Somehow, I managed to drag it all the way to Lebanon, and I finally started it last night.
"The alphabet was a Middle Eastern invention, a vast improvement on the various systems of signs and pictures which preceded it, and which still prevail in some parts of the world. The Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets are all derived from the first alphabet devised by the mercantile people of the Levant coast" (9).
Nowhere does he say Phoenician.
Having lived in Lebanon for the past four years, I am inundated with "Phoenician-ness." It seems that any world history text or any information source attributes the creation of the alphabet to the Phoenicians--"the mercantile people of the Levant coast" that Lewis refers to.
So why doesn't he say Phoenician? Is it because it sounds a lot like Palestinian???
In the first nine pages, Jews are mentioned four times. The first two show the similarities with Muslim religious beliefs and practices, concerning dress and prayer. The third makes a claim that Hebrew is the only ancient Middle Eastern language to be preserved. In the fourth, he writes that the Jewish refugees from Spain introduced the printing press to the Middle East.
So Bernard Lewis proudly hails the Jewish contributions to civilization, but can't seem to mention the Phoenician/Palestinian??? one.
