Black Wave

I have to say that I am in awe of Kim Ghattas’ magnum opus, Black Wave. It is a book filled with heroes and villains. I have studied MENA on and off for years both professionally and personally, although my focus has at times been pushed by career needs to other regions of the world. I heard the stories of an officemate who had returned from Iran with the advent of the revolution. I only found out about the seizure of the American Tehran embassy when I purchased back copies of Time magazine in the Peking Hotel gift shop upon my return to Beijing from a month in the hinterlands of China. I had found my shortwave radio useless. At the time, I had thought the assassination of Park Chung-hee was the more momentous occurrence I had missed! I was subsequently posted in the KSA servicing Aramco for over two years in the early eighties while the Iran-Iraq war was raging, and subject to censorship most noticeable by the torn pages removing cleavage from printed media. I was inspired during that assignment to return to graduate school in Denver, and I believe it was in 1985 that I worked closely on a seminar project with a young man named Javad Zarif, defending the right of the U.S. to use force to defend its interests in a debate with the other two members of the class. (An avowed supporter of Khomeini, he of course asserted the same right of Iran to do the same.) As recently as 2016 I visited the “discovery” well of the extension of the Iranian Yadavaran oil field into Iraq and a mine-clearing operation for much of the Operation Ramadan battlefield. It was sobering to realize that an estimated 15% of the 180,000 troops involved were killed or wounded in a six-week bloodletting 34 years earlier. So my life, work experience and interests have been intertwined with the events described by Ms. Ghattas. Even with my voracious appetite for written perspectives on MENA in languages accessible to me, however, I still view myself as naïve in the region. Ghattas has filled in many gaps in my knowledge with her expansive account. I found it very readable, although slow going as I frequently put it down to further research specific subtopics or individuals. It will be worth a re-read at some point, and of course is a good reference. She barely touches upon the oil politics, and most of what has transpired in Libya, for instance, is beyond the scope of the book. She dissects the culture(s) of the region and the malignant effects upon it of the book’s two major protagonists, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The veiling she describes darkens the lives of not just women but everyone caught in the maelstrom unleashed by the religious fundamentalists. Anyone who wants to understand the cauldron that is the Middle East must read this book. Anyone who wants to understand the dangers of religious fundamentalism should read this book.

An excellent analysis of the seemingly endless political and actual warfare within the Muslim world focusing primarily on Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. She describes a region where bloodlust runs rampant and life is cheap - whether an individual life, eg her friend and colleague Jamal Khashoggi, or the routine massacres of Muslims by Muslims in connection with the Sunni/Shiite split or for more mundane political reasons. She captures much of which the Western press either chooses to ignore or is simply unable (or unwilling) to grasp or assess by way of the realpolitik of the region. Ghattas’ depiction of the Ayatollah Khomeini was, I thought, particularly informative. While it seemed (to me at least) that he was portrayed in the West as little more than a religious zealot, which indeed he was, the Western press largely missed the extent to which he was a calculating political operative. He seemingly never missed an opportunity to turn an event in the region or the world to the advantage of Iran’s pernicious agenda. The Saudis were simply no match when it came to political strategizing. Even Yasser Arafat had a better sense of Khomeini’s political strengths than did the Saudis (not that it ever made a whit of difference for the Palestinians). Despite what she has written, Ghattas comes down on the side of hope for the region. That assessment was difficult for me to accept. It’s easy to understand given her background, born in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war (another essentially endless conflict), why she wants to be hopeful. And to be sure, there are occasional hopeful signs, some generated by the courageous women she describes and which form an important part of her narrative. But there is precious little in this extremely well-written and informative volume that gave this reader any sense of hope that the millions of Muslims of the region who endure unimaginable suffering on a daily basis will ever have a better life.

