On the road where gods and humans, desert and civilization intersect
A Time of Reason from the Middle East

A humanistic journey unfolds in a desert where time seems to have stopped, heading to the land where human thought began.
This book is a humanities travelogue that follows the eight Middle Eastern countries—Iran, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey—where the dawn of civilization and modern conflict coexist, capturing the landscapes where history, culture, faith, and daily life intersect.
Author Baek Jeong-sun worked at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the United Arab Emirates for four years and traveled throughout the Middle East in her spare time.
As the saying goes, "travel is like reading on foot," he accumulated learning and reflection through his travels, and looked at unfamiliar civilizations and people through the eyes of an engineer and explorer.
Amidst the desert wind and city lights, the stone walls of temples and the bustle of the marketplace, he listened to the questions the Middle East poses to us, recording a three-dimensional image of the place where the origins and present of civilization, faith and daily life intersect.


This book is not just a travelogue.
This is a cultural report on eight Middle Eastern countries written while walking through the Middle East, a place previously known only as a "land of conflict in the news," and a record of contemplation containing warm insights into humanity and civilization.
Through this book, we can encounter the true face of the Middle East, where "history written in the language of God" and "stories created by human life" intersect.
We can also hear the warm story of the origins of humanity that we have forgotten and the people who still live and breathe within it.

When we think of 'arrogance', the first symbol that comes to mind is definitely Sinbad.
The hometown of the adventurer in “Arabian Nights” is Oman.
Oman, located on a key sea route connecting East Africa and India, is a Middle Eastern country that has prospered through maritime trade as a maritime cultural sphere.
So this land naturally became the stage where the legend of Sinbad was born.
Sinbad was the incarnation of an Omani sailor who sailed the Indian Ocean in a traditional wooden boat called a dhow.
It is not a legend, but the life of Omani, who lived with the sea, is the story of Sinbad.
This adventure story goes beyond fiction and finds its roots in actual history.
The setting for Sinbad was Baghdad and the Indian Ocean during the 8th and 9th centuries, when the Islamic Abbasid Dynasty flourished.
Traces of the seafaring culture of the time remain even in the name.
Sindh refers to the present-day Sindh region of Pakistan, and Bad means wind.
In other words, Sindbad means 'the man of the wind blowing from the Sindh region'.
The seven voyages in The Arabian Nights were not superficial adventure stories, but rather the journeys of imaginary heroes and a condensed story of the experiences and maritime history of actual sailors who sailed the Indian Ocean.

--- p.44

Arab, Islamic, and Middle Eastern are not simply overlapping concepts.
These intersect on four axes: language, religion, geography, and history, creating a complex and three-dimensional identity.
Because of this complexity, we as outsiders often confuse the boundaries of concepts.
Moreover, just as the term 'Middle East' itself originated from an artificial division of the West, the modern Middle Eastern countries were also artificially established within the interests of Western powers after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
Because the historical and ethnic context was not sufficiently reflected in this process, the region continues to experience political instability and conflict today.
Therefore, efforts to understand the Middle East must not stop at superficial geographical divisions.
We must examine the imperialist history and cultural context together, and the first step to correctly understanding Islam begins with recognizing this history and culture and accepting unfamiliar cultures with a perspective of 'difference' rather than 'similarity.'

--- p.80

At first glance, it may seem like an ordinary Korean restaurant, but Okryugwan is a symbolic space in North Korea where foreigners and high-ranking officials are entertained.
North Korean restaurants abroad are not just simple businesses.
It serves as a kind of cultural diplomacy hub for managing the regime's image and earning foreign currency, and sometimes also serves as a political window managed behind the scenes by diplomats and intelligence agencies.
North Korea has used this method to promote its regime, secure loyalist funds, and expand its overseas network.
The fact that such a place opened a branch in Abu Dhabi also meant that North Korean-style 'cultural diplomacy' had permeated the area.
(…) “Then give it to the Daedong River~.” Just a few minutes ago, people who had said “all the beer is the same” looked at each other with embarrassed faces and burst into laughter.
In that laughter, my guard disappeared for a moment.
It felt as if the barrier between North and South Korea had collapsed, and I was sitting in an ordinary Korean restaurant.
But how long will the boundaries broken down by a glass of beer last?
For this moment, it seemed as if the barrier between North and South had disappeared, but the moment I stepped out the door, reality would rise up again like a cold wall.
At that moment, this thought crossed my mind.
Division may be an illusion created by humans.

--- p.104~107

Dubai's obsession with excellence isn't just an economic strategy.
Behind it lies an instinctive desire that has been repeated throughout human civilization.
The Tower of Babel, which tried to reach the sky.
The pyramids that dreamed of eternity, the Tower of Babel with its Gothic cathedrals rising toward God, and the skyscrapers and artificial islands of Dubai are all modern versions of this ancient desire, built with modern technology and capital.
(…) Dubai’s excess is not mere vanity.
It is the way civilization proves itself and at the same time the latest version of humanity's repeated desires.
Will Dubai's "world-class" end up being too much, or will it become a model for a new civilization?
--- pp. 122-123

