It is a calamity that in the popular imagination of the modern west, the cradle of western civilisation — Mesopotamia and Persia — is represented as an uncivilized backwater, deserving only of our bombs.
Who knows a thing of the spectacular architecture of this region? Who knows of its rich culture, cuisine and poetry? Who knows of the voluminous learning it produced, which illuminated the path of Europe as it emerged from it’s dark ages?
Who would dare tell modern Europeans where the word ‘Europe’ came from? These thoughts stirred as I listen to wondrous poetry, a thousand years old, certain that the captions cannot possibly do justice to that ecstatic lyricism.
We think we are cultured, when all our imaginations can conceive is how to rain down more shock and awe on a land represented as a barren wasteland populated only by uncivilized barbarians, undeserving of life and liberty.
All this we must do to preserve our way of life. But what is such a way of life then worth? Is this really the pinnacle of civilisation?
Last modified: 30 December 2022