This book tells the broad story of the past 40+ years of the Middle East starting from the premise that three significant events in 1979 have shaped the region's path: the Iranian Revolution, the siege of Mecca, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The story is told as a series of personal stories, relating the lives and fates of a number of important personalities from across the region with a narrative of how their thoughts and beliefs influenced and/or were impacted by the increasingly conservative Islamist narrative across the region. The author does a really good job of weaving it all together in a way in which the overlapping and cascading influences are laid out with clarity. The author states at the outset that she wanted to understand "What happened to us?", in the context of understanding what were the events and influences that have resulted in the bitter Saudi-Iranian rivalry, the vicious wars in Syria and Yemen, the rise of ISIS, and a general trend towards increasingly conservative Islam in places like Egypt and Pakistan. She approached the question, as one would guess from its phrasing, from an empathetic perspective of the impacts of all of this on the ordinary citizens of the region. An engrossing read and highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the region.

This book is a vastly informative, in-depth resource detailing the parallel countries of Iran and Saudi Arabia post 1979 Iranian Revolution. It details the religious extremism that emerged post revolution, with the all powerful Supreme Leader Khomeini dictating the Iranian Shia Sufism outward and the promotion of Wahhabism by the al-Saud dynasty for Sunnis in the Muslim world radiating from Saudi Arabia. The book powerfully captures the erosion of freedoms such as diversity of religious and political ideology as theocratic societies emerge with increasing extremism. The competition to proselytize the "correct" school of Muslim theology throughout the Middle East and the world and the increasingly violent sectarianism that was and is so destructive to the region (and the world) is clearly shown in historic and personal terms. The book captures the devastation of authoritarianism and the rise of religious extremism without solely focusing on the Western fear of terrorism, although the book provides context as to how and why groups like Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, Daesh, and Hezbollah develop and flourish and the destruction they cause. The central emphasis of the book is how the absolute rule of men in positions of powers is corrosive and corrupting whether it comes in the form of government or religion, and that both religion and politics are often the tools of authoritarians, divisive so they can maintain and expand their power. This book is an excellent introduction to Middle Eastern affairs and despite complex and often unfamiliar concepts reads quickly and with suspense. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to better understand the Middle East beyond limited discussions of terrorists and terrorism.

This is a timely and critically important book on the deepening tragedy that is the Middle East. Lebanese journalist Kim Ghattas explains the region through the prism of the Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry. She brings these two rich civilizations (and their neighbors) to life by showing them through the eyes of colorful individuals challenging the status quo. Her focal point is 1979. The year opened with the Iran’s Islamic Revolution and closed with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In between, the House of Saud survived a fundamentalist coup attempt. These three events would unleash what Ghattas calls a “Black Wave” of Islamic fundamentalism and war. Three lessons I took from “Black Wave”: 1.) Muslim reformers are fighting a losing battle with extremists. 2.) The Middle East is its own worst enemy (not Israel and/or the United States). 3.) U.S. involvement in the Middle East almost always makes things worse. The three most interesting people Ghattas profiles: 1.) Quassem Suleimani, Iranian military leader assassinated by Trump last month 2.) Masih Alinejad, Iranian exile in the U.S. fighting forced veiling 3.) Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist butchered by his government in 2018 Middle Eastern Leader Most Like Trump: Saddam Hussein -- Flamboyance + False Piety Biggest Omission: No discussion of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. This was very much tied to the 1979 Revolution and defined Iran for me as a kid. I visited Egypt and Palestine in the early 1990s, so I have been following the region for almost 30 years, but this was my first book. Consequently, there were a few chapters where I found myself swimming in a sea of names and unfamiliar Arabic/Persian terms. Fortunately, Ghattas rewards us neophytes with wonderful writing, characters, and insights. I wish I could share the optimism Ghattas expresses in her Conclusion, but almost all of her heroes are either dead or in exile. Unfortunately, I cannot discern a pathway out of the darkness. I will be peppering my Iranian-American hiking buddies with questions on our next hike!

