ABSTRACT
In approaching a study of the reaction against Western culture which is beginning to appear in the Middle East, even if as yet only a glimmer on the horizon, we must be careful to avoid two opposing errors. One is to imagine that the present conflict is in some way comparable to the struggle which took place in the Middle Ages between Arab culture and the Persian and Greek cultures and that the two oppositions are to be put on the same plane. The other error is to ignore the lessons to be learnt from the past. History always presents two snares, one to the historian, and the other to the man of action. The historian finds it difficult not to read the past into present events; the man of action too readily ignores the past, and is content with a surface appraisal of what confronts him.
