ISLAM AND THE THEORY OF ARAB NATIONALISM BY SYLVIA G. HAIM London It is often argued that Islam and nationalism, being systems . different in origin and inspiration are contradictory almost by definition, and that no useful purpose can be served in discussing them in connexion with each other. In this essay, I will, however, try to examine Islam and Arab nationalism as systems of belief, and to discover the point of contact between them, and whether a reconciliation between the two creeds is possible or not. 1 It will be necessary to study the literature of the Arab nationalist move- ment, to trace any Islamic elements that it may contain, and to . endeavour to relate these elements to the traditional system of Islamic belief. Such a study will involve the discussion of the changes that have come over certain terms, Islamic in origin and character, as a result of the infiltration of Western ideas into Arabic thought. Nationalist doctrines in Europe have usually encouraged xeno- phobia, an exaggerated pride in race and language, and a desire to seek inspiration in a pre-Christian past; Eastern nationalisms naturally followed suit in these as in other, perhaps less aggressive, tendencies of nationalism, since it was from Europe that nationalist theories were learnt in modern times. The literature of Arab nationalism does not lack illustrations of these tendencies. To take an example, S ami i Shawkat, a Director General of Education in Iraq in the loses, spoke as follows to the teachers of private and foreign schools in Baghdad in 1939 : "We have up to now neglected a most vital aspect of our glorious history; we have made it start at the prophetic message,and this is a period of less than fourteen centuries. 1 See also "Islam and Arab Nationalism" in WI , N. S., III 201. Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 06:20:03AM via free access 125 In reality, however, the history of our illustrious Arab nation extends over thousands of years, and goes back to the time when the peoples of Europe lived in forests and over marshes, in caves and in the interstices of the rock; at that time our own ancestors used to set up banks, sculpt statues, and lay down canons and codesof law; they invented then the first principles of medicine, geometry, astromony, the alphabet and the numerals. On the stela of Hammurabi in the Louvre, we find inscribed the basic law given by one of our ancestors, Hammurabi; one of its clauses concerns the legal punishment of an eye . for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; this took place before the Torah, the Gospelsor the Qurlan. In the same way we find that everything makes us lift our heads high when we considerthe historiesof the Semiticempires formed in the Fertile Crescent-the Chaldean, the Assyrian,the African,the Pharaonicor the Carthaginian;all these things must persuade us that the civilisationof the world at the present time is based on foundationslaid by our ancestors. These empires and their dependenciesare all our property; they are of us and for us; we have the right to glory in them and to honour their exploits, just as we have the right to cherish and exalt the glories of Nabuchadnezzar,Hammurabi, Sargon, Ramses,Tutankhamen, in the same way that we glory and take pride in 'Abd ar-Rahman ad-Dakhil, 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, Harun ar-Rashid and al-Ma'mun." 1 Sami Shawkat went on to say that this pride in the Arab past had to be systematically inculcated: "No other history", he ended his address by saying, "is to be taught in an attractive and sym- pathetic manner except the history of the Arab nation (al-umma al-Carabiyya), and when I say the Arab nation, I mean the history of all the Semitic waves." 2 A more detailed exposition of his views on the role of the teaching of history in fostering nationalist pride occurs in another address to teachers of history: "You see how history is made up accordingto the needs of the moment: this is formative history. History for history's sake, on the other hand, has no place in our present society; it is a matter for the specialist and for those who devote themselvesto learning alone. The histories which are written with this aim in view are buried and nobody reads them. I believe that the Arab masses which are instinct with deep national feeling and with sentiments of pride and glory, must desecrate the tomb of Ibn Khaldun for his saying 'The Arabs are a people who cannot unite, and a people without political capacity', and just for his blasphemingin such a manner. ' Scienceis called sciencebecause emotion plays no part in it; but emotion has a share in the arts such as poetry, painting, music and acting, and he who has no strong emotions cannot sense the meaning of pictures or of acting. I believethat the teacher of history, if 1 Sami Shawkat, H�dhihiahd �funa,man dmana biha fa huwa minna, Baghdad 1939, p. 11. See also MuhammadJamil Baiham, Al-�Arabqabl al-Isl�amwa ba�duhuf� Filast �n, in AL-�Îrf�Sidon,n, 1952,pp. 440-I. The author there maintains that the Arab nationality (qaumiyya) and language precede Islam in Syria. 