Not since "The Great War for Civilization" have I read such a sweeping overview of recent Middle Eastern history and in many ways, this book is better (as well as more accessible). While Robert Fisk, the author of that book, mostly blamed the West for everything that had happened to the Middle East, Kim Ghattas mostly blames Iran, Saudi Arabia and their rivalry (even if this theory is somewhat undermined by the two countries' détente during the 1990s and early 2000s). While that book was mostly a story about loss of life, this book is a story about loss of intellectual and social freedom. Iran and Saudi Arabia, since 1979, have both been out to prove that their models of Islam are the only valid ones. The Saudi government didn't understand that this would lead its citizens and proxies to turn on its own American protector, but far from cutting them loose, the Americans for their part have mostly blamed Iran (or minor players such as Saddam Hussein) and bucked up the pro-Saudi dictatorships holding power throughout most of the Sunni Muslim world. (I didn't say Ghattas takes us off the hook entirely.) These dictatorships turned to Islam as a source of legitimacy and increasingly cracked down not only on Western imports but their own cultural legacy of a more cosmopolitan Islam. Iran was doing the same thing as Saudi Arabia (on a smaller scale due to having less disposable income). Dissenters in both Iran and Saudi Arabia remember being told as children that if they enjoyed music, molten iron would be poured into their ears on Judgment Day. Ghattas' book is also superior to Fisk's in that the story of the devolution of Iran, Saudi Arabia and various other countries in the region is told not through her own eyes but through the eyes of a panoply of freethinkers both male and female with whom she has cultivated relationships. She tells the stories of their evolution and martyrdom or escape to the West. Only one of the people who escaped to the West eventually returned to live in the region, which is why unlike Ghattas, I am inclined to despair for the Middle East. I don't see how these countries can come back from the black hole into which the wave has swept them, especially given that people who want more freedom than currently on offer can simply move to the West. That pressure will prove irresistible to most, but perhaps there are exceptions. The young Saudi studying IT who lived in my boardinghouse might be one. I encouraged him to stay, but he went home to Saudi Arabia. If there is hope, it will be built upon by his generation. Five stars for the book.

A well told story, weaving together 40 years of history to explain how the modern middle east and Pakistan came to be. Unfortunately, this is the story of tyranny and oppression, and the people that Ms. Ghattas profiles are the only glimmer of hope in a place where religion has been coopted to serve the needs of dictators. To me, the things that the author infers to and leaves unsaid are the most important and interesting parts of the book. On one level the author describes the “black wave” as the sweeping changes that have taken place in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt since 1979. Changes that have resulted in a loss of individual liberties and created either Sunni or Shia dominated police states. On another level the black wave is a symbol of resistance to this oppression. Woman who are obligated to wear the black face covering niqaab’s and until recently, not permitted to drive in Saudi Arabia, represent the other black wave. Their public protests and use of other means to question authority may be the seeds for a more hopeful future. I appreciate that Ms. Ghattas was able to put this history into an approachable one volume work. To accomplish this, the author focuses on the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia; the Arab spring, Libyan revolution, and the US military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq are discussed in general terms, and only as they relate to this 40 year rivalry.

Kim Ghattas offers a study of the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia since the revolutions of 1979. For most Americans, we are familiar with the Iranian revolution of '79 but know less about the changes in Saudi Arabia and the Wahabi, which she describes as puritan, in order to provide an metaphor from American history. Ghattas begins with her own Lebanon. Despite being our focus as Americans since 2001, the Middle East is confusing, so each chapter makes clear what country we are discussing and what year or years the events took place. She then goes into Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Israel and of course the United States. But the organizing principle for interpretation is the rivalry between the Sunni and Shia represented by Iran (Persia) and the Saudis. When the Obama administration made the nuclear deal with Iran, it was shifting American policy from favoring the Sunni toward the Shia side. This may have been influenced by Zbig Brzezinski's ideas about the balance of power in books such as the Grand Chessboard (my guess, that has nothing to do with the book). The Trump administration has moved back toward the alliance with the Saudi and Sunni side of the dispute. Ghattas says that both Iran and Saudi Arabia feared ISIS, but they hated each other more. Ghattas provides helpful metaphors and analogies from American culture to deal with all these names. For instance, the Wahabi is puritanical where the Ayatollah was radical and revolutionary, even though the practices may look similar, because their relationship to previous history was different. She'll say that so and so is the "Audrey Hepburn" of the country she's discussing. There are also musical references like Joan Baez and Led Zeppelin to show the interaction of cultures. Her perspective is basically liberal and feminist but not from a Western standard, we're talking about issues like "driving a car" which became a big thing with the Saudis. Although I didn't see his name, there's a lot of the radical scholar Edward Said and the theory of Orientalism. But the specific project of the book is to answer Bernard Lewis' question of "What Went Wrong" in the last 41 years. Among the major events are the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War of 1990-91, 9/11 and bin Laden/al Qaeda, and the wars in Syria. There's not a lot about Christians, although there were some mentions of their difficulties. From her Lebanese perspective, Ghattas says that the colonials gave power to the Christians, so the anti-Christian violence is partly anti-Western or anti-European. The concluding major event was the assassination of Jamal Kashoggi and the new crown prince MBS, who has claimed to be modernizing but is a disturbing authoritarian. There is a reference to the Saudis' desire for Suleimani to surrender, but he has since been killed by America. So while the book finished just a few months ago, the story keeps changing.

