Five top books to understand Middle Eastern Muslims

Donna Lee Bowen, Professor Emerita of Political Science and Near Eastern Studies at Brigham Young University, is co-editor of Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East.

At Shepherd she taggd five of the best books to understand Middle Easterners and their lives in the Muslim Middle East. One title on the list:

Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

When I first lived in the Middle East, I realized that I had to learn a whole new framework of customs, practices, and expectations if I wanted to fit in. This book is still the best guide to values and practices, despite many changes since it was written.

Newly-married to a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Chicago, Elizabeth Fernea traveled to a Shia Muslim village in faraway Iraq in the mid-1960s. While Bob Fernea sets out to meet the officials in the town and surrounding area, Elizabeth is isolated in a small house, hindered by little local Arabic and being new and foreign as she works to make friends. The most respected and powerful man in the village is the local sheikh.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth doesn’t know what proper behavior for a sheltered Iraqi wife would be, and normal behavior for an American graduate student’s wife can be scandalous. As she learns how to live as a proper Iraqi woman, she teaches her readers that reputation and honor—all brought by proper behavior—brings status and esteem.

Elizabeth (known by her nickname B.J.) brings up all that I wanted to know about living in the Middle East with total honesty and humor. Elizabeth questions how she should act, what she should wear, and what is acceptable behavior.

In order to support her husband’s position in the village, she first learned and then adapted to local customs in dress, behavior, and housekeeping. She develops friendships with curious neighbors, and they teach her how a proper woman runs a household.

I found this book to be entertaining and a delight to read, as well as introducing me to traditional norms of behavior in the region. As Elizabeth learns how to live as a respected resident of her village, I likewise learned answers to many of the questions I had about how Middle Easterners live and what is important to them.

Read about another book on Bowen's list.

--Marshal Zeringue