Word: caliphs
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Test. In the manner of Harun al-Rashid, the Arab caliph who ruled Baghdad in the 8th century, Gaddafi sometimes disguises himself in Bedouin robes and roams the city at night to see if his people are behaving properly. One time he appeared at Tripoli's Central Hospital and, to test the institution's efficiency, pretended that his father desperately needed a doctor. When a Taiwanese medic blithely suggested that a few aspirin would suffice, Gaddafi stripped off his robe and denounced the doctor: "You will regret that decision all your life." The doctor was fired...
Othman's Shirt. To history-minded Arabs, the shirt-waving guerrillas recalled a major battle in Islamic history. Thirteen centuries ago, a Damascus governor named Mu'awiya, vowing to avenge the murder of the Caliph Othman, carried Othman's bloody shirt as a battle flag. Actually, Mu'awiya hoped to make himself Caliph. Ever since, Arabs have described self-aggrandizement in the guise of vengeance as "waving the shirt of Othman." As Hussein's neighbors leaped to the guerrillas' defense last week with words-but little else-that is what they seemed...
Miss Gordon, an accomplished performer for more than 50 years, is, to be charitable, miscast. As a latter-day Jocasta, she is too venerable to inspire a son with anything but pity or terror. Her older son, Sidney (Ron Leibman), is the sort of chap whom a caliph would choose to guard his harem. Living on Manhattan's East Side, Sidney shuttles frequently between his own pad and the Hocheiser private loony bin, where Gordon continually threatens to throw Mama out the window. Offense is the order of the day, particularly in one episode when a gang of blacks...
...Caliph's Advice...
When Mohammed died, his first caliph, Abu Bakr, told the Prophet's mourning followers: "If you worship Mohammed, Mohammed has died. But if you worship Allah, he is alive and never will die." Throughout the Middle East, a variation of that aphorism was broadcast over Arab radios last week: "If you worship Gamal, Gamal is dead. But if you worship the ideas of Gamal Abdel Nasser, they are alive and will never die." Nasser had many ideas, not all of them worth preserving. The future of the Middle East may thus depend on which the Arab world jettisons and which...