Page 461 - Neglected Arabia (1906-1910)

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reverence address you as my fathers, as Orientals f fathers, as
men, riesh of my flesh, and blood of my blood, with one Creator,
and one grave in the lap of our common earth, my brothers.
First of all, I ask you to pardon my faltering tongue. Should
my lips obey my heart I could do justice to the ‘’language of the
angels.” I purpose Tafhim, not Fasaha; to be understood, not
to be eloquent. And, again, though my subject gives room thereto,
J shall refrain from entering into all religious discussion, in accord­
ance with the rules of this society.
My subject is: The Oriental is more capable of civilization
than the Occidental.
And I shall plead for the Oriental.
Perhaps you are suspicious of my motives in choosing this
subject. You surmise that I am but prompted by etiquette, inas­
much as I am your guest, or by diplomacy that I may gain your
favor. Indeed, it would be but poor etiquette on my part should I
not thus requite the countless kindnesses shown me by His Otto­
man Majesty's subjects during more than six years' residence in
Busrali. Nor do I simply court your favor; I court your welfare
and the welfare of your great empire. Were it not so, I should not
have left my native land to dwell in fever-ridden Mesopotamia.
You pertinently ask: “Shall a stranger know us better than we
know ourselves?”
I ask you: “Why does not, or cannot, a physician, when he is
ill, diagnose his own malady?”
Man is by nature a social being. Look at his constitution; he
has ears to hear, he has eyes to see. he has a tongue to speak. \\ e
conclude that the Creator, be He praised, in creating him thus
purposed that man should not live alone, but that he not only can
but must use these senses, these powers, not for himself, but for
others. In his association with his fellow-men he, therefore,
advances, for he obeys his constitution and the deepest intuitions
of his being. Therefore civilization is man's duty.
But what is civilization? By what rule do we decide that this
man is civilized and that man is not? If we look at the word
“temeddum” we find it derived from the same root as the word
“medinat.” Likewise in English, civilization is from the root
“civitas,” a city, a state, Is it, then, that he who lives alone or
away from men is uncivilized, and he who inhabits a city, because
he does so, is civilized? By no means, for we know that some of
the greatest savages live in cities, and some of God's finest and
noblest live alone and apart from cities. The word ‘ medinat is an
arbitrary word, an idiom, We use it because by “medinat” we
represent society, the whole.

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