I knew it, the Arabs invented soap. “Obsession with cleanliness” has long ranked up there with “belief in conspiracy theories” in my top ten characteristics of the Arab people. And yet in all my research on Western perceptions of Arabs, cleanliness has never registered a vote — if anything we are more likely to be thought of as the opposite of clean. Well stop press, our devotion to personal hygiene has finally been recognized. Recently, the BBC aired a new series called “What The Ancients Did For Us” and the first episode starred Islamic Civilization, and boy did we shine.
Extolling the achievements of ancient Islamic civilization is not new to me; quite the opposite. It is a regular refrain from my childhood, something I associate strongly with my parents’ generation. But it was always framed within the context of disappointment: We were such a mighty civilization and look at us now, sadness in their eyes for what had been lost, for the irremediable decline.
I did not always take it all that seriously. Sometimes it was a little overblown, it seemed any word beginning with “al” simply had to be Arab in origin. And there is something very depressing in constantly looking to the past for credit. Looking back often stopped us from looking forward.
All of which made the BBC program more rewarding, it was like getting a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars. The contribution of ancient Islamic civilization to modern science and technology is remarkable. From algebra to astronomy, soap to perfume, distillation to windmills, its sheer range is impressive. The early Muslims not only came up soap and better ways to cleanliness but also created the first torpedo. They didn’t quite invent gunpowder, the Chinese did that. But the Chinese only used it for fireworks; the Arabs were the first to see its potential as a military weapon. Above all, they were devoted to preserving and building knowledge, a lasting legacy for the modern world.
But for me, an Arab girl who grew up in London, the most salient feature of this program is that it had an Arab co-presenter. Amani Zain is new to me, and she is the most energetic, enthusiastic, ebullient presenter I have come across. You could not pack more fizz into a woman; she literally bounced around the globe expounding on the Islamic contribution to the world.
Back when I was young, you never saw women with Arab names on television. Back before Zeinab Badawi and the Sawalha girls, there were none, from blue Peter to the news, they all had names like Selina and Jane. And it made it all the harder to believe that we could emerge from our relative obscurity, that we had a role to play, that we could be ambitious. The first step to achieving something is being able to imagine yourself doing it. But times have changed, now newscasters are just as likely to be called Samira as to be called Samantha, from CNN to Channel 4, Arab and Muslim women are making their mark. Returning to “What The Ancients Did For Us”, I noticed that the Muslim Council of Britain assisted the making of the documentary. I must applaud them for it. Here is a concrete step in challenging some of the negative perceptions of Muslims that exist in the West, so much better than cosmetic PR exercises.
— Iman Kurdi holds a Ph.d. in psychology. She is based in London.
