[Hijack]I always figured DUNE was conceived while Herbert was tripping on LSD and watching Lawrence of Arabia at Aldous Huxley’s beach house.[/Hijack]
Yes, mahdi means ‘guided’. Muad’Dib is from a different Arabic word: mu’addib means ‘one who imparts culture, good manners, and literacy’. It’s derived from a word, adab, that sums up all the finer aspects of civilization. Herbert shifted the apostrophe to a different position for reasons he alone knew.
For that matter, gom jabbar is a phrase quoted from the Qur’an, verse 5:22. In the original Arabic, the phrase is qawm jabbâr. FH took some liberties with the spelling. It literally means a powerful, arrogant, oppressive people. Like how the rest of the world views George W. Bush’s America.
Are there any Western women living in your compound? Do they leave the compound often or at all? Do they veil, etc. and is it considered mandatory or voluntary?
Have you even run into trouble with the local police?
Do you have any funny stories to share?
There are ladies here, but mostly wives or single women with jobs, a few older daughters. We have a ladies bus (as most compounds do) that goes downtown once or twice a day.
Western-looking ladies wear a black to-the-ankle gown worn open over “Regular Clothes.” My Spanish teacher (who is Mexican) is sometimes harassed by people who think she is an Arab. When they discover she is not, they back down and apologize. She has been here over twenty years, she is fairly unflappable.
Funny story? How about this?
When the evening call to prayer sounds, all the shops close, large supermarkets close the check-out lines and let you wander around. Well several years ago my schedule led me to be in a large mall each evening when the call sounded, so I had to spend fifteen minutes looking into darkened shop windows.
As a diversion, I took to following the local Religious Policeman around the mall as he made his rounds. A kindly-looking grandfather sort of guy, with a Real Policeman as escort.
So he would walk to the (indoor) sidewalk cafes in the mall, and lean over and ask all the Arab-looking people if they have been to mosque. He would touch them on the elbow and coax them toward the prayer area.
I could not hear what was said, but it was obvious that he was using shame to get people to make their religious obligations.
The young men would lie to him and he would nod and move to the next bunch.
Interesting. The Religious Police do not have uniforms. Therefore, anyone can claim to be one of them. An open license to busybodies and bullies. This guy was the real thing (You could tell since he had a Real Policeman with him). Further he was doing his job seriously and with humor and compassion.
More notable still is that I am the only one I know who can tell a story like this. All the other expats and Saudis have some story of the RP guys being buttinskis. When I tell this story in class (to encourage conversation, the students tell me all sort of bad run-ins they have had with people who at least claimed to be with the RP.
Funny? Well, I guess you had to be there.
OTOH, there’s the story about the reigious police who refused to let some female students out of a burning building because they were improperly attired for the street, causing an increase in the number of casualties. Yes, I have a cite.
Well yes, but there is more to the story than that.
The Committee (for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) (aka, the Religious Police) denied the people who did that were members of the Committee. There is no way for us to say one way or the other. Since RP people do not have uniforms of badges, anyone can claim to be a member.
Further, when the Real Police arrived, they arrested those who were interfering with the rescue.
It was too little too late, no doubt of that, but the deaths were also caused by blocked fire doors, lousy buildings rented by the Presidency for Girl’s Education and a darn poor fire department.
There is enough blame to go around on that one.
What is the Saudi sense of humor like? I read that Farsi regularly insult each other, but it’s considered a sign of closeness to curse your friends. Do they tease you for being an ignorant infidel or tell you Allah decided not to punish you today for your blasphemous Western ways or anything like that?
Do they have puns, wordplay, that sort of thing, that escaped your understanding of the language? It being the desert, do they have an equivalent for “Hot enough for ya?”
Saudis are the most humorless people I have ever met in all my travels. They do make jokes, but they do not translate at all.
“Why is the donkey sleeping on the road?”
“Because he thinks it is cooler there.”
(Meaning the donkey is so stupid that he thinks the black road is actually shade.)
Kids like to stick a sign on each other’s back reading “Donkey for Sale.”
Not big kidders, the Saudis.
(did you miss my questions from a couple days ago?) very interesting thread.
More Saudi donkey jokes, please. 