"Be Our Guest"

People of the Middle East maintain superior moral fiber. They are hospitable, honest, charitable and loyal to a fault. They may even put the people of the Southern United States to shame.

Eastern hospitality is second to none. Guests are treated like Kings and offered all but the kitchen sink. They are welcomed into the homes of strangers and given food, shelter, protection, and excellent company. And if a guest is really hard on their luck, they are given provisions to accommodate their travels, such as goat’s hair cloth, a coffeepot, camels, and sheep until they are able to provide for their families. Gertrude Bell helped to paint a picture of the normality of such generosity in the Eastern nations. She wrote of tale in which a man did not show the proper gratitude that was shown to him in a desperate time. She told of how this tale had survived the times because of its rarity in the culture. Charity is considered to be the norm because, according to Lucie Duff-Gordon, “money and rank are looked on as mere accidents.” Even William Biddulph, our most renowned Orientalist, spoke of the eastern hospitality. In fact, Bell told of how they would live on bread and water unless entertaining a guest; in that case a sheep would be slaughtered and then they would feast.

Middle Easterners are not only great hosts, but honest and extremely loyal. It is said that a Muslim cannot tell a lie, and though they may have mastered the art of diversion, this claim seems to hold true. A man’s word is his law and becomes an unbreakable bond. The severity of the ties between families or tribes is beyond measure. A simple quarrel between two men may result in a blood feud between the two families, in which all members must participate. And if the unthinkable happens where someone kills a member of his own family he is, according to Bell, exiled without any provisions. Betrayal is not looked upon kindly in the Middle Eastern culture, but I doubt that it happened very often because of this reason.

In my experience, this holds true for all people of the Middle East, not just Muslims, but Christians and Jews as well. I have walked into a room of people from the Middle East that I had yet to meet, and so eloquently they welcomed me to their home. In a moments time I was being whisked away to the dinner table and presented with platters of hommous, tabbouli, shish kafta, shish tawook, ghallaba, and of course, baklava for dessert. And when I was ready to loosen my belt, they insisted I eat more! I was taken in and treated as if I was a member of their family, and the beauty of it all was that none of them were related to each other, and yet made up a unit stronger than most families I have acquainted myself with. Every one of them radiated warmth and kindness and kept true to the Middle Eastern “code of hospitality.”