DOCSLIB.ORG

Marwa Elshakry

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Marwa Elshakry CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN ISLAM Marwa Elshakry e often think of the fi n de siècle as an era of lush decadence and modernist angst W– a gilded world of plush excess, interiority, and the thwarted illusions of a retreat into aestheticism. Yet we should not forget that for some it was also a time of intense optimism, and that the sub-theme of decadence and degeneration itself was one that also facilitated novel discourses of rise or revival. In fact, one could even argue that the two – the anticipated future and the feared apocalypse – were necessarily linked. One can catch sight of this, for instance, in the optimism generated by some of the new technologies of the era, from the telephone, telegraph and cinematograph to the automobile and steamship, where the fantastic futurism they inspired offered a prominent counterpoint to the looming sense of a dystopic technological modernity. This polarity, vacillating between an inevitable decline and a promised future, reverberated across the globe in the wake of the new imperialism. After all, the fi n de siècle was also the era in which European empires were expanding rapidly, particularly through the so-called “scramble for Africa,” and carving up the world in its wake. These events contributed to the formulation of a new sense of European civilizational and racial superiority, and just as critically to the identifi cation of so many fallen “civilizations” elsewhere. In particular, the language of decline and fall was crucial for what one historian has recently characterized as the “invention of world religions” (Masuzawa 2005). Take the late nineteenth-century depiction of Islam. The vastly transformed European empires that emerged at this time were, more than ever, empires ruling over Muslims. Indeed Europeans now found themselves collectively governing the majority of the world’s Muslims: at its height, the British Empire ruled over the largest number, followed by the Dutch, French and Russian. The Ottoman Empire came in at a distant fi fth. Unsurprisingly, contemporary Muslim discourses spoke at once to the anxiety of an encroaching Europe, and to the hubris of its newly acquired historicist, civilizational and racial claims, even as they resuscitated and transformed older discourses of reform and revival. It was no accident that this was the era in which a new generation of Muslim “reformers” was born. Helped along by the press, the classroom and the courthouse, these thinkers emerged in an utterly changed institutional landscape. 582 — Islam — This chapter attempts to sketch out, via the example of some key thinkers of the age, the main features of what was in fact a highly variegated fi n-de-siècle discourse on Islam. The subject is of course vast and no single scholar can easily hope to encompass the full extent of thinking on this topic by Muslims even within this relatively short time frame. Although this article makes reference to other works in the literature, it will focus on a number of key fi gures who wrote in both major European languages and Arabic in the late nineteenth century. Exploring the intellectual interconnectivities between colonizers and colonized, and the multiple refractions these created, it looks to both contemporary European and imperial ideas, on the one hand, and various Muslim or vernacular regional conceptions and practices, on the other. It also explores the fi n-de-siècle discourse on Islam alongside the rise of professional disciplines, particularly Orientalism and religious studies, and then shows in some detail how these commentators on Islam deployed and responded to Western efforts to defi ne a putative “Islamic civilization,” embrac- ing (and at times reversing) the concept for their own reasons and purposes. European imperialism and professional Orientalism were rapidly expanding at this time, often in tandem, as territorial conquest brought with it the demand for new knowledge and expertise. The idea in particular that there was – or had been – an identifi able “Islamic civilization” played a critical role in shaping Europe’s changing sense of itself on a world scale. But it also transformed how Arabs and other Muslims conceived of themselves and their past. Through a process of historicization the notion of a Muslim ecumene was reconceptualized in the four decades between 1880 and the end of the First World War that saw Western imperialism at its zenith. Islam was