Why would they build such massive tombs? It's hard to explain why they were simply a means to flaunt the pharaoh's power.
The pyramid was a symbol that encapsulated the ancient people's beliefs and worldview about life beyond death, a meaning that went beyond a tomb.
This was possible because of the firm belief that death was not the end but the beginning of eternity, and the conviction that the Pharaoh's existence was a bridge to God.
There was another practical reason.
We think of the pyramids as being built by slaves who were whipped like in the movies, but the reality was different.
During the summer, when the Nile flooded and farming was impossible, the government commissioned massive construction projects to provide jobs for farmers.
This was not just a funeral construction project, but also a national project for the national economy and the welfare of the people.
--- p.155

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, the holiest time of the year, when people abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours for a month.
Fasting is a very important religious obligation for Muslims and is one of the five pillars of Islam: confession of faith, prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting.
(…) For Muslims, Ramadan is not just about fasting on a physical level.
It is a time of mental, social, moral and physical training.
Through this, we learn moderation and patience, empathize with the suffering of our starving neighbors, and develop a sense of community.
Fasting dates back to the Hegira in 622.
The Hijra is considered a historical turning point in Islam, as it was the event in which Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina to preserve his faith.
Muhammad encountered God through silent fasting, and Ramadan was thus etched into time.

--- pp. 188-189

Around the 7th century, when Islamic forces defeated Byzantium, Jordan became part of the Islamic world.
After that, it was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, the region briefly came under British mandate before becoming independent as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1946.
Throughout modern history, Jordan has always been at the center of Middle Eastern conflicts.
It took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the First Middle East War of 1948, but lost the territory back to Israel in the 1967 war.
However, in 1994, it signed a peace treaty with Israel and took on the role of mediator in the Middle East.
However, the large number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants who have settled in Jordan remains a challenge for the country to this day.

--- p.227

Built in the 1st century BC, the Al-Khazneh temple is a masterpiece of exquisite fusion of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman architectural styles.
Al-Khazneh is more than just a tomb; it is the culmination of the fusion of Mediterranean civilizations.
It was hard to believe that such a complex civilization could blossom in the middle of a barren desert.
What was more amazing than the buildings were the people who created them.
The Nabataeans: Who were they? Originally a nomadic tribe in western Arabia, they settled in the area of ​​present-day Petra around the 6th century BC and developed a dazzling civilization.
They were true desert engineers, taming the dry land with stone and water.
In the Sik Gorge, channels were built to collect rainwater, and dams were built here and there in the rocks to manage water.
Thanks to this, farming became possible in the dry desert.

--- p.239~240

The roots of the Lebanese civil war date back to the mandate period after World War I.
When Arab nationalists rose up in 1920 demanding independence, France suppressed them by force.
And the 'Greater Lebanon', centered around the Christian Maronites, was established by separating it from Syria.
The underlying intention was to make Lebanon a bridgehead for Western European culture and to instill French order.
Within the borders formed in this way, various sects, including Christians, Sunni Muslims, and Shiites, were artificially bound together, which later became a major cause of instability in the country.
Even after independence in 1943, power in Lebanon remained divided along religious lines.
The president was a member of the majority Maronite sect, and the prime minister was a Sunni Muslim.
But this was merely an extension of the political structure designed by France.
As time passed and the Shia population grew, calls for a redistribution of power grew louder.
Meanwhile, Palestinian armed forces expelled from Jordan in 1970 moved in, and Israel and Arab countries intervened, leading to the outbreak of civil war in 1975.
The current political instability is not unrelated to the legacy of France's colonial era.
True peace is not something given from outside, but comes from within.

--- p.259~260

Byblos was a key maritime trade hub in ancient times.
They imported Egyptian papyrus and sold it to Greece and other countries, and exported Lebanese cedar to Egypt.
During this process, the Greek word 'Byblos' meaning papyrus became the name of the city, and as the Bible was written on papyrus, the word 'Bible' was later created.
As trade became more active, merchants at the port needed a simple writing system to record their transactions.
At that time, Egyptian hieroglyphs were so complex that they were difficult to learn and write.
So they created the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted of only 22 consonants.
This became the spark for a literary revolution in human history.
The Greeks developed their writing system by adding vowels to it, and the Romans inherited it as the Latin alphabet.
And after thousands of years, this alphabet became the writing system shared by people all over the world.
The alphabet, which originated in Byblos, accelerated the spread of knowledge and brought about the ‘democratization of civilization’ to mankind.

--- p.276~277

Hagia Sophia, meaning "Holy Wisdom," is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of early Christian architecture.
This cathedral was first built during the reign of Emperor Constantine, but was destroyed by fire twice.
The current appearance is the third reconstruction by Emperor Justinian in 537.
Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque stand side by side across Sultanahmet Park.
Like good friends, sometimes like rivals, they are symbolic figures representing the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.
In 1453, Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, who conquered Byzantium, converted the Hagia Sophia, a millennium-old Byzantine heritage, into a mosque.
This was not just a superficial renovation of the building, but also a declaration that civilization had changed.

--- p.310~311

When the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, they were able to destroy the Hagia Sophia, a symbol of paganism.
However, rather than denying the Byzantine heritage, the Ottomans embraced it into their own culture.
Rather than rejecting the culture of the conquered land, it was a harmonious fusion of art, architecture, and scholarship that was reinterpreted.
This attitude of inclusion became the driving force behind the rapid spread of Islamic civilization to other regions.
That spirit of inclusion and re-creation also breathes above the blue dome of the Blue Mosque.

--- p.319