Very well detailed and frightening window into history and how it sadly repeats itself. When we see what happened again in Nov 2021 it's chilling how such an amazing people were given hope for 10 years and it was all gone in a flash and the black wave swept in.

Kim Ghattas’ Black wave is a must read for anyone interested in learning about the Middle East.

Middle East is a puzzle, it is rich, fantastic and everything is interconnected. I recommend this book. Cheers from southern Brazil.

If you read no other book on the Middle East, read this! Informative and clearly written by someone who knows and understands the region well (Kim Ghattas is from Lebanon). I admired her as a BBC journalist, she is impartial and critical at the same time, taking no side, just laying out the facts. Highly recommended!

I must mention a couple other books that I read before 'Black Wave' (BW) which made it more accessible. 1) Rashid Khalidi's '100 years' war on Palestine...' and 2) more relevantly, a comprehensive history of the Middle East by Sydney Nettleton Fisher - my most in-depth understanding of Mid-East history even though it was last revised in 1967 (& covered the rise of islam, islamic kingdoms/caliphates, impact of euro imperialism, growth of republicanism, the religious right, coups, Israel etc). Thanks to this, I entered BW with some understanding of the background/political trajectory of the states covered in it. Kim is not a historian but a reporter (stated upfront) and her writing reflects that. On the whole, BW is a compelling & illuminating read. Kim may not have intended some of my takeaways but here they are anyway - at one level, it reinforced my current understanding of the nexus between certain Arab rulers and the much maligned America/West (strange bedfellows and all that) in causing many of this region's problems - meaning it doesn't seem to have always been a West (alone) meddling in the Mid-East story. Caveat: I'm yet to read a proper Arab/Middle-East perspective (maybe Albert Hourani?) Yet, at another level, I went in expecting Kim's background to also call out the genuine tragedy of western interference exacerbating regional problems but there didn't seem to be too much censure in my opinion. Perhaps, this was not the intention. One thing Kim does want to counter is Western notions of Islam by establishing a divide between the large mass of open minded Mid East muslims and the fundamentalists who mislead them. Yet, this is the part where I'm not fully convinced. Not to paint all muslims as conservatives but from the vantage point of sitting in 2024 and hindsight etc, I feel that large masses of Muslims are indeed supportive of Sharia-based theocratic set up or Islamic democracy perhaps with state religion etc. (I understand that there will be a variety of views under this). The region's secular/liberal forces seem to have been far too inspired by the clinical west I think, ignoring or suppressing the natural religiosity of the common populace? Kim's language at this point seems too much in the old western liberal mould - "the nice guys are just like you folks and the face-veiling, sharia-touting ones are bad fundamentalists who the majority don't like". The gaining of power by religious right actors is presented as moments of deep societal shock and yet, the only people chosen to illustrate are those living and working in a slightly westernised/liberal elite world - TV presenters, actors, singers, writers etc. Finally, as an Indian, I could not help notice the similarities between Hindutva and conservative Islamist thoughts - the religious right everywhere have pet peeves. For eg., the disdain for a liberal/secular worldview that is believed to be a total western import. (Though for some Hindutvadis, their dislike stems from the belief that it has done nothing for them and favoured only muslims/minorities at the expense of hindus/majority.) Final takeaway - the book is definitely a great buy and highly informative, richly detailed. It has, like any good book, left me with many thoughts to grapple with - Islamophobia, rise of right/far-right ideologies all over, current state of secularism/liberalism discourse and its effectiveness in countering all of these pressures. It only pushes me to know more.