critically reimagined in western Europe during the fi n de siècle through both European imperialism and professional Orientalism. In particular, it played a critical role in shaping Europe’s changing sense of itself on a world scale. Hence it was folded both into the search for the origins of the true “universal religion” and into the new fascination with the historical progress (or retrogression) of “civilizations.” The term “civilization” had become more and more widely diffused since the end of the eighteenth century, but it was not until the fi rst third of the nineteenth century that it gained real force with the fl owering of European liberal thought (Benveniste 1971; Bowden 2009; Febvre 1973; Starobinski 1993). Among the fi rst to bring these various threads together was the French statesman and historian François Guizot. His 1828 A History of Civilization in Europe was essentially an elaboration on the theme of Europe’s place at the summit of world history, a history that was told as a story of material and moral progress over other “savage” and “barbarous” peoples. Guizot’s text was popular outside as well as within Europe, and it was frequently cited in the Arabic, Turkish and Farsi press (e.g. Kohn 2009). His ideas – together with those of J. S. Mill and others – were circulating in the Arabic press just as the notion of an “Islamic civilization” was gaining ground among Muslim thinkers. Sometime between the 1830s and 1880s, we can begin to chart the rise of a new fascination with al-hadara al-islamiya or medeniyet-i Islamiye, or “Islamic civilization” (e.g. Tahtawi 2004; Aydin 2007). That is not to say that the notion of civilization (as either hadara or madaniya) had not existed before. Indeed, Ibn Khaldun’s fourteenth-century Muqaddima (or 583 — Marwa Elshakry — Introduction) to his three-volume historico-geography of the Arabs and the barabra (which we can render as Berbers or barbarians) repeatedly makes reference to this idea. Yet, in Ibn Khaldun’s work, it meant something quite different: there were refer- ences to the rise and fall of specifi c “civilizations,” meaning civitas or urban polities in particular; but there was no single, ecumenical Muslim “civilization.” In the four- teenth century, the notion of a Muslim ecumene was already covered by the term umma, the community or commonwealth of people, in this case tied together over time and place by the bonds of a common religious faith. Of course, the notion of a Muslim umma would itself be reformulated in the course of the long nineteenth century, and under pressure from European imperial and socio-institutional encroach- ment, it would get refashioned at the century’s end under the rubric later scholars would signal through talk of “pan-Islamism.” The late nineteenth-century view of Islam as a civilization – whether treated in European or Muslim hands – was drawn from an eclectic set of sources and discur- sive traditions, which we can neither reduce to an insular genealogical purity nor to mere mimicry. They included early historical geographies like Ibn Khaldun’s, whose fashionable revival among European audiences at precisely this time – note the appearance of abridged versions of his works in English and French through the nineteenth century – reinforced his growing popularity among Muslim readers. But others too spoke to these ideas, many of whom were less known such as Abu al- Hasan al-Mas’udi (d. 956) or Muhammad Ibn Iyas (d. 1524). With the rise of pro- fessional Orientalism, and the “recovery” of Muslim texts in that context, as well as with the rapid and widespread print publication of older texts, the tracing of a Muslim discursive tradition in the nineteenth century is no simple matter. The revival of interest in Ibn Rushd, for instance – which was as bound up with the works of Ernest Renan on Averroës as it was with the long-standing corpus of writings inspired by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali – forms a good example of how classical texts were both reappropriated and reformulated in this era (Kugekgen 1996). Guizot himself was not the only infl uential nineteenth-century liberal thinker to be dis- cussed outside Europe – others included J. S. Mill, Herbert Spencer and, for Arabic readers perhaps above all, Gustave Le Bon, whose 1884 La Civilisation des Arabes in translation provided a popular source. As ideas moved to and fro between Arabic and European languages, the works that contained or generated them were critically transformed. Partly this was a question of translation. Le