2 Shawkat, p. 14. S�miShawkat is not the only one to make the Arabs the ancestors of all known civilisationsin the Middle East; �Al�N ��irad-D �n, an ideologue of Arab nationalism, does the same, and affirms that what are commonly called peoples (shu¸�b),such as the Assyrians or the Chaldeans, are Arab tribes and not nations or peoples.He considersthat Islam, although important as an event becauseof the expansion it made possible, is but an accident in the larger and older being of Arabism. See his Qadiyyat al-�Arab,Beirut 1946,pp. 30 n. I, 55 n. 2, 57 n., 104ff. Edmond Rabbath, a Syrian Christian, at one time Deputy in the Syrian Parliament, elaborates the same point of view with greater precision and a show of scientific method. See his "Unité Syrienne et Devenir Arabe", Paris 1937. Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 06:20:03AM via free access 126 he has no feelingof love for his nation and of adoration for its great men, will not be able to teach history. In this respect therefore, history is in the category of the arts." 1 It is clear that sentiments such as those expressed by Sami Shawkat owe much to the European doctrine of nationalism. The question is how and by what stages such a doctrine came to be acclimatised in the Muslim Arab East and what elements in the indigenous political tradition facilitated its reception. The nature of the change in Muslim political theory may be grasped through a consideration of the gradual and successive attempts to invest with meaning and content the conception of an Arab "nation". And it is perhaps worth while to start with the case of a person ( like Sati ` al-Husri. Säti a native of Aleppo and an official of the Ottoman Government, became a follower of Faisal and an ardent Arab nationalist. He has occupied various high educational posts in Iraq and Syria, having been at one time Director General of Education in Iraq and later Educati- onal Adviser to the Arab League. In his book, Sa f ahat min al- rnadi al-qayib, he defines in Hegelian terms the concepts of freedom, of order and of the state; this definition, he claims to be that which the West universally understands. He recalls a scene from a play he had seen in Paris and in which the European officer tells his mistress, the Moroccan dancer, who tries to turn him away from his military duties by appealing to his sense of freedom: "Liberty for us Westerners," the officeris made to say, "is not as you Easterners under- stand and desire it. You understand by freedom that a person should put on his burnous, mount his horse and ride straight into the desert whereverhe may wish to go ... As for us, we do not demand this kind of freedom;every oneof us carries round his neck ties and chains ... tics and chains made of spiritual gold ... of the gold of tradition, of history and of duty ... We love those chains with all our hearts, and we carry them with great joy ... We venerate those ties and chains and we indeed hold them sacred ...." The author comments: "The generation which spoke in these terms carried France to glory and to victory, but the generation which forsookthe sanctity of the social ties, and adopted the notion of absolutefreedom ... the generationwhich set asidesocial solidarity and sanctified individualism ... this generation ... has carried France to these calamities... [of 1940]. I believe that this outcomemust be a preciouslesson to all Arab youth ... 1 Shawkat pp. 43-4. The expressionused about Ibn Khald�nis yanbush qabr, no equi- valent of which in English can fully convey the primitive violenceof the action described by the Arabic expression. S�ti�al-Husri supplies the rational basis for S�mi Shawkat's pedagogy. In his essay A�al-�ilm'L- li� ilm,am al-�ilm li'l-watan?, �r�wa, ah�d�f�th'l- wataniyyawa 'l-qaumiyya,Cairo 1944,pp. 135-144,al-Husri argues that though knowledge is for the sake of knowledge,teaching is not for the sake of teaching. It is a means towards an end, namely, education. Therefore it implies selectiveness,and selectivenessin the teaching of history should be inspired by the desire to inculcate the spirit of patriotism and nationalism.