Difference between revisions of "Semites and Anti-Semites, by Bernard Lewis"
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== Assessment == | == Assessment == | ||
| − | Lewis's argument is consistent and empirically grounded in linguistic history, Nazi policy, and Arab political rhetoric. He rejects racial essentialism entirely and | + | Lewis's argument is often regarded as consistent and empirically grounded in linguistic history, Nazi policy, and Arab political rhetoric. He rejects racial essentialism entirely and claims the term "anti-Semitism" was never neutral or inclusive of Arabs. The book uses the linguistic discussion in Chapter 2 as foundation to demonstrate in Chapter 4 that "anti-Semitism" is not symmetric racism but a specific anti-Jewish ideology. |
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
Revision as of 09:30, 7 May 2026
1986 book by Bernard Lewis examining the origins and nature of anti-Semitism as anti-Jewish racism
Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice is a 1986 book by British-American historian Bernard Lewis. In it Lewis traces the linguistic origins of the term "Semite," rejects any notion of a Semitic race, and argues that "anti-Semitism" is a specifically anti-Jewish phenomenon invented in 19th-century Europe and never applied to Arabs or other Semitic-speaking peoples.[1]
Chapter 2: "Semites" (pp. 42–57)
Lewis opens by explaining that "Semitic" is a purely linguistic term coined in the 1770s–1780s by European scholars for the language family including Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and others. He states: "The name Semite comes from Shem, the eldest of the three sons of Noah... In the Greek and Latin versions of the Bible, Shem becomes Sem... The term 'Semitic' was coined by European scholars in the late eighteenth century to designate a group of languages... It has no racial connotation."[1]
He stresses there was never a single "Semitic race": "Semites were never a single racial group... The peoples who speak Semitic languages have never constituted a single race... There is no such thing as a Semitic race."[1] Lewis dismisses 19th-century pseudoscientific racial theories that tried to link language to biology as "totally implausible" and notes that even the Nazis classified Arabs as Semites but treated them as allies while reserving extermination for Jews.
Lewis discusses the French scholar Ernest Renan, a pioneer of Semitic philology. By 1855 Renan complained that the term "Semite" caused "a multitude of confusions" because it was being misused beyond its strictly linguistic meaning. Renan insisted: "I repeat again that the name Semite here has only a purely conventional meaning." Lewis cites Renan to underscore that the term was never racial and warns against the dangers of conflating language with race or ethnicity.[1]
Lewis does not cite Thomas Carlyle or Moritz Steinschneider anywhere in the book.
Chapter 4: "Anti-Semites" (p. 83 onward)
Lewis examines the term "anti-Semitism," coined in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr specifically as a euphemism for hatred of Jews framed in racial terms (Jews as "Semites" versus "Aryans"). He writes: "The term 'anti-Semitism' was coined in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr... specifically for racial hatred of Jews... It has never meant hatred of Arabs or other Semitic peoples."[1]
Lewis directly addresses the Arab claim "We can't be anti-Semitic; we are Semites" as "self-evidently absurd": "The logic of this would seem to be that while an edition of Hitler's Mein Kampf published in Berlin or in Buenos Aires in German or Spanish is anti-Semitic, an Arabic version of the same text published in Cairo or Beirut cannot be anti-Semitic, because Arabic and Hebrew are cognate languages. It is not a compelling argument."[1]
He notes the Nazis viewed Arabs as Semites in theory but allied with them in practice, proving anti-Semitism was exclusively anti-Jewish: "The Nazis classified Arabs as Semites but allied with them and ignored them—anti-Semitism was anti-Jewish only."[1]
Lewis concludes that anti-Semitism is a unique form of racism targeting Jews alone, rooted in European pseudoscience and Christian theological traditions, not a general prejudice against all Semitic peoples.
Assessment
Lewis's argument is often regarded as consistent and empirically grounded in linguistic history, Nazi policy, and Arab political rhetoric. He rejects racial essentialism entirely and claims the term "anti-Semitism" was never neutral or inclusive of Arabs. The book uses the linguistic discussion in Chapter 2 as foundation to demonstrate in Chapter 4 that "anti-Semitism" is not symmetric racism but a specific anti-Jewish ideology.