, 52 different animal-derived powders and pastes were used from the tenth century until the end of the Ottoman Empire. It is recorded that 77 of those animal-derived products continued to be used in the twentieth century as well (Lev 2006, 2:1-11).

Throughout history, there have been seven essential animal products commonly used for medical purposes: honey, wax, viper venom, beaver testicles, musk deer oil, coral, and ambergris. The first three of these are common substances and thus easily found, but the latter four are rare and expensive.

In contemporary research, more than 230 animal species have been used for experimental purposes. Increased sensitivity to animal rights in modern societies has resulted in certain limitations on animal products. But recently, the search for alternative cures has led to a renewed interest in folk medicine.

It is believed that the following substances are good for the following ailments: goat’s milk for coughing; quail eggs for treating lung diseases like asthma, bronchitis, and labored breathing; the powder obtained from the outer shell of the cuttlefish for cataracts; camel oil for psoriasis, eczema, ankle sprains, and hemorrhoids; hedgehog meat: epilepsy and gonorrhea; medical leeches for venal diseases. Various uses of yoghurt and fish oil is confirmed by modern medicine as well.

The rich structure of animal products

Animal tissues and bodily fluids contain many compounds that are synthesized by passing through more complex processes, at least in comparison to their herbal counterparts. For about half a century, scientists have been researching animal derived biologic agents with anti-tumor effects. Of the 252 essential chemical substances chosen for research by the WHO, 11% are of herbal origin and 8.7% are of animal origin (Marques 1997, 1:4). 27 of the 150 prescription drugs used in the US are of animal origin (World Resource Institute 2000, 389). Some 15-20% of substances benefited by Ayurvedic medicine of India are animal-derived products. In the city of Bahia in Brazil, more than 180 medicinal animals were recorded (Alves 2011, 7:9).

Drinking poison?

Since ancient times, poisons have been known for their medical value. Poisons contain various protein compounds, enzymes, peptides, and small amounts of non-protein secretions. These complex mixtures are stored in specific poison cells, tissues, or glands in the bodies of poisonous animals.

As the active substances that form the contents of a poison are very effective, even in very low concentrations, they actually bear real value for biomedical research. These substances give hope to researchers seeking to treat different hematologic, autoimmune, infectious, cardiovascular, cancerous, neuro-muscular, and psychotic diseases.

Let’s look at one example.

All frog skins are more or less poisonous. In the past, the only thing humans knew about frog skins was that we shouldn’t touch them. Research conducted about frogs revealed that the poisonous compounds found on different skins contain various different substances, and some of these have anti-cancerous and antibiotic effects. Surprisingly, the alkaloid Epibatidine, which was derived from the skin of the frog Epipedobatus tricolor, was proven to be 200 times more effective at curing pain than morphine. Certain substances derived from the skin of the night frog (Bufo viridis) enhanced heartbeat rhythm. Similarly, another toxin obtained from the skin of the Indian land frog (Bufo melanostictus) slowed down the reproduction of cancer cell cultures.

Man’s best foe?

According to the Bible, Satan deceived Eve and Adam by assuming the likeness of a serpent. Similarly, in the Islamic tradition of interpreting dreams, seeing a snake is interpreted as seeing an enemy. However, it is a concrete fact that our old enemy can become a useful source of healing when handled wisely. Contemporary research keeps opening up new medicinal possibilities for snake-derived substances.

Many different kinds of snake venom have been proven to be effective as anti-tumor agents. The different enzymes found in snake venoms either work their anti-tumor effect directly or by playing a reinforcing role for the body’s immune system.

The substance salmosin, obtained from the Korean snake Agkistrodon halys brevicaudus, prevents the increase of tumor cells and stops the formation of veins to feed these tumors. Contorstrostatin, a substance derived from the southern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix), was found to hold promise as a lung cancer treatment; it prevented tumor growth in experimental mice with cancer, helping them to survive longer. A heat resistant protein obtained from a viper (Daboia russelli russelli) led to a significant decrease in leukemic cell lines.

Snake venoms have also shown promise as anti-depressants, tranquilizers, pain-killers, and heart stimulants. A pain killer named Hannalgesin was even produced from the poison of the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), one of the most feared snakes.

But it’s not just snakes who could help humans: other poisonous animals might hold medical secrets, too. The PIM1 and PIM2 derived from the emperor scorpion (Pandinus imperator) have a strong anti-bacterial effect against the B. subtilus and E. coli types of bacteria (Kuhn-Nentwig 2003: 60:2651-2668). And in an ironic twist of fate, scientists have begun to “leech off” helpful substances from medical leeches, and are using them to treat blood clotting.

Treasures of the sea

A potential medical treasure lies under the sea. It’s not gold or jewels, but rather the treasure of substances found in various sea creatures, including sea snails, mosses, sponges, and even sharks.

Chitin, a substance derived from shellfish, has many medical uses. Studies have reported its anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancerous, and anti-ulcerous effects. The latest research has revealed another possible field of use for chitin: treating kidney problems (Sato et al, 2008, pp. 405-417).

Conclusion

This essay could be extended indefinitely. Considering we’re discussing treasures of the sea, I’d like to end with an allusion to Jules Vernes’ story, “Mysterious Island.” In the story, a group of outcasts are stranded on an island. Despite this, everything they need to survive seems to magically appear. The supplies are being provided by someone they cannot see, but whose presence they recognize by witnessing their deeds. When a young man suffers from malaria, his friends find out that someone has placed quinine – the very cure to malaria – on the table.

Our situation in this world is no different to the situation on the island. The main difference is that our cures are not placed on the table, but in different places around the globe.

References

• Alves, R.R.N., Alves, N.H. (2011): The faunal drugstore: Animal-based remedies used in traditional medicines in Latin America. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 7: 9.
• Barrow, C., Shahidi, F. (eds). CRC Press, Taylor&Francis Group.
• Hunt, B., Vincent, A.C.J. (2006): Scale and sustainability of marine bioprospecting for pharmaceuticals. Ambio 35 (2): 57-64.
• Kuhn-Nentwig, L. (2003): Antimicrobial and cytolitic peptides of venomous arthropods. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 60: 2651-2668.
• Lev, E. (2006): Healing with animals in the Levant from the 10th to the 18th  century. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2: 1-11.
• Marques, JGW. 1997. Fauna medicinal: recurso do ambiente ou ameaça à biodiversidade? Mutum 1: 4.
• Rasmussen, R. S., Morrissey, M. T. (2008): Chitin and chitosan. In: Marine nutraceuticals and functional foods. p. 155-182. Barrow, C., Shahidi, F. (eds). CRC Press, Taylor&Francis Group.
• Sato, K., Kitahashi, T., Itho, C., Tsutsumi, M. (2008): Shark cartilage: potential for therapeutic application for cancer-review article. In: Marine nutraceuticals and functional foods.
• World Resources Institute. 2000. World Resources Report 2000-2001. People and ecosystems: the fraying web of life. Washington D.C.: World Resources Institute.

