Abstract
A peculiar kind of domination emanating from discussions on religions and the Middle East is the extent to which these are clouded by Islam or ‘Abrahamic religions’. This has given, unfortunately, short shrift to many other religious minorities which are strewn across the region. While this may come across as obvious and innocuous, it speaks much about the kind of domination of a particular discourse and less about the ground realities. Gerard Russell’s book, a brilliant synthesis of travel literature and scholarly erudition, seeks to address this, thus, inverting our understanding about the region, and thereby showing us that there is more to it than Islam or ‘Abrahamic religions’. In the process, he charts out ‘little known’ communities such as the Mandaeans, Yazidis, Samaritans, Druze, and Copts who live in the wider Middle East.
Fluent in Arabic and Farsi, trained in classical philosophy, and armed with a deep verse verve for the communities being portrayed, one wishes that Russell had brought out this book much earlier. Nevertheless, the publication of the book is well timed, for many of the communities sketched out in this book are not only ‘frail descendants’ of ancient civilizations but are also on the verge of lapsing into the annals of history.
The fact that these minorities, most tracing their genealogy to pre-Islamic times and which once had torrents of followers, have made the unfortunate transition to ‘obscurity’ and ‘abstruseness’ is not only a testament to the myriad tribulations they are confronted with but also to their staying power. Over the centuries, they have resisted attempts at domination, elimination, assimilation, integration, and even syncretism. Debates over minorities animate societies of all hues. Minorities and debates around them are the stock of neoliberal or procedural republics. There are societies too where they have escaped the domain of debate and devolve into a domain of arbitrariness. Modern societies in relation to minorities are different in the sense that their personhoods and lives are not hostages to the impulsive government fiat. But that these atrocities continue to happen with alarming alacrity is a testament to how this arbitrariness still animates many societies across the Middle East. That these religious minorities are marginalized, persecuted, discriminated against, killed, and massacred with persistent impunity reeks of the attitude employed toward them.
The Yazidis have had to live with the accusation that they revere and worship the ‘devil’ itself in the form of ‘Melek Taoos’ who is regarded more in the vein of a fallen rebel angel than along the lines of the prince of darkness by these believers. The Yazidis sacrifice bulls and revere Sheikh Shams who resembles the Sun God, Shamash, from the Assyrian pantheon, and see Prophets in Greek philosophers. In addition to having similarities with the worshippers of Mithras, Yazidis along with Harranians and Alawites share a reverence for planets which is why it is quite understandable that the landing of man on moon did produce a ‘theological crisis among Alawite scholars’ (p. 75).
The Zoroastrians meanwhile place a premium on purity and list penances that one is required to perform in the event of hurting or killing a dog, one of which is to kill 10,000 cats. In the past, the Muslim preference for felines and the Zoroastrian preference for canines have often led to a conflict between the two communities. The motif in the shape of Fravahar dominates the Zoroastrians and Alexandr, the heroic figure, having a place in the Koran for his accomplishments, is despised for his ancient transgressions against the Persian Empire. In spite of having seen good fortune in the initial decades of the twentieth century, this community’s fortunes have fallen since the advent of the Iranian revolution. Russell also notes the prevalence of the teachings of Aristotle in the seminaries of Qom, in addition to festivals and practices from pre-Islamic times, in modern Iran in spite of injunctions against them by its religious leaders (p. 121).
How these communities navigated through history and contextual exigencies by appealing to the authority of Islamic scriptures wherein they found loopholes to insert themselves so as to avoid the injunctions and involutions against communities not covered under the ambit of ‘people of the book’ is evident through the Mandaeans who projected themselves as Sabians. They revere John the Baptist not Jesus Christ and reject the patriarch Abraham, and Russell floats the tantalizing proposition: whether these Mandaeans could be related to the ancient Babylonians (p. 35). The Druze of Lebanon, in addition to believing the idea that it was the peacock instead of the serpent that tempted humankind, also holds vehemently the injunction on intergroup marriages. Fortunes of the Copts in Egypt too have seen a downward spiral who witnessed better days during the reign of Hosni Mubarak.
It also behooves one to understand that these communities have been able to sustain themselves due to a host of reasons, Islam’s theological canvas being one among them. It not only speaks of the tolerance animating Muslim societies but also the fortitude, resilience, and adaptability of these faith communities. Juggling between identities and threats of assimilation, suppression, and annihilation, these minorities have sustained themselves in niches of the Middle East by retreating into remote mountainous places or marshes in Iraq or availing themselves of the ‘People of the book’ tag through the category of ‘Sabians’ which was left ambiguous in the scriptures.
These communities have fallen into precarious times because of the ubiquity of the contemporary state that brought all communities under its stronghold. And the dilemmas of choosing sides in a much volatile world animate the life of the Samaritans who deem themselves to be the descendants of the ancient kingdom of Israel and thus have been continuously inhabiting the territory since then. They pray at Mount Gerizim in opposition to Mount Ararat and believe to be in possession of the authentic traditions of their ancestors rather than Jews.
History has played havoc with these communities, being mostly unkind to them. By pure contingency, they have devolved to a status of facing existential crisis on a quotidian basis. Earlier, these communities could partake in the narratives of belonging but not now. The emergence of a nation-state system has sedimented the process as to who could be part of a nation-state and who cannot, thereby excluding communities which were earlier part of a larger community yet lay claims to difference, proverbially manifest in the millet system. Close mindedness and insularity has led to parochial conceptions about what a society should be thereby bringing in the need for exterminating certain religious groups. Rulers in the past, similar to the ones in the present, have waged theological wars against these frail communities for they were the trump cards for them to shore up their legitimacy. In topical times, their situation has not changed much, but the tools through which they are dominated and persecuted have, in tune with the language of power employed by the modern states. Nobody would lose from this more than the dominant religious groups of the Middle East, a region which has housed and nurtured many a religious traditions.
The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) only led to deterioration of their situation. Replete with fascinating details and interesting snippets, Gerald Russell’s book sucks one into an enthralling narrative about the existential adversities faced by these communities. It is difficult either to put this book down or ignore it. This is a must read for anyone interested in religious minorities, how religions are adept at adaptation, and how, more importantly, the dominant religious canvasses across the Middle East bear the subtle imprints of these other less-known religious traditions from times long gone.