Bon’s own highly racialist terminology and conception of history, for instance, was often elided in Arabic discussions where the older term “umma” was typically used in place of the original “race” when speaking of the “Arab” or “Semitic” peoples. The general reference to a peoples or community would have been understood, even as it overrode its common religious valence; operat- ing this way in translation, it lacked the hierarchical connotations of the original (Selim 2009). But these critical conceptual tensions at the intersection of talk of civilization, race and religion also refl ected disciplinary ambivalences. Ernest Renan (one of the key originators of the idea of Semitism itself) put it this way in 1883 while speaking of the confusing interrelation of these categories in reference to France: “We French, for instance, are Roman by language, Greek by civilization and Jewish by religion” (Renan 1896, 84).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Nationalism in Ottoman Greater Syria 1840-1914 the Divisive Legacy of Sectarianism
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Calhoun, Institutional Archive of the Naval Postgraduate School Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive Theses and Dissertations Thesis Collection 2008-12 Nationalism in Ottoman Greater Syria 1840-1914 the divisive legacy of Sectarianism Francioch, Gregory A. Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School http://hdl.handle.net/10945/3850 NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS NATIONALISM IN OTTOMAN GREATER SYRIA 1840- 1914: THE DIVISIVE LEGACY OF SECTARIANISM by Gregory A. Francioch December 2008 Thesis Advisor: Anne Marie Baylouny Second Reader: Boris Keyser Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED December 2008 Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Nationalism in Ottoman Greater Syria 1840- 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 1914: The Divisive Legacy of Sectarianism 6. AUTHOR(S) Greg Francioch 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Egyptian Islamic and Secular Feminists in Their Own Context Assim Alkhawaja University of San Francisco, [email protected]
    The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Doctoral Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects 2015 Complexity of Women's Liberation in the Era of Westernization: Egyptian Islamic and Secular Feminists in Their Own Context Assim Alkhawaja University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/diss Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Recommended Citation Alkhawaja, Assim, "Complexity of Women's Liberation in the Era of Westernization: Egyptian Islamic and Secular Feminists in Their Own Context" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 287. https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/287 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of San Francisco COMPLEXITY OF WOMEN‘S LIBERATION IN THE ERA OF WESTERNIZATION: EGYPTIAN ISLAMIC AND SECULAR FEMINISTS IN THEIR OWN CONTEXT A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education International & Multicultural Education Department In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education By Assim Alkhawaja San Francisco May 2015 THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Dissertation Abstract Complexity Of Women‘s Liberation in the Era of Westernization: Egyptian Islamic And Secular Feminists In Their Own Context Informed by postcolonial/Islamic feminist theory, this qualitative study explores how Egyptian feminists navigate the political and social influence of the West.
    [Show full text]
  • POL 612 Arab Contributions to Political Thought
    Course Outline | Fall Semester 2015 POL 612 Arab Contributions to Political Thought Program Core Compulsory Course Course Teacher/s: Dr. Mark Farha and Team Credit Value: 3 Pre-requisites: No pre-requisites Co-requisites: SOSH 601, POL 611 Course Duration: 14 weeks; Semester 1 Total Student Study Time: 126 hours, including 42 contact hours of lectures and seminars. AIMS This course has a dual aim: 1) to introduce students to major Arab contributions to political thought across history, and 2) to temper (if not transcend) the Eurocentrism of most modern courses in political thought. It also seeks to challenge and inspire students to aspire to make their own contributions to political thought, first by providing role models who have made significant contributions. No less important, however, is to provide students with a critical view