The following words were reported to have been said by God’s most illustrious Messenger, Prophet Muhammad, the greatest hero in ascension to God and descent amongst the people in order to guide them to God after the completion of his ascension: “The most lovable to God Almighty among His servants are those who are separate.” When asked who such people were, he replied: “Those who are able to keep themselves separate from people for the sake of their religion and live a true, religious life. They will be resurrected together with Jesus, the son of Mary” (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya, Madaricu’s-Salikin, 3: 195). The idea of taking the first step toward the eternal life of the Hereafter alongside our master Jesus is a meaningful way of expressing and understanding the depth of his feeling of separation.

There are Prophetic reports that a person who dies away from home dies a martyr (Abu Ya‘la, al-Musnad, 4:269; Ibn Maja, “Jana’iz,” 61). The separation mentioned in these reports also includes: the separation of God’s saintly servants among those unaware of spirituality and spiritual states, the separation that the righteous suffer among wicked transgressors, the separation that people of belief and conviction suffer among the unbelievers and heretics, the separation that people of knowledge and discernment suffer among the rude and ignorant, and the separation that people of spirituality and truth suffer among the bigots, who restrict themselves only to the outward wording of the religious rules.

In other reports concerning homelessness, separation and being an outsider in one’s own land, the Messenger points to the holy ones of every age who strive to make God’s Word the most elevated in the world. For example: “Islam began helpless and with the helpless and those treated as outlandish and outsiders, and will return to the same condition of helplessness and being represented and revived by those who will be treated as outlandish and outsiders. Glad tidings to the outsiders who try to improve in a time when all else are engaged in destruction and corruption” (or, according to another narration, who increase in faith and righteousness when all else weaken in them) (Muslim, “Iman,” 232; at-Tirmidhi, “Iman,” 13).

The people of truth see separation as living in the realm of bodily existence despite the fact that they breathe the breezes of being in God’s company, and a requirement of being on the way to God, they not only endure separation, no matter how difficult it becomes, but also they are always ready and desirous to fly to the realm where the souls fly. They—those who have a true knowledge of God—always suffer separation from the higher realm of spiritual beings, which they see as their home or native land, and long for reunion in the dungeon of the worldly life. The following verses in his Mathnawi by Jalalu’d-Din Rumi express this separation:

Listen to the flute, how it recounts;
It complains of separation.

When the horizon of the Realm of Permanence manifested itself to him, Bilal al-Habashi expressed the same feeling of separation and longing for reunion: “I am returning to my native land from the land of separation.”

Everyone comes alone into this world, which is a caravanserai where the caravans come and leave after staying a short while, and everyone is seen off alone, without finding the opportunity to be freed from the feeling of separation. For this reason, those who suffer longing for the realms beyond feel separation peculiar to themselves, while the others who have set their hearts upon the world whose properties, dominion, and happiness are all transitory, suffer pangs of another kind of separation. In this world, every person is a Khusraw Dahlawi, who said: “My heart has become tired with separation and desires the native land,” and everyone is weary of the narrow framework of this world, they are in pursuit of new horizons, and they crave their native land.

In the light of what we have so far explained, we can deal with separation in the following three categories—useful, harmful and neutral:

The separation that is useful and praised by the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, is that felt by God’s saintly servants. When we mention separation, what comes to mind is this form of separation. This separation is that which is crowned with friendship with God, which has the depth of knowing Him, and the dimensions of loving and yearning for Him. Those who feel this separation rise to friendship with God, without ever feeling themselves completely alone. They consider the transitory moments of loneliness as signs that they are ascending toward Him and see themselves as being supported by God’s protection, His illustrious Messenger’s leadership, and the company of the believers. They continue their relationship with the world in proportion to its essential value. They are ascetics whose every moment is spent in devotion to Him, ascetics who are always at war with feelings of pride and fame. As stated in a Prophetic Tradition, they are the royalty in the Gardens of Paradise, but they live so simple and humble a life that the worldly ones attach no importance to it. With all their manners and in their appearance and their actuality, in their manner of dressing and acting, they are normal mortal beings among other mortals, without seeing them superior to anybody. They regard all worldly and other worldly favors as a means of mentioning their true Owner, of being in constant thankfulness to Him and they are zealous to strive in His cause. Whatever gift God bestows on them, they see it as a garment to be worn temporarily, a garment that must not be spoiled by them and one about which they must feel no loss when it is gone.

From another perspective, those outsiders who are admired even by the saintly persons of higher ranks such as the pure, godly ones and those near-stationed to God, hold tight to the way of the Prophet as if they were clinging to it by their teeth, as stated in a Prophetic Tradition (Abu Dawud, “Sunna,” 5; at-Tirmidhi, “’Ilm,” 5). When other people turn away from it, they wage war on the innovations in religion, fix their thoughts and feelings on God’s absolute Oneness, spend their lives in the pleasure and enthusiasm that come from adherence to God, regard following the master of the creatures, upon him be peace and blessings, as submission to the captain of a ship that is taking its passengers to the Almighty, and view following a guide in their time as following him in essence.

This kind of separation, which is regarded as the most important and blessed source of sainthood belonging to those who lived in the Age of Happiness—the time of the Messenger—and those who will come toward the end of time and follow them in adherence to God’s religion and serving it, is a way to perfection. It is extremely difficult to advance on this way, and does not seem greatly attractive to people, but it is very valuable and immune to claims of self-assertion and words of pride that are incompatible with the rules of faith and irreconcilable with self-possession. In every age, a handful of pure souls have gathered together around this source, breasted the adversities surrounding their community, fought against the dangers that lie waiting in ambush for the spirits, embraced human beings with love, helped them realize their worldly and other worldly expectations, and then said farewell to this world without tasting its pleasures to go to the other. This they had to do, as an easy life and bodily pleasures are deadly poison for them and to imbibe these would mean that they had contradicted themselves. Instead of living contradictions and controversies, which is the bitterest of separation, something that is worse than death for those who order their lives, not for their own but for others’ happiness, they prefer to receive their documents of discharge from worldly responsibilities and emigrate to the realm where the friends are.

