The Arab world can be conditionally divided into four regions: the Maghreb and other states of North Africa, the Persian Gulf and other countries of the Middle East. Moreover, if you ask a native Maghrebi whether he considers himself an Arab, you will hear in response that he is, of course, not an Arab at all, but a Berber through and through. It is bad form to call an Egyptian an Arab, because the word Bedouin in Cairo is almost a swear word. An Egyptian is an Egyptian – a representative of the most ancient civilization on the planet. One popular Egyptian children's song has these words: “El Alam kullu madin li hadaratil misriyin, el alam asbah alaman bina ihna misriyin” – “The world is as it is because the Egyptians created it. The world became the world because we are Egyptians.” In general, further comments are unnecessary. Moreover, no one is bothered by the fact that they speak one of the varieties of Arabic and mostly believe in Allah.
To understand this curious phenomenon, one has to reconsider the classification of the Arab world. More precisely, to divide all Arab states into early conquests and late conquests, where the center, source and beginning of beginnings is, of course, Saudi Arabia, followed by other countries of the Persian Gulf and so on. Moreover, the farther from the center, the less Arabness. And the original Bedouins are today the Saudis, residents of the Arab Emirates, Bahrainis, Qataris, Kuwaitis, Omanis and Jordanians. They are the bearers of the original tradition and have every right to call themselves Arabs.
“The East is a delicate matter, Petrukha.” Try to describe what a “correct” Arab is, and you understand the truth of this eternal aphorism like never before. The first thing that comes to mind is people satisfied with life. Or at least they give that impression. And not only because Allah in his great mercy has endowed many of them with oil. A feeling of deep contentment is written on the faces of all, without exception, the inhabitants of this region. Most likely, it is a matter of fatalism, which permeates the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. If the symbol of Russian culture became the famous “avos”, then the full-fledged mirror of Arab life is the expression “Insha-Allah” (If it is Allah’s will). Not a single conversation is complete without this phrase, business negotiations end with it, dates are made with it, people live and work with it.
Unlike the North African Arabs, whose free morals and very casual attitude toward religion developed under the influence of European colonizers and their own irrepressible love of life, the lives of the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf countries (which they, by the way, call Arabian) are completely regulated by faith.
Islam is one of the most practical religions on earth. The day of a faithful Muslim is scheduled to the minute, and for everything there is a separate rule prescribed in the Quran, sunnahs or hadiths. Followers of Islam know perfectly well when to eat, perform ablution, pray or fast. At the same time, no one feels like they are in the army, where you don’t need to think – the father-commanders decided everything. Islam is an extremely humane teaching; it only helps those walking along the “tariq ad-din” – the path of faith – to focus on the most important thing, unity with God, without being carried away by worldly vanity and everyday trifles.
Unlike Christianity and Buddhism, which are prone to asceticism, Islam not only recognizes the family, but also projects its own cosmogony onto it, making the institution of marriage a direct continuation of serving God. As a result, Arabs, for the most part, are excellent family men and wonderful parents. It is impossible to imagine an Arab in life raising his voice at his wife or, even more so, at his children. The attitude of sheikhs toward their offspring is exceptionally tender. Children are surrounded by care, spoiled, and allowed almost everything. As a result, little Saudis and Qataris grow up as self-confident people, devoid of complexes.
Another rather amusing side of the Arab family is the peculiar attitude of Eastern women to marriage. While modern European women increasingly strive to build a career, assert themselves, and only then start a family, for Eastern houris marriage is the apotheosis of life, everything worth striving for. Well, once the goal is achieved, you can relax. So the figures of married Arab matrons, resembling overripe eggplants, are not only genetics, but also the absence of any need to watch themselves so closely. Moreover, an Arab wife is fully protected in marriage. Of course, her husband can divorce her, and very easily at that, but when parting with his dearest half, he is obliged to provide for her so that she wants for nothing for the rest of her life.
If these lines are read by my beautiful compatriots, in whose charming little heads the hunting instinct has switched on, I must disappoint you. Such rules apply only to Muslim women – hereditary residents of these countries. Of course, a foreign woman can win the heart of a local sheikh and go down the aisle with him, but in doing so she will deprive her betrothed of a mass of privileges granted to residents of oil states in equal (local with local) marriages. These include a loan for buying a house, a loan for children, and the like (everything is calculated in six-figure sums, and not in rubles), but she herself will find herself in an extremely awkward position. The fact is that such marriages are very rarely long-lasting – the alienness of cultures and mentalities takes its toll. In the event of a divorce, the local husband has the right to expel the former lawful wife from the country, and if the family has managed to have children, the children always remain with the father.
By the way, since we are on the topic of love, it is worth saying a few words about some peculiarities of Arab courtship. Bodily contact occupies an extremely important place in Islamic tradition. Not only the touch itself matters, but even with which hand and which part of the body you touch. Therefore, in everyday life, Eastern men (unlike North Africans) are extremely sparing with tactile contact. But in moments of tenderness, it is precisely touches that tell lovers more than words themselves. One of the highest manifestations of sympathy and trust is feeding the object of one's feelings, so to speak, from one's hands.
For all their charm and exoticism, Arabs remain living people with their shortcomings, compounded by traditional Eastern cunning, which is a product of the same religion.
In its tireless desire to help the faithful Muslim concentrate on achieving a good goal, Islam not only defined the everyday life of a Muslim in the utmost detail, but also tried as much as possible to protect him from various bad temptations, a list of which is known to every man who has reached adulthood. Moreover, the men of the Gulf region, as is known, are not distinguished by Scandinavian composure and imperturbability. Behind the facade of swarthy, hook-nosed faces, terrible passions often boil, which the owner of the face is obliged to hide from others so as not to lose that very face in the eyes of respectable society. Therefore, wealthy sheikhs, extremely proper at home, often let loose completely on their trips to Europe and America.
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