Arab-Muslim identities operate at three nested levels above and below the state

Evidence

We can better understand what is happening and see what the dangers for the future are likely to be in these countries, if we envisage their identities at three levels. There is the intermediate level, the one which is normally operative and at which most public affairs are conducted—that is, the level of the sovereign state. Above that level, there is some larger entity to which they feel that they belong, which may be Arab or, at the present time, is more likely to be Islamic. Such notions as Asianism or Africanism, though they may be powerful in other places east and south of the Middle East, have very little impact in the countries of the Arab and Muslim world. Asia and Africa are not Arab or Muslim notions. They are inventions of Greek geography with little or no impact on Muslim or Arab thought. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1623

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces a conceptual three-level framework (tribe-nation-umma) for analyzing Middle East identity.
• XREF: The claim that ‘Asia and Africa are inventions of Greek geography’ parallels Said’s argument about Orientalist conceptual categories being imposed Western constructs. — connects to: Muslim identities expand to pan-Islamic scope as wars escalate