The second kind of separation is that which is of no use and impresses the one who suffers it as a calamity. It arises from denial of God, from heresies, and misguidance. It continues in the intermediate world of the grave and even in the other world, bringing no reward to those who suffer it. This kind of separation is the most pitiable.

The third separation is neither useful nor useless, it is a separation that begins in the womb of the mother and continues until the grave. This is a separation which every mortal human being is destined to suffer. Although it sometimes brings reward to those who suffer it because of the purity of intention in their acts, it usually causes pangs for souls that have fallen away from the Almighty and that have not been able to maintain righteousness in their inner worlds. The meaning of the following couplets of a poet are truly helpful when trying to understand the states of those who suffer such separation:

If a person stays in separation from his home even for a moment,
he is not as powerful as even a piece of straw,
be he as firm as a mountain.
That helpless, poor one may seem still to be where he is,
but he always sighs when he recollects his home.
I have many complaints of separation from friends;
nevertheless, this is neither the time nor the place to tell of it.

One of my most memorable experiences occurred when I returned to finish my undergrad degree in my late forties. Navigating the language and requirements of the online enrollment process left me feeling powerless, frozen with the inability to comprehend what was expected of me. Without lines to get into, there was no friendly conversation that could help me bluff my way through. By the time I figured out the process, all that remained open for my science elective was one geology lecture course. Why had it not filled up?  Was it the course? The professor? Was I about to sign up for something everyone else was smart enough to walk away from? I know nothing about rocks, nor am I at all sure I want to!  

My fingers hovered above the Enter key; my self-conversation told me I was making a huge mistake. My already shaky confidence ebbed away with every second I hesitated.  My options were limited by my lack of understanding. I felt restrained by my inadequate knowledge of the unfamiliar terrain. Reality can be a frightening destination when its streets are paved with bewilderment, delusion, and fear.

Fortunately, mine was a short-lived panic. The first day of class, I entered an auditorium with 300-plus other students. Three cups of coffee floated in me, a futile attempt to drown my insecurities. I can always leave, I told myself. You cannot be arrested for dropping a course. 

At the front of the room was an instructor with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent, Liam Neeson’s face, and the manic wit and timing of Robin Williams. Within days, I was hooked. At the end of each class, he wished us all a “Gneiss Day.”  He amazed us with his familiarity with rocks. Rocks!  A glance at the syllabi informed us that we were there to learn why “Schist happens.” With his eccentric geological humor, terms like sediment, seepage, and seismicity quickly became part of our vernacular. At semester’s end, geology was the course I missed most.

I will always be appreciative that my fears were put to rest in such a surprising way. More surprising though was how fertile seeds of empathy were planted within me through this entire experience. It is very intimidating for someone nearing the half-century mark to enter a classroom filled with twenty-somethings. Turns out, I easily understood my younger colleagues: their music, dress, and angst mirrored those of my own three children. I bartered with them shamelessly. To teach them how to be more productive with their time, I shared my finely honed time management skills that years of disciplined focus on the job had taught me. In turn, I craved their easy familiarity with the keyboard and the library’s digital frontier. One relative quipped that I spent an inordinate amount of time in the college’s library. You bet I did! College libraries, those once-hallowed walls of study, now house coffee shops. From a private cubicle, I could quietly observe other students. This eventually boosted my confidence level enough to sign up for graduate school.

My old notebooks now serve as visual reminders: somewhere, at all times, someone is facing a challenge.

Nowhere is that challenge more acute than for immigrants and their new hosts. For immigrants, learning a new language, acquiring confidence in an alien culture, and stamping out constant anxiety in a new country has to be terrifying. For hosts, the anxiety also comes from assimilation. Regard us all with kindness. Offer all of us hope. Empathy is not overrated.

Who is an immigrant? No matter what gender, ethnicity, or age, an immigrant is a human being coming into a place that is not home. That life-changing movement unquestionably brings with it alarm, uncertainty, and an unnamed force that wants to strangle the hope from your tentative future.

For an immigrant, tangible fear is a pestilence, a common weed. It thrives in any environment, taking over like an invasive species. To survive, it can even assault its host because fear can easily manifest into anger. When watered with self-doubt, it assumes super powers. It has to be eradicated; it must be supplanted with something tougher.

Empathy is that tougher thing.  Empathy can attack fear’s root system. Empathy is the most valuable ally to offer someone who is running scared every minute of their life. Empathy asks us to walk a mile in another’s shoes. To empathize is a valuable journey for both host and immigrant.

Let’s return to the geology classroom for the applicable lessons from the study of plate tectonics. The metaphorical possibilities existing between this theory and immigration are limitless.  The term tectonics comes from the Greek, pertaining to building, which ideally is what immigration should do for individuals, communities, and countries. Host countries, the destination of refugees, migrants, or émigrés, will be in flux. How does one maintain or rebuild a healthy community when new arrivals place stress on its current capacity for change?  And any nation that gives up its citizens, whatever the reasons, has to rebuild with those who remain. The materials are now more scarce and less varied. Plate tectonics describes the motion of plates in the Earth’s lithosphere, which consists of the crust and mantle. The Earth’s crust is rigid and unyielding; its mantle more liquid and fluid.  Again, an easy rhetorical leap that parallels the ebb and flow of change that is associated with every aspect of immigration.

The concept of continental drift is rich with veins of rhetorical language waiting to be mined. If one subscribes to the theory of Pangaea, which assumes that our planet once consisted of a super-continent surrounded by a super-ocean, then you must accept that once we were one big homeland. Apparently, even our supposed solid ground has been shifting and drifting over epochs and eras.  Survival demands that one accepts the hypothesis that nothing remains static; staying still is a death sentence. Immigration can be similarly framed as a life-or-death choice. The geological language of upheaval, shattering, calving, accretion, permeability, and violent movement is migration writ large onto our personal landscapes.

Plate tectonics also asserts that there are three types of movement: Convergence, which is identified with collisions that produce volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain ranges; divergence, which is characterized by plates that move away from one another, initially producing rifts that become valleys and form islands; and transform movements that neither create nor destroy, but are primarily horizontal movements producing slips in the opposite direction from what one expects. Einstein, it has been noted, asserted that “nothing happens until something moves.” Whether we initiate the movement, are moved upon, or are the product of ancestral movements, motion is obviously necessary, even if it’s earth-shattering.  A change is gonna come…sooner or later. No evidence exists to prove that Sam Cooke and Einstein “rocked” together. But I bet they would have.

