American women missionaries in the Gulf: Agents for cultural change

Arabia has figured in Western imagination from a very early time, but seldom in neutral terms. For reasons not thoroughly understood, the Arab role in Western thinking has fluctuated between hope and menace, love and hate. While nineteenth‐century Europe saw in Arabia a romantic adventure — an illustration of the Victorian era — nineteenth‐century America viewed it differently. It saw an alternation between the images of the supposedly fanatical Islam that at one time overran the Christian world and a deprived contemporary society in need of Christian aid. Plainly, Western images of Arabia have been more changeable than the conditions of Arab life. Perhaps one reason for this love/hate, menace/hope attitude lies in the fact that Islamic civilization has been the great alternative to Christendom. Being so different and also so distant, Arabia seemed like a cultural incognito, a place where Americans could start their intercultural experience. Nothing would bring them a step closer to their goal than missionary work.