of Arab political thought and pointing out the gaps and shortcomings that remain to be overcome. The course starts by highlighting major contributions to political thought in the classical age, including by figures like al-Farabi, Ibn Khaldun, and moveson to the contributions and debates in the era of Nahda by the likes of Tahtawi, Afghani, Abduh, Farah Anton, and Taha Hussain, among others. It then moves to modern intellectual contributions by figures like Edward Said, Sadiq al Azm, Adunis, Samir Amin, Anouar Abd al-Malki, Aziz al Azmeh, Hisham Sharabi, Nazih Ayubi, and Fouad Ajami, among others. The course also covers major themes which preoccupied modern Arab political thought, including the theme of political identity, nationalism, Arab unity, liberation, religious revivalism and secularization, sectarianism, democracy, social justice, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Arab Secularism's Assisted Suicide
    Arab Secularism’s Assisted Suicide A Brief History of Arab Political Discourse on Religion and the State APRIL 25, 2019 — MARK FARHA The Century Foundation | tcf.org Arab Secularism’s Assisted Suicide A Brief History of Arab Political Discourse on Religion and the State APRIL 25, 2019 — MARK FARHA Few would contest that the Arab world today is still ideological impasse. Relying on a range of Arabic primary struggling to accept, let alone institutionalize, the core pillars sources, it begins with a panoramic historical overview of of secularism and a civic state. In part, this crisis of secularism the usage of the term “madani” (meaning “civil” or “civic”) might be seen as a global phenomenon in light of the among a selection of key liberal and reformist Arab proliferation of populism tinged with communal prejudice. intellectuals, from the nineteenth century to the present.2 But while there is a global component to this problem, there The report also examines recurrent patterns in the use of are also particular regional characteristics. This report seeks “dawlah madaniyyah” as a means of either asserting or to go beyond the current crisis surrounding secularism avoiding an egalitarian, secular state in the present context as a symptom of a broader, universal failure of liberal of post-Arab-uprising states struggling with ideological and democracy and economic inequalities, and to specifically sectarian fragmentation. I explore how the concepts of the link the enfeebled state of secularism in Arab states to the civil state and citizenship have actually been used, in some region’s intellectual and political history since the nineteenth cases, to completely skirt secularism proper.
    [Show full text]
  • ﺑﺎﺯﻧﺸﺮ ﻣﻘﺎﻻﺕ ﻭ ﮐﺘﺐ | Alefbalib.Com Islamicphilosophy,Theology Andmysticism
    ﮐﺘﺎﺑﺨﺎﻧﻪ ﻣﺠﺎﺯﯼ ﺍﻟﻔﺒﺎ | ﺑﺎﺯﻧﺸﺮ ﻣﻘﺎﻻﺕ ﻭ ﮐﺘﺐ | Alefbalib.com IslamicPhilosophy,Theology andMysticism A SHORT INTRODUCTION ﮐﺘﺎﺑﺨﺎﻧﻪ ﻣﺠﺎﺯﯼ ﺍﻟﻔﺒﺎ | ﺑﺎﺯﻧﺸﺮ ﻣﻘﺎﻻﺕ ﻭ ﮐﺘﺐ | Alefbalib.com OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES Buddhism: A Short Introduction, Klaus K. Klostermaiser, ISBN 1–85168–186–8 Buddhism: A Short History, Edward Conze, ISBN 1–86168–211–X Hinduism: A Short History, Klaus K. Klostermaier, ISBN 1–85168–213–9 Hinduism: A Short Introduction, Klaus K. Klostermaier, ISBN 1–85168–220–1 Islam: A Short History, William Montgomery Watt, ISBN 1–85168–205–8 Muhammad: A Short Biography, Martin Forward, ISBN 1–85168–131–0 Jesus Christ: A Short Biography, Martin Forward, ISBN 1–85168–172–8 Christianity: A Short Introduction, Keith Ward, ISBN 1–85168–229–5 Judaism: A Short History, Lavinia and Dan Cohn-Sherbok, ISBN 1–85168–206–6 Judaism: A Short Introduction, Lavinia and Dan Cohn-Sherbok, ISBN 1–85168–207–4 A Short Reader in Judaism, Lavinia and Dan Cohn-Sherbok, ISBN 1–85168–112–4 A Short Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets, E. W. Heaton, ISBN 1–85168–114–0 Sufism: A Short Introduction, William C. Chittick, ISBN 1–85168–211–2 The Bahá’í Faith: A Short History, Peter Smith, ISBN 1–85168–070–5 The Bahá’í Faith: A Short Introduction, Moojan Momen, ISBN 1–85168–209–0 Confucianism: A Short Introduction, John and Evelyn Berthrong, ISBN 1–85168–236–8 Global Philosophy of Religion: A Short Introduction, Joseph Runzo, ISBN 1–858168–235–X Pluralism in the World Religions: A Short Introduction, Harold Coward, ISBN 1–85168–243–0 Scripture in the World Religions:
    [Show full text]
  • Transcendent Philosophy an International Journal for Comparative Philosophy and Mysticism