Regardless of the type, any movement is disruptive. And whenever a person or family is forced to move, as one bids farewell to familiar places, expect confusion. Confusion is compounded by the inability to alter one’s circumstances. Take another step on that empathetic journey and imagine fearing the loss of everything you hold most dear. Fear of losing all you possess, fear of losing your loved ones, and fear of losing your life—all fears that cannot be simply prayed away.  Will we be separated? Will I find work?  Are the rumors true that the government there is just as bad, maybe worse? Will my children adjust? What will the norms and expectations be in this new place? What will happen if peculiar languages, odd traditions, and strange beliefs fly into the face of all we’ve been taught? Will we be welcomed, ignored, or even worse, persecuted further and confronted by different enemies?  As water wears down rock, the obstacles faced by immigrants and their hosts are unquestionably erosive. No one will ever be the same as before.

Imagine walking into a new job or marrying into a new family. That same strangeness is the immigrant’s new environment no matter what conditions brought them to it. How does one overcome the aftershocks so adaptation can occur? Can one potentially even thrive? Are some humans born with a peculiar strain of flint and granite in their makeup, or does steely determination take root only after acid rain-showers of abrasive words and policies wear a person down?  Time and pressure can reduce rocks to rubble or into valuable gemstones. What might similar forces do to the human spirit?  Do we converge with, diverge from, or traverse through the rifts brought about by changes in our habitats?  Do we descend into a valley of despondency or conquer the mountaintops?  Decisions await; action is demanded. Is there never any rest for the weary traveler? 

Disorientation also happens to those who find their secure, familiar worlds disrupted by the introduction of something new. Introduce strangers into a community and the status quo has been upset, the equilibrium disturbed. We are suddenly compelled to rethink old paradigms.  Will we move away from this new diversity that has invaded our space?  Will we form islands unto ourselves – or force “the others” to isolate themselves so as not to “infect” us?  Science has demonstrated that divergent cultures must adapt and adjust to survive. Otherwise, losses are inevitable, forever mourned and never forgotten. What if instead, we try sharing, allowing symbiosis to become the new normal? Might we then find ourselves celebrating this new thing that has bubbled up to replace the old?

Social scientists tell us that in the process of perception, we unconsciously make choices about incoming data. We select, organize, interpret, and negotiate the meaning of what we see, hear, and feel.  We filter our selections through our personal schemata, developed individually through life experiences and cultures, among other variables. Interestingly, it is narrative that obliges us to constantly “negotiate” our interpretations.  Telling, listening, and repeating stories is arguably a life-affirming aspect of immigration. Whether we are telling or listening, and whether we are immigrants, the progeny of immigrants, or native observers, we can all benefit from the stories we share and hear. What has more potential to move us than the poignant stories of those who have emigrated, or of the people who have received immigrants?  Think of the anger, hurt, wisdom, catharsis, and empathetic possibilities these narratives contain. 

What did you carry with you from the old country? 
That which a suitcase could not contain and thieves could not steal. Stories.

We repeat our immigration stories because they contain explosive power. Time cannot hold our myths hostage. Storylines are embedded in the DNA of every nomad who has ever yearned for a place to stop and rest: for a year, a decade, or a lifetime. How else to explain how we sanctify the places that house our hieroglyphics, cave drawings, covenants, literature, and poetry? Art imitates life; art helps us to traverse an unfamiliar landscape.

Assimilation, integration, xenophobia, employment, security, and education are the vocabulary words for these oft-repeated tales.  Seismic changes in culture force both immigrant and host to negotiate and re-negotiate their positions before reaching… what? Just as convergence causes volcanic activity and earthquakes, some results are catastrophic and the dangers ever-present. Mountains can also be formed.  Solid, dependable markers on the landscape, these mountains connote stability.

What will the end be? War, uneasy truces, or broken treaties which prevent others from putting down roots and calling a new place home? Or peace, acceptance, and assimilation, all arguably better ways to discover new boundaries? Why can’t we choose stories defined by courage, compassion, and fairness, instead of division?

Make no mistake: like geology, immigration will always be transformative, and it may very well emerge as either something to be embraced or annihilated. In a perfect world, that which eventually surfaces could be a valuable creation, an amalgam of cultures that incorporates, not destroys, the original.  Legitimate concerns can be the catalysts for positive change, taking us in directions we could not foresee. The best of all possible scenarios might be to accept immigration as a natural phenomenon, one which allows our curiosity about the other to seek out commonalities rather than highlight differences. When that which is unfamiliar is fused into something unexpected and new, might that not result in something worth keeping? Think Halloween meets Dias de los Muertos, tacos piled high with kimchee and Sriracha, or meditative mantras inserted into the Book of Common Prayer. When one reads about movements that bring together warring factions, now working cooperatively to bring about peace, other possibilities begin to appear on the horizon. For example, look at groups involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement. What was once deemed impossible has now become achievable because both parties realized that mutually assured destruction was not acceptable. Are movements the parents of human tectonic shifts, or the progeny?

This astonishing new thing that might form between immigrants and hosts could conceivably be that which propels us all on a positive path forward. Physics theory reveals that explosive energy comes from both fission and fusion. The first is a result of division; the latter requires a merger. Harnessing combined energy might be the best kind of transformative action to work towards if we are to solve many of our immigration issues. For some, at this moment, this is perhaps a bridge too far. But long term, to ensure our mutual survival, this could be our only salvation. When walls crumble, we are left with sediment, rubble and dust. This is no less true of the walls we’ve constructed in our minds than it is of walls made of stone. What forms next?

If you can stand one last geological reference, rejuvenation in a stream is generally the result of a process known as uplift. Its distinguishing feature is “a youthful topography on a landscape that was previously worn down to a base level.” That surely is the hope of immigrants everywhere: to arrive in a new place and to be uplifted with hope. Hope is necessary for the host countries as well, who should feel revived, rather than repulsed, by the changes immigration brings. For the sake of our planet, perhaps our next move should be a collective grasping at Dickinson’s “thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” What a tectonic shift that would be, the Earth vibrating with the hope of all humanity uplifted together.

Human clinical trials have occurred throughout history, particularly in the fields of medicine and psychology. When comparing different periods, it is evident that over time, society has set more rigid and condition-based standards on what type of tests can be applied on people, as well as the necessary qualifications of the testers themselves. However, the issue itself has always been controversial, and the standards are constantly changing on the basis of legal, religious, and moral arguments. It is common sense that forcing someone to partake in a clinical study against their will, performing experiments on subjects without their knowledge of it, instigating unnecessary pain and torture, or not allowing someone to withdraw from the experiment, are unacceptable and morally, legally, and religiously unjustifiable. But such easy answers make it seem that there are strict regulations that are implemented when human clinical trials are carried out, and that there is an organized system that determines such issues. The reality is, even these “common sense” ground rules can be compromised in various situations where infringing upon one or more of the rules is pivotal to the success of the experiment.

