Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East Hardcover – January 28, 2020

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.

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 month2.) Masih Alinejad, Iranian exile in the U.S. fighting forced veiling3.) Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist butchered by his government in 2018Middle Eastern Leader Most Like Trump: Saddam Hussein -- Flamboyance + False PietyBiggest 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!