    Volume 11. December 2010 Transcendent Philosophy An International Journal for Comparative Philosophy and Mysticism Editor Transcendent Philosophy Journal is an academic Seyed G. Safavi peer-reviewed journal published by the London SOAS, University of London, UK Academy of Iranian Studies (LAIS) and aims to create a dialogue between Eastern, Western and Book Review Editor Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism is published in Sajjad H. Rizvi December. Contributions to Transcendent Philosophy Exeter University, UK do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board or the London Academy of Iranian Editorial Board Studies. G. A’awani, Iranian Institue of Philosophy, Iran Contributors are invited to submit papers on the A. Acikgenc, Fatih University, Turkey following topics: Comparative studies on Islamic, M. Araki, Islamic Centre England, UK Eastern and Western schools of Philosophy, Philosophical issues in history of Philosophy, Issues S. Chan, SOAS University of London, UK in contemporary Philosophy, Epistemology, W. Chittick, State University of New York, USA Philosophy of mind and cognitive science, R. Davari, Tehran University, Iran Philosophy of science (physics, mathematics, biology, psychology, etc), Logic and philosophical G. Dinani, Tehran University, Iran logic, Philosophy of language, Ethics and moral P.S. Fosl, Transylvania University, USA philosophy, Theology and philosophy of religion, M. Khamenei, SIPRIn, Iran Sufism and mysticism, Eschatology, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Art and Metaphysics. B. Kuspinar, McGill University, Canada H. Landolt, McGill University, Canada The mailing address of the Transcendent Philosophy O. Leaman, University of Kentucky, USA is: Y. Michot, Hartford Seminary, Macdonald Dr S.G. Safavi Center, USA Journal of Transcendent Philosophy M. Mohaghegh-Damad, Beheshti University, Iran 121 Royal Langford 2 Greville Road J.
    [Show full text]
  • Arabic Novel
    NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA COURSE CODE: ARA323 COURSE TITLE: ARABIC NOVEL 1 COURSE GUIDE COURSE CODE: ARA323 COURSE TITLE: ARABIC NOVEL الرواية العربية Course Developer: Dr. Kahar Wahab Sarumi Department of Languages (Arabic Unit) National Open University of Nigeria Course Editor: 2 NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA National Open University of Nigeria Headquarters 91 Cadastral Zone, University Village Jabi, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory National Open University of Nigeria Liaison Office 14/16 Ahmadu Bello Way Victoria Island, Lagos e-mail: [email protected] URL: www.noun.edu.ng Published By: National Open University of Nigeria First Printed 2020 All Rights Reserved 3 CONTENTS PAGE Introduction…………………………….……………………..…….5 Course Aims…………………………………….………….……... 5 Course Objectives……………………………………………….....5 Working through This Course Material……………………………6 Study Units……………………………………………….……….6 Assessment………………………………………………………..6 Tutor-Marked Assignment (TMA)…………………………………..7 Final Examination and Grading………………………………………7 Course Marking Scheme…………………………………………7 Course Overview/Presentation Schedule…………….……………8 How to Get the Most from This course……………………………9 Facilitators/Tutors and Tutorials……………….………………….10 Summary…………………………………………………………….. 11 4 Introduction Welcome to ARA323: ARABIC NOVEL This course is a three-credit unit degree course in Arabic. This Course Guide gives you an overview of the course. It also provides you with information on the organization and requirements of the course. Course Aims The overall aim of this course is to: Introduce you to the concept and significance of ‘Novel’ in Arabic Literature. Acquaint you with the major concepts in Novel in Arabic literature. Course Objectives To achieve the aims set out above, ARA323 – Arabic Novel has overall objectives. Each unit also has specific objectives. The unit objectives are at the beginning of each unit.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Arab Discourse and Democracy: an Epistemological Critique