There is a blatant discrepancy between the protocol that is implemented when handling vulnerable people, such as the mentally disabled, certain prisoners, or children, and those who are actually capable of making conscious decisions for themselves. Vulnerable people can be characterized by their inability to comprehend or, in some cases have a say in, the conditions they are subject to and the repercussions of a particular action that is carried out upon or on behalf of them. For instance, a child is considered “vulnerable” because he or she doesn’t have the experience or comprehension necessary to make a decision for him or herself, which leaves the responsibility up to the parent or legal guardian.

Another example is a prisoner of war, whose self-autonomy is completely lost. A prisoner can be forced or bribed (usually with certain ration privileges, or in some cases even freedom) into participating in experimental trials. Certain events, such as the Syphilis Studies in the 1930s, Nazi experiments of the mid 1940s, and the Willowbrook Study in the 1960s, where vulnerable people were exploited and subject to various trials, triggered the application of moral and legal restrictions that are recognized as “Ethical Milestones” (Henry 2012).

In a proper trial, the subjects involved in particular experiments would be informed of the treatments they were undergoing and would not be exposed to unbearable or unconsented agony. The trials themselves would provide a significant benefit to the greater good, and the patients would not be exposed to highly risky and life-compromising situations. Unfortunately, all of these basic humanitarian considerations were neglected in the aforementioned scenarios, as well as in many other instances when vulnerable people have been exploited.

The Syphilis Study

This study took place between 1932 and 1972 and was administered by the Public Health Service, with connections to the Tuskegee Institute. The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” aimed to analyze the natural development of untreated syphilis in underprivileged black males. The PHS would oversee the injection of the syphilis virus into the males, who were told that they were being tested for “bad blood” and were provided free medical exams, meals, and burial insurance as compensation for participating in the procedure (CDCP 2016). Essentially, the subjects were completely unaware that they were becoming hosts for the disease, and were thus unaware that they needed proper treatment. The researchers went as far as not offering penicillin, the primary treatment at the time for syphilis, to the subjects, as they wanted to monitor the long-term effects of the disease and accumulate the highest possible amount of information for their study.

The Study was (rightfully) deemed “ethically unjustified,” and a series of class-action legal disputes ensued. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is a prime example of unwarranted and unpardonable human clinical trials. Not only did it take advantage of a vulnerable population, which was in this case an impoverished racial minority, but it also failed to provide basic information, treatment, and awareness to its subjects, who were under the assumption that they were receiving medical assistance rather than medical injustice.

The Syphilis Study shamelessly infringed upon basic human rights, and caused a legal uproar, as evidenced by the title of a newspaper article, “Regulation Urged in Human Testing” (New York Times, Hicks, 1973). It violated the fundamental principle that each individual has the right to maintain his or her own life and well-being, and must thus be made aware of every, and any, procedure carried out on them by any sort of authority.

Nazi experiments

Two other major events shocked many people and led to stricter rules regulating tests on human subjects. They were the Nazi experiments and the Willowbrook State School experiments. In both of these tragic occurrences, all moral values and humanity were abandoned as malignant officials executed a variety of painful, invasive, and unwarranted measures on highly exposed and susceptible groups of people.

Everyone is aware of the horrors of the Holocaust, the mass genocide committed by the Nazis against millions of Jews, mentally disabled people, homosexuals, gypsies, and other minorities who were viewed as a threat to the purity of the “perfect Aryan race.” Fewer people are aware that the Holocaust also involved millions of brutal and inhumane experiments on people, with no justifiable scientific goal in mind. The primary aspiration of the Nazi physicians was to research and develop the tools, genes, and treatments necessary to ensure the advancement of the Aryan race and the sterilization of the supposedly “subordinate” races.

The most notorious doctor was Dr. Josef Mengele, at Auschwitz. He conducted a series of torturous procedures on primarily identical twins. During his assessments, he would specifically request twins and perform procedures like drawing enough blood that the children would bleed to death, injecting chloroform into their hearts, vivisecting their bodies, injecting chemicals into their eyes in hopes of changing their eye color (most likely to potentially achieve the highly sought-after Aryan blue eyes), sex change operations, incestuous impregnations, and even isolation endurance.

Perhaps the most gruesome and barbaric of all the procedures was the experiments on conjoining twins, where Dr. Mengele would sew the twins’ heads or limbs together to see how they would function. In other cases, he would attempt to separate pairs that were naturally conjoined (Bulow 2015).

Willowbrook experiments

In the case of the Willowbrook studies, a mental institution authorized the deliberate infection of their patients with Hepatitis to assess the growth and effects of the disease and to identify the effects of certain factors that prevent or slow the disease’s progression. Many of the subjects were disabled children, who were given “milkshakes laced with a live hepatitis virus” (Slepian 2012), and were either directly injected with the disease or fed fecal extracts of already afflicted patients. The majority of the parents and guardians who provided a written consent “didn’t know what they were signing” (Slepian 2012) because the document did not explicitly state that the children would be deliberately afflicted.

Further ethical questions were raised when it came out that the institution already had an extremely high number of patients getting the disease, and “P.I. Krugman argued that the risk was minimal – not greater than the children’s normal risk” (Henry 2012). Although the children would have most likely caught the disease anyway, it is essential to consider the possibility that some of the patients would have been otherwise immune to the factors that contributed to the spread of the ailment within the institution – and of course that it was still completely unjustifiable to have run such an unsanitary and deleterious institution in the first place, with no proper care given to the patients who were initially infected. Furthermore, that the parents were not made aware of the circumstances and were coerced into signing a document they couldn’t comprehend whilst being responsible for their child’s health was a severe moral infringement. It was, and is, completely unacceptable. The children under Willowbrook’s care obviously were not in a condition to take care of and make judgments for themselves, and for these “qualified” and “compassionate” officials to take advantage of innocent children and their families is beyond the ethical premises of human experimentation.

Modern scientific research

Unlike previous epochs in history, modern scientific research values preserving the liberties and safety of individuals involved in human experimentation trials. Several pieces of legislation and restrictions have been embedded into the process of implementing human studies at an assortment of facilities, ranging from universities to private clinics. Although there may still be cases where experiment administrators disregard the set humanitarian codes of human trial conduct, in general, people have been significantly more attentive to violations of any liberties during trials.

