released 10/27/2023

Just before 9/11, a book by Middle East historian Bernard Lewis was being prepared for publication. After the World Trade Center attacks, the book was released with the title What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. The question in the title is asked from the point of view of the Islamic world, and refers not simply to events in the late 20th century, but to a centuries-long pattern of frustration and disappointment. As Lewis writes in the introduction, “For many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement.” But the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in the siege of Vienna in 1683 began a period of decline in world influence, and a rise in the influence of Western ideas and habits in the region once totally ruled by the laws of Islam. Ken Myers talked with Bernard Lewis in 2002, a still-relevant conversation presented in today’s Feature.

51 minutes

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