A Review of "What Went Wrong" Najla Al-Yabis Literature In What Went Wrong? Lewis attempts to understand what led to the decline of Islamic civilization after a remarkable period of unparalleled dominance. For many centuries, the Islamic world was at the forefront of all human achievement in fields as varied as militarism, economics, arts and sciences. At the same time, Christian Europe was considered a land of the barbarians from which there was nothing to learn or fear. He tries to examine the reaction of the Islamic world towards these changes. Lewis shows how the Middle East turned its attention to understanding European weaponry and military tactics, commerce and industry, government and diplomacy, education and culture. He highlights the striking differences between the Western and Middle Eastern cultures from the 18th to the 20th centuries through comparisons of such things as Christianity and Islam, music and the arts, the position of women, secularism and the civil society, the clock and the calendar. In short, this book offers a look at the historical relationship between the Middle East and Europe. This book is not organized chronologically in the main, but is divided into sections on military, economic, social equality, secularism, concepts of time and aspects of cultural change. Most of the facts are focused between the period when the Ottoman Empire was at its height, with Westerners able to learn from them while they could not and would not study the westerners for the most part. It argues that the transition of the Islamic civilization from a superior position towards an inferior one raised considerable questions among Muslims concerning the reasons of these drastic changes. *Chapter* 2 Lewis starts this chapter by asserting again that the apparent arrogance on the part of Muslims towards other cultures and civilizations was an important factor in the decline of the Islamic World. He explains that it is true that Islam, at times, has adopted...