The basis of this morality can be found in the Hippocratic Oath, which asserts that medical practitioners have an “ethical responsibility” to the advancement of their research and the subject involved in their research. A sample of the classical text clearly indicates the personal realization and obligation that a physician must assess before conducting an experiment: “I will apply dietic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice” (Tyson 2001; originally written by Hippocrates). The Oath has even been modernized by medical professionals in the industry to adhere to the vastly different available technologies; the modern version of the Oath includes guidelines like, “I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability” (Lasagna 1964).

The Nuremberg Code is one of the primary pieces of legislation regulating experimental administrators and the morality of their procedures on human subjects. The Code blatantly outlines the strict regulations of involving people in the aims of scientific research. For instance, it makes statements like, “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential”; “The experiment should be as such to yield fruitful results for the good of society unprocurable by other methods or means of study”; and “The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury” (Mitscherlich 1947). Other smaller milestones in legislation include the Food and Drug Act (1938), the Helsinki Declaration signed by the United States (1964), and the National Research Act Title II Public Law 93-348 (1974).           

In summation, the constant ethical dilemma that many scientists are facing is the age-old problem of whether to sacrifice an individual’s well-being for the greater good, and whether that individual can be pushed beyond his or her limits in order to achieve the maximum result from the experiment. As the multiple historical instances and established legal and ethical guidelines presented in this article indicate, under any and all circumstances, the human subject must be considered before the fruit of the trial. Human experimentation is only truly ethical when the patient’s physical and mental state are protected, necessary preparations are made and scientifically qualified examiners are present, the experiment is only being conducted for the greater benefit of society, and there is no other possible form of experimentation (i.e. with animals). The patient may halt the experiment at any time and must be completely informed and aware of what the procedure will instigate.

When it comes to vulnerable people, like the mentally disabled, who are unable to make conscious decisions for themselves, they must have competent, experienced, and empathetic authorities to make decisions for them when it comes to their involvement in human clinical trials. However, the same ethical guidelines that are stated in the Nuremberg Code should be applied to the handicapped patient, and in some situations, even more legal restrictions should apply to the trial conductors and the people who are in charge of making decisions for the vulnerable individual. When it comes to children, the parents must be made aware of all of the procedures that will occur, they must ensure the comfort and safety of their child, they must consult with numerous scientific and legal authorities to ensure that they are not overstepping their boundaries, and the trial must be monitored by public officials and qualified experts to ensure the child’s safety. When it comes to prisoners, the trials must only be conducted on those who are either on death row or are serving life sentences with no possibility of parole; furthermore, the same guidelines listed in the Nuremberg Code must be applied, and the prisoners must not be compelled, guilted, or coerced into participation.

As long as a patient’s liberty, protection, and safety are assured and all legal, moral, and scientific principles and regulations are implemented, human experimentation is ethically justifiable and can even prove to be a great asset to modern technology and medicine.

References

• Henry, David (Ph.D.). Hardy, Goldman, Bhatia. 2012. “Human Subjects Research with Vulnerable Populations”. University of Illinois at Chicago, Institute for Health Research and Policy, School of Public Health. http://www.ihrp.uic.edu/files/Vulnerability_IHRP_041012.pdf
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2016. “The Tuskegee Timeline”. U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm
• Hicks, N. 1973. “Regulation Urged in Human Testing; Panel Calls for Controls on Federally Aided Research Need for Protection Cited”. New York Times, pg. 30. http://www.ihrp.uic.edu/files/Vulnerability_IHRP_041012.pdf (I received the headline from a previous source, I couldn’t find the actual publication because it was published too long ago).
• The Nuremberg Code (1947) In: Mitscherlich A, Mielke F. Doctors of infamy: the story of the Nazi medical crimes. New York: Schuman, 1949: xxiii-xxv.
  Tyson, P. 2001. “The Hippocratic Oath Today”. NOVA. PBS Thirteen, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html
• Lasagna, L. 1964. “Hippocratic Oath: The Modern Version”. School of Medicine at Tufts University. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html
• Sparks, J. 2002. “Timeline of Laws Related to the Protection of Human Subjects”. Office of History in the National Institutes of Health. https://history.nih.gov/about/timelines_laws_human.html
• Bulow, L. 2015-17. “The Angel of Death: Josef Mengele”. The Holocaust: Crimes, Heroes, and Villains. http://auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm.
• Slepian, S. 2012. “Recalling the horrors of Staten Island’s Willowbrook State School”. SILive News. http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/recalling_willowbrooks_horrors.html

“At the beginning of the empire, the tax rates were low and the revenues were high. At the end of the empire, the tax rates were high and the revenues were low.”

Former US President Ronald Reagan proudly referred to Ibn Khaldun’s above quote in an article for the International Herald Tribune in 1993 titled, “Excuse me Mr. Clinton, I must have misheard you” (February 21, 1993, p. 4). Reagan did not quote Ibn Khaldun first time in 1993. Actually he quoted him many years earlier, at the beginning of his term in the White House, as a support to his economy politics, so called Reaganomics. Although, some historians [1] saw no connection between Reaganomics and Ibn Khaldun’s theories, Reagan caught people’s attention with his reference to this notable, but mostly forgotten (at least in the West), scholar. The name was foreign to many ears, and for many Americans, it was the first time they had heard of him.

Who was Ibn Khaldun, really? Was he an economist? According to many accounts, he came up with many economic concepts 400 years before Adam Smith. Ibn Khaldun was the inspiration behind the concept popularly known as the “Laffer Curve.” Nevertheless, he was not an economist, per se.

Was he a historian? The famous historian Arnold Toynbee declared that Ibn Khaldun’s book, Muqaddimah, is the greatest book of its kind. But still others contend that he was mainly a philosopher and a political scientist.

Today, the consensus among scholars is that Ibn Khaldun was all of those things, yet today, he is primarily known for being the founder of sociology. In fact, Ibn Khaldun’s own accounts confirm this view. In his ground-breaking book, Muqaddimah, often translated as “Prolegomenon,” he declared that he had established a new science. In his own words:

“It should be known that the discussion of this topic is something new, extraordinary, and highly useful. Penetrating research has shown the way to it.” (Baali 1988)

This article is a tribute to Ibn Khaldun, the great fourteenth-century Muslim scholar. It briefly introduces his life and the sociological perspective of his contributions, specifically his ideas on luxury and its impact on the weakening of asabiyyah, or group solidarity. This is one of the most important concepts in his writings and is regarded as the seed of his famous cyclical theory of the rise and fall of the nations.