    Wright State University CORE Scholar Browse all Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2011 Modern Arab Discourse and Democracy: An Epistemological Critique Ali Saeed Abd Wright State University Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Repository Citation Abd, Ali Saeed, "Modern Arab Discourse and Democracy: An Epistemological Critique" (2011). Browse all Theses and Dissertations. 1062. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/1062 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Browse all Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MODERN ARAB DISCOURSE AND DEMOCRACY: AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL CRITIQUE A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Humanities By ALI SAEED ABD B.A., Basra University, 1995 2011 WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL July 7, 2011 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Ali Saeed Abd ENTITLED Modern Arab Discourse and Democracy: An Epistemological Critique BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Humanities. Donovan Miyasaki, Ph.D., Thesis Co-Director Awad Halabi, Ph.D., Thesis Co-Director Ava Chamberlain, Ph.D., Director, Master of Humanities Program Committee on Final Examination Donovan Miyasaki, Ph.D. Awad Halabi, Ph.D. Ava Chamberlain, Ph.D. Andrew Hsu, Ph.D. Dean, Graduate School ii ABSTRACT Abd, Ali Saeed. M.H., Master of Humanities, Wright State University, 2011.Modern Arab Discourse and Democracy: An Epistemological Critique.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix: Al-Jabri's Biographical Sketch
    APPENDIX: AL-JABRI’S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH • 27 December 1935: the birth of Mohammed Abed al-Jabri in the city of Figuig, east of Morocco, where he completed his elementary schooling. • June 1965: acquiring a Baccalaureate Degree, and frst contact with the Moroccan Leftist Mahdi ben Barka. • June 1958: spends his frst year of the university in Damascus; acquires “General Knowledge” certifcate. • October 1958: studies in the Philosophy Department (School of Arts and Social Sciences in Rabat), from which he receives B.A. degree in June, 1961. • 16 July 1963: arrested with the rest of his comrades in the Socialist Union Party, where he remained in detention for 2 months. • March 1964: contributed to the publications of “aqlām” magazine, which played an important cultural role in Morocco during 20 years of continuous publications. • March 1965: arrested another time with a group of teachers and then released. • November 1966: published the highly accredited philosophy school book in Morocco, “Courses in Philosophy”, jointly with Professor Ahmad Al Satati and Professor Mustafa Al Omari. The book played a pioneering role in spreading philosophical awareness among stu- dents in Morocco. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 303 Z. Eyadat et al. (eds.), Islam, State, and Modernity, Middle East Today, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59760-1 304 APPENDIX: AL-JABRI’S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH • 1970: acquired the frst PhD in philosophy in modern Morocco, on Ibn Khaldun; the defence committee comprised two French Orientalists and researchers, Henry Laust and Roger Arnaldez, and Arab researchers Najeed Baladi, Amjad Tarablusi and Ibrahim Boutaleb.
    [Show full text]
  • Egyptian Enlightener Rifa‛A At-Tahtawi
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Research Papers in Economics IBSU Scientific Journal, 5(1): 83-92, 2011 ISSN: 1512-3731 print / 2233-3002 online Egyptian Enlightener Rifa‛a at-Tahtawi Murman KUTELIA Abstract From the 19th c. in Arab countries, first of all, in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, the political, economic and cultural life begins to revive, which is known as the Revival (the “Nahda”). In this process enlighteners played the crucial role. The aim of the present article is to focus attention on several questions of the world outlook ofRifa‛a at-Tahtawi, the first Egyptian enlightener, in particular, his interpretation of the notions of “homeland” and “nation” and his views on the relationship between the West and the East, on the organization forms of states and societies. In order to demonstrate the question, a brief overview of the viewpoint of the enlighteners (al-Afgani, Abdo, Adib Ishaq, Mustafa Kamil, Farah Antuni, Lufti as-Saidi) and at-Tahtawi is offered. The article also deals with at-Tahtawi's views on problems of women's emancipation, his attitude towards the questions of upbringing and education. In addition, attention is devoted to his views on the notions of “lawfulness”,“freedom”,“equality”,“justice”,etc.). At-Tahtawi was the first among the Arabs, if not among the Egyptians, who turned the notion of “citizen” into an object of public discussion and defined the status of “citizen”.The study of these questions leads to the conclusion that at-Tahtawi supports the successful achievements and reasonable synthesis of Western and Eastern civilizations, that European science and in general European civilization do not contradict Islam and the Koran.
