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August 11, 2008
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"Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from
Muhammad to the Present" by Mark Weston
Foreword by Amb. Wyche Fowler, Jr.
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Editor's Note:
There is a new addition to your reading list of books on Saudi Arabia. Mark Weston, a former Visiting Scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, presents the complete story of the emergence of modern Saudi Arabia in
"Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the
Present." The book is being released today and we are pleased to provide here for your consideration the foreword, written by former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Wyche Fowler. Weston's introduction to the book will be provided
tomorrow.
"Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present"
by Mark Weston
Foreword
By Wyche Fowler Jr.
 As a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, I welcome
"Prophets and
Princes" as a balanced and comprehensive history of this vital, oil-rich nation. Many excellent (and some dreadful) works have been written about the kingdom, but the scope of Prophets and Princes is particularly ambitious. In one volume, Mark Weston describes the development of the Arabian peninsula from the era of Muhammad and his successors and the beginnings of the Sunni-Shia split in the seventh century to the strategic importance and the many social and economic changes that characterize the Saudi kingdom today. This is a rare work of fact and analysis, a guide to understanding Saudi Arabia�s policies, politics, and application of Islam to modern life.
For centuries, Arabia was isolated from the world. Even the Ottoman Turks had no desire to govern the hundreds of miles of harsh desert east of Mecca. As a result, the Arabian people were left alone to develop a unique society that assigns the highest priority to honor, family, and a strict separation of the sexes.
It is easy to stereotype people whose customs are so different from our own, but preconceptions are often misconceptions. When President Bill Clinton asked me to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, I sought the advice of the late John West, the former governor of South Carolina, who was our ambassador to the kingdom during Jimmy Carter�s presidency. �You will like the Saudis,� Governor West told me. �They are a lot like Southerners -- religious, family-oriented, conservative. They will be suspicious at first, but will respond warmly if you show you are interested in them. And once you win their trust, they are loyal friends.� During my time at my post, I found his observations to be accurate.
Today, it is distressing to see the tragedy of September 11, 2001, aggravated by uniformed commentary about Saudi Arabia in many Western publications and broadcasts and from members of Congress whose criticism ignores our countries� long history of cooperation and friendship. A common mistake, Weston says, is to attribute al-Qaeda�s violence primarily to the Saudi form of Islam, Wahhabism. This religious movement, which dates from the 1740s, is motivated mainly by monotheism, not by jihad, for it emerged as a reaction to the idolatry and the superstition of the times. "Prophets and Princes" asserts that the chief ideological influence on al-Qaeda is Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian who wrote for the Muslim Brotherhood. In his chapter on the rise of the Muslim fundamentalism and the emergence of Osama bin Laden, Mark Weston documents the political difficulties the Saudi monarchy faced because of its alliance with the United States, which was a mutually beneficial friendship in times of war and peace for more than half a century.
Having lived in Saudi Arabia for almost five years, I share Weston�s sense of wonder at how far the kingdom has come in just two generations. Sixty years ago, most of the country�s people were illiterate and lived in mud-brick houses. Today the majority enjoys a first-world infrastructure, modern conveniences, and at least a high school education. Certainly, there is progress to be made. The Saudi government, under its widely respected new king, Abdullah, has recognized the need to diversify its economy, expand opportunities for women, and improve the quality of education by minimizing religious prejudice in the classroom, adopting a more rigorous academic curriculum, and disciplining teachers (and preachers) who use their authority for political purposes. This will help the kingdom to gradually democratize, enforcing human rights and the rule of law and opening its society to enhanced economic opportunity.
I share Weston�s optimism that if Muslims and Westerners can avoid a �clash of civilizations� brought on by extremists� acts and extreme reactions, the Saudis can reconcile Islam with modern life and different religious traditions. Saudi Arabia may be the West�s best hope for Muslim moderation. As the custodian of Islam�s holiest places, the Saudi hierarchy -- both clerics and princes -- has an enormous influence over whether deeds done in the name of Islam are accepted or reviled. We should all pray for the Saudi leaders� wisdom and success.
"Prophets and
Princes" is an essential book in these dangerous times. It will widen the knowledge of serious students of history and theology and will reward the lay reader who seeks a deeper understanding of the long and often misunderstood friendship between the West and Saudi Arabia.
Printed with permission of Mr. Weston.
 Wyche
Fowler, Jr.
A native Georgian, Wyche Fowler currently serves as the
Chairman of the Board of Governors at the Middle East
Institute. Before assuming this position, he served as US
Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 2001.
Senator Fowler represented the state of Georgia for 16 years
in the United States Congress. Elected to the Senate in
1986, he served as Assistant Floor Leader, where he helped
to mold bipartisan consensus for major public issues. Prior
to that, Mr. Fowler was a member of the US House of
Representatives from 1977-1987.
Before his election to Congress, Fowler practiced law in
Atlanta for eight years and was elected in 1970 at age 29 to
the Atlanta City Council. Four years later he was selected
President of the Council, and served in that capacity until
1977. Senator Fowler received a BA in English from Davidson
College in 1962 and a JD from Emory University in 1969. He
holds honorary degrees from Hofstra, Davidson and Morris
Brown College.
 About
Mark Weston
Mark Weston has recently returned from Saudi Arabia, where
he was a Visiting Scholar at the King Faisal Center for
Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. He has completed a
history of the kingdom, Prophets and Princes � Saudi
Arabia from Muhammad to the Present, which John Wiley &
Sons published in July 2008. Wyche Fowler, former U.S.
Senator from Georgia and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, wrote
the foreword.
Weston�s interest in the Muslim world began in 1990, when
he lived in Lahore while researching his first book, The
Land and People of Pakistan (HarperCollins 1992) a work
recommended by the National Council for Social Studies.
The Los Angeles Times
called Weston�s second work, Giants of Japan: The
Lives of Japan�s Greatest Men and Women (Kodansha
1999) �a superb new book.�
Foreign Affairs called it �vivid, an excellent
introduction to Japanese history.� Walter Mondale wrote
the foreword, and the book went into paperback in 2002 and
again in 2005.
Weston
grew up in Armonk, New York and graduated from Brown
University with a B.A. in history. He spent a year at the
London School of Economics, then earned a law degree from
the University of Texas. He has been a lawyer for ABC
Television and a journalist for ABC News, and has written
articles for
The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles
Times. His one-character play, �Meet George Orwell,� has
been performed at Trinity College, Oxford and the John
Kennedy Presidential Library Theatre in Boston, among other
venues.
In 1991 Weston won enough money on TV's Jeopardy!
to start a company that makes geographical jigsaw puzzles
for children. He sold his firm to a larger puzzle company
three years later, then lived with a Japanese family in
Tokyo while researching his second book. He has also written
a children�s book,
Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars, that Lee & Low
Books will publish in October 2008. |
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