Ibn Khaldun

Abd al-rahman ibn Muhammad, generally known as Ibn Khaldun (the name came from a remote ancestor), was born in Tunis (North Africa) on May 27, 1332, to an upper class family who had fled from Seville, in 1248, to escape the Christian conquest of Andalusia. His family had witnessed the rise and fall of Muslim power in southern Spain.

As a privileged child, Ibn Khaldun had a thorough education in Aristotelian physics and philosophy, as well as mathematics, religion, geography, and poetry. His teachers were prominent scholars of their time. In the fourteenth century, in an era of unrest and political instability, he began his carrier as a seal bearer and then became a political official. He worked as a statesman, ambassador, and jurist in cities from Fez to Granada. 

In 1375, growing exhausted of the politics of his time, Ibn Khaldun confined himself to the Salama Fort, near Constantine, for four years. From this seclusion, he emerged having written one of the greatest studies on history, his magnum opus, Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History.

Drawing on both his personal experiences and the regional history of North Africa, he identified a cyclical pattern of the rise and fall of civilizations, and he then analyzed the factors contributing to such patterns.  He studied the dynamics of group relationships and argued that asabiyyah, or group solidarity, is vital to political power and to the ascent of a new civilization. He maintained that the sedentary lifestyles of urban city life introduce luxurious habits into people’s lives, thus gradually causing a deterioration in the asabiyyah and creating the conditions for civilizational collapse. According to Ibn Khaldun, a particularly strong ruler can delay this destruction; nevertheless, the asabiyyah will decay – generally within five generations – as events inherently follow a cyclical process. Every nation contains within itself the seed of its own destruction.

Possessing a keen eye for human behavior and a rare capacity for organizing his observations, Ibn Khaldun changed history by merely recording events and telling stories which could explain and predict human behavior. His methods grew from his belief that scientific research requires: (1) accurate observations; (2) logical and objective methods; (3) gathering data from the present and the past; (4) careful recording; and (5) the courage of careful description and reporting (Faghirzadeh 1982). Unlike most writers before him, he emphasized societal, economical, psychological, and environmental factors that governed events. This revolutionary approach laid the foundations for a new science: Ilm Umran (the science of society), as Ibn Khaldun called it in Muqaddimah. Explaining societal factors almost five centuries before nineteenth century classical social thinkers such as Comte, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, he is considered the forerunner of sociology. And his profound insights and observations about the society in which he lived still inspire the sociological studies of our times.

Having written his book, Ibn Khaldun grew tired of seclusion, went to Cairo, and adopted a teaching role at Al-Azhar University. His reputation had preceded him there: Al-Azhar was crowded with students and many distinguished scholars who came to listen to his theories on social phenomena. While he was in Cairo, he learned the devastating news that his entire family had been lost in a shipwreck as they were coming from Tunis to join him. Except for his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1387, and a few trips to Damascus, he remained in Cairo for the remainder of his life, serving as a chief justice. He died in 1406 at the age of seventy-four, shortly after his sixth nomination for the judgeship.

He continued to write until the end of his life. Alongside Muqaddimah, the other volumes in Kitab al-Ibar, his book on world history, dealt with the history of Arabs, Persians, Europeans, Romans, Jews, and Greeks. In the last volume of his book, he initiated a new tradition by writing an analytical autobiography, known as Al-Tasrif.

Over the last two centuries, following the first complete French translation of the Muqaddimah by de Slane in 1863, Ibn Khaldun has been discovered by scholars in the West and acknowledged as one of the great thinkers of the Muslim world. Yet it was Franz Rosenthal’s first English translation in 1958 that allowed the Muqaddimah to achieve the most acclaim in the United States and abroad.

Asabiyyah and the cyclical pattern

Let’s look closer at asabiyyah. Derived from the Arabic root asab (to bind), the concept of asabiyyah is one of the most significant concepts in Ibn Khaldun’s writings. Although some suggested keeping the Arabic term, because it cannot be translated adequately, the English translation “group solidarity” comes close in meaning to the original term. Asabiyyah, in Khaldunian terminology, then, is a social bond of cohesion that is used to measure the stability and strength of social groups. The solidarity among group members is mainly due to the constant cooperation and interdependence of its members. In this respect, an individual’s identity is fused into the group of which he or she is a member, and they thus become “one of the others” (Ibn Khaldun 1967, 277).

According to Ibn Khaldun, this bond, asabiyyah, is the most important factor in the development of a society or a civilization from a nomadic tribe to a state. He argued that asabiyyah is strongest in the nomadic phase, and decreases as a civilization advances. The concept of asabiyyah fit under his general scheme of the cyclical process and the rise and fall of civilizations. 

From his perspective, every cycle has 5 stages: 1) invasion; 2) summit; 3) tolerance; 4) tyranny; and 5) decadence (decline). In other words, every society is created, approaches perfection, declines, and is replaced by another society. It is a strong sense of asabiyyah that leads to conquest, then to the sedentary urban life; it is, finally, a taste for luxury that leads to societal collapse. Thus, nomads, who once had a strong solidarity among themselves and were known for their bravery and hard-work become less brave, less hard-working, and far more individualistic urban city dwellers under the influence of luxurious habits. Ibn Khaldun summarized the whole process as follows in Muqaddimah:

As a result, the toughness of desert life is lost. Group feeling and courage weaken. Members of the tribe revel in the well-being that God has given them. Their children and offspring grow up too proud to look after themselves or to attend to their own needs. They have disdain also for all the other things that are necessary in connection with group feeling…. Their group feeling and courage decrease in the next generations. Eventually group feeling is altogether destroyed. … It will be swallowed up by other nations. (Ibn Khaldun 1967, 107)

Ibn Khaldun placed emphasis on the power of religion to keep asabiyyah strong in a society. In his view, religion is not merely a set of moral laws, but determines all relations in a society. He maintained that if piety is replaced by ambition, and if the latter takes over human behavior in a society, then the treacherous desire to gain wealth will permeate people’s hearts. This will make a society and its people capricious, hence the corruption and eventual decline. As an example, he pointed to the time of Harun al-Rashid, and how after it passed, pleasure-seeking and corruption destroyed the strong asabiyyah of earlier Islamic civilization. They had abandoned the path of piety.

Luxury and the cyclical process

Luxury constituted a fundamental theme in the sociology of Ibn Khaldun, for to him it was the main factor distinguishing urban city life from nomadic life. He maintained that luxury in the cities follows certain economic factors. In cities, surplus labor is available to produce luxuries; thus, city people have higher incomes than people in rural areas, and this leads to higher standards of living in housing, clothing, etc.

