Fred Halliday: Demystifier Of The Middle East

Fred Halliday, who passed away at age 64 last month, was not only a remarkable interpreter of the Middle East but a redoubtable teacher and man of many parts. In a tribute, The Economist writes: “Middle Eastern studies suffered, in his (Halliday’s) view, from three faults. One was ‘mappism’. Behind handy diplomatic counters marked on maps ‘Iran’, ‘Iraq’ or ‘Saudi Arabia’ he saw poorly understood societies that were complex and shifting.

“He had no patience, secondly, with efforts, particularly in the United States, to illuminate the region from the armchair with mathematical models and theorising (‘all this meta-stuff’). He thought, thirdly, that the cold war had led everyone, Middle Easterners included, to exaggerate the influence of outsiders.

“The region’s problems, he insisted, lay in the region more than in Moscow, Washington or the colonial past. Such views are now commonplace. They were not when Mr Halliday began…

“His London students, once back home in Cairo, Baghdad or Tehran, rose to high positions in government and business. His contacts were a foreign correspondent’s envy, as well as a boon to the London School of Economic’s fund-raisers. He spoke Arabic and Persian, as well as French, German, Spanish and Russian. He knew the history and cultures of the countries he wrote about. More than anything, he knew people.

“His learning came not only from books but from bars and cafés. He travelled, listened and argued. He had a thesaurus of political jokes, collected over years, at the expense of Baathists, Islamists, nationalists, imperialists, Palestinians, Israelis, everyone.

“He could be superbly rude to peddlers of cliché and to plausible-sounding simplifiers. With a tilt of the head and an ironic smile he could give a friendly tease or a devastating ‘Come off it.’ Students adored him.’ More here…

Fred never shied away from controversy: he was forthright in his advocacy of justice, human rights and socialist democratic values, and against cultural relativism and apologetics for tyrannies in developing nations in the name of anti-imperialism, writes The Guardian. “This was part of his more general belief that imperialism and capitalism were often progressive forces in many parts of the world, notwithstanding their well-known oppressive and exploitative elements.” More here…

And here…

“Halliday was a like a one-man international: dedicated and passionate in the cause of justice; hard-headed in insisting upon the obstacles that had to be overcome; scathing about the stupidities of those who proclaimed they were the force of progress; constantly aware of the deeper levels of cultural and religious irrationality and its shaping power – and capable of making astoundingly well-informed judgments about almost anywhere on the planet.” More here…

And here is an interview with Fred Halliday…An interesting read…”I grew up in Ireland. I think troops out of Ireland was a completely irresponsible slogan, just as I think troops out of Afghanistan was an irresponsible slogan…” See here…