    [Show full text]
  • El Racionalismo Islámico De Averroes ; The
    Alcantara Vol XXXVI-1 (3ª)_Maquetación 1 06/06/15 20:59 Página 45 AL-QANTARA XXXVI 1, enero-junio 2015 pp. 45-68 ISSN 0211-3589 doi: 10.3989/alqantara.2015.002 The Philosopher as the Heir of the Prophets: Averroes’s Islamic Rationalism El filósofo como heredero de los profetas: el racionalismo islámico de Averroes Diego R. Sarrió Georgetown University, USA This essay argues that, underlying the legal El presente artículo argumenta que por debajo framework of Averroes’s Fasl al-maqal, there del marco jurídico del Fasl al-maqal subyace appears to be a genuine desire to reconcile the el deseo de conciliar los requerimientos de la claims of reason with the demands of faith; razón con las exigencias de la fe. Averroes then, that Averroes based this reconciliation on basa tal conciliación en la aceptación de una the acceptance of a hermeneutical theory that teoría hermenéutica según la cual, la Palabra sees the divine Word as addressing all human Divina se dirige a cada ser humano según su beings according to their intellectual capaci- capacidad intelectual. Por consiguiente, Ave- ties and that, consequently, he did not exclude rroes no excluye a los sabios del deber reli- the learned from the religious duty of assent- gioso de asentir a la verdad revelada. ing to revealed truth. Finally, and contrary to Contrariamente a interpretaciones exagerada- overstated secularist interpretations of his ra- mente secularizadoras de su racionalismo, el tionalism, it is suggested that there are artículo sugiere que Averroes concibió la filo- grounds to defend the view that Averroes con- sofía en términos cuasi religiosos, como la ceived of philosophy in quasi-religious terms, obra más noble que se puede llevar a cabo en as the noblest work to be carried out in the presencia de Dios, cuyo ejercicio convierte a presence of God, making its practitioners the sus practicantes en los legítimos «herederos rightful ‘heirs of the prophets’.
    [Show full text]
  • Front Matter Template
    Copyright by Stephen Andrew Bush 2011 The Thesis Committee for Stephen Andrew Bush Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Continuity and Change in the Concept of Freedom through Three Generations of the Modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda) APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Yoav Di-Capua Samer Ali Continuity and Change in the Concept of Freedom through Three Generations of the Modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda) by Stephen Andrew Bush, B.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin August 2011 Dedication To my parents, Andrew and Karen, and my wife Heidi Abstract Continuity and Change in the Concept of Freedom through Three Generations of the Modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda) Stephen Andrew Bush, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Yoav Di-Capua This thesis traces the development of the concept of freedom through three generations of the Modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda). The first chapter challenges the claim that the concept of freedom, in the sense of a political right, was absent from Arab thought prior to the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). ‗Abd al-Rahman al- Jabarti‘s (1754-1825/6) chronicle of the occupation reveals that he possessed the concept of freedom despite the lack of an Arabic word to identify it. Therefore, when Rifa‘a Rafi‘ al-Tahtawi (1801-73) translated the French term liberté into Arabic, through a semantic expansion of the word hurriyah, he was naming rather than introducing the concept.
    [Show full text]