Although a luxurious lifestyle initially causes prosperity in the city and adds to the civilization’s strength, Ibn Khaldun argued that such luxurious customs eventually become drawbacks. They create many demands and impose so many needs that the individual cannot earn enough to satisfy them. Furthermore, as a result of the additional taxes imposed by the government on such goods, the price of the various goods increases, and this in turn contributes to the cost of living, which consequently reduces the majority of people in the city to poverty. Thus, luxury increases the expenses of both the people and the state and leads, according to Ibn Khaldun, to the bankruptcy of the state.

Ibn Khaldun argued that luxury not only weakens the state economically, but also causes other physical, moral, social, and political disadvantages. Physically, it makes people weak and less immune to diseases, especially “when a drought or famine comes upon them” (Ibn Khaldun 1967, 177-182). Morally, luxury is destructive in the sense that it convinces people to value material comfort above all else and prefer their individual interests over the interests of others. Luxurious practices become indispensable. Desiring and obtaining luxuries eventually results in a degradation of the soul and breeds dishonesty and other immoral behaviors.

Moreover, it also destroys asabiyyah in the group since the pursuit of material comfort becomes the essential aim of most individuals. As a result of the disintegration of the group feeling, the group becomes easy prey for the next conqueror. The state’s leaders become increasingly lax and less disciplined, while also becoming more concerned with maintaining their power and lifestyle. Their ties to the peripheral group loosen, and asabiyyah turns into individualism and factionalism, and thus their political power diminishes. Under these conditions, they are susceptible to political disintegration, especially by the groups at the periphery. Thus, conditions for a new conqueror are ready and the cycle begins anew. Through this center-periphery model, Ibn Khaldun explained how each civilization has within itself the seeds of its own downfall.

Conclusion

Some may consider Ibn Khaldun’s approach to be a very deterministic perspective on history, and others may find nomadic invasions irrelevant to our age. His idea is obviously a theory, and every age and society have their unique social dynamics. What history is teaching us is that no civilization lasts forever, and certain aspects like group solidarity, religion, obsession with pleasure, and luxury do have roles in the ebbs and flows of nations. However, these dynamics and aspects have manifested in different ways across different times and cultures. Today, nations and cultures are interacting in different ways: through travel, the internet, immigration, etc. Ibn Khaldun’s theories do give us a perspective on how we can observe, contribute to, and be prepared for these ever-changing dynamics.

Note

[1] Daniel Snell, a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma was one of them. For his criticism, see, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/07/opinion/l-reading-reagan-s-favorite-arabic-sage-943993.html.

References

Baali, Fuad. 1988. Society, State and Urbanism: Ibn Khaldun’s Sociological Thought. State University of New York Press, Albany.

Faghirzadeh, Saleh. 1982. Sociology of Sociology: In Search of Ibn Khaldun’s Sociology Then and Now. The Soroush Press, Tehran.

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Translation by Franz Rosenthal. 1967. Princeton University Press. Vol I

When I entered the room, the patient’s wife and adult son were standing in a corner with a nurse, staring at the deceased, wearing grim and shocked faces. It was the oddest thing, because he died while actively getting out of bed to go to the bathroom. His wife looked at me, feeling the need to explain, and said, “He just said he had to go to the bathroom. That was all he said, and he started to get up.”  

One leg was already off the bed, not quite touching the floor. Mr. Griffin was wearing boxer shorts and a tee-shirt. He looked to be in his 50s. The whole length of his body was uncovered, revealing a tall, thin frame. He was lying on his side, on the edge of the bed, with one arm bent at the elbow, hand splayed, as if using it to push off.

Suspended in mid-air, Mr. Griffin was positioned like an action figure, basically half off the bed. I was inclined to run to catch him, before he fell. His facial expression was frozen, but not in surprise. Rather, his eyes were wide open, lips parted, and intent for his destination. But Mr. Griffin had been caught unaware in the act of dying and stopped by the instant of his death.

I asked the nurse to please place the man in a more relaxed position and cover him, while I escorted the family from the room to comfort them.

My grandfather, who lived into his nineties, would always say, “I’m not going to die one second before my time on earth is up.” As a Muslim, he was informed by the Qur’an, which states, not unlike the Bible, that every living thing has an appointed time on earth, known only to the Creator.

The image of Mr. Griffin sometimes visits me when I am praying. Usually, it’s a time when I feel rushed to get my prayer over with (and get back to my friends), or at a time when I realize, regrettably, that I am praying by rote.  My next thought forms the question: Why am I rushing, when this could be my last breath or action?

My witness of Mr. Griffin in death has given me an indisputable piece of empirical evidence that my next breath is not guaranteed.

For a believer (no matter what religion), being in prayer is a sacred space and an opportunity to become aware of God’s presence. God-consciousness intensifies a sense of inner peace, and I would certainly prefer to die in this state of mind than get caught unaware.

Being God-conscious is the counterpoint to praying by rote, which is a state of ungratifying unconsciousness. I recognize that in this unconscious state, I take everything about my existence for granted, including the movement of my hands and legs, my breathing, and even whatever or whoever is waiting for me, when I am finished my obligation.

In fact, for those God-conscious people who have worked hard to establish prayer in life, the mindlessness of praying by rote defeats the whole purpose of taking time out to pray. . For those trying to establish prayer in their life, praying by rote is counter-productive and , actually makes it harder to establish daily prayers.

I should point out that praying by rote is not synonymous with praying by force of habit. Good habits are hard to form, require self-discipline, and are more akin to achievements. Self-discipline is one of the fruits of recognizing our self-worth. Taking time out (five times a day for a Muslim) to create a sacred space from the routine of another mindless, busy day is a discipline of mindfulness gained, similar to meditation, which has an appeal for similar reasons.

In Islam, however, prayer is something more than meditation. For being and fulfilling an obligation, it brings with it the inner peace of self-satisfaction. In addition to the satisfaction of self-discipline, prayer has a sacred purpose and brings with it the promise of a greater, unimagined reward in the hereafter.

Since my visit to Mr. Griffin, I am more immune to praying by rote. Carving out the time in my day and praying in a sacred space gives me an opportunity to occupy my mind, not in a superficial way, but in deep reflection. As I reflect on the existence of an All-loving, All-just, All-powerful, All-forgiving, and All-knowing Supreme power, I find myself listening to the rhythm of my breathing. Furthermore, as I enter into a state of pious mindfulness known in Islam as the Arabic word, “taqwa,” I pray for this precious God-consciousness to stay with me, because I know that it increases my appreciation for everything and everyone in my daily life.