SHADES OF NATIONALISM IN THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD : THE ISLAMIC FACET. THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Sottor of 9^ilo£(09[)p - IN WEST ASIAN STUDIES (POLITICAL SCIENCE) •Y ZAMm AHMAD BHAT Und«r th« Supervision of Dr. FAZAL MAHMOOD CENTRE OF WEST ASIAN STUDIES AU6ARH MUSUM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2002 ,D1S fo^ "^.1 ^ ^-.t^' *&l^r- ( A. 1 .^ .IffM Ort^r. •.. T5915 •^ «1 n9 IS* ^/7 «i1 ^ C C «^ CENTRE OF WEST ASIAN STUDIES ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202002 (INDIA) Dated. 23./uAZ (llFrltftralr This is to Q@^^M e^tfee^is entitled "SHADES OF -' ^^.^'^^M*^: •"!'% NATIONAUSM IN THB CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD: THB-tS]!,»i|^^fimby'lVlR. ZAMIR AHMAD BHAT for t|ie a\Yard oSMi.T^. dpgjee ip. West Asian Studies (Political Scten^'e)\^s li^n #epare%tj|\df r|my supervision. This is his o^g4ia^i;^a^|nffj(^t%^-bfst,i^|^niy knowledge, it has not been^^*^44S"^^^y^Jtere-ejse for the award of any degree. -St . (Dr. Fazal Mahmood) Supervisor CONTENTS Page No. Acknowledgement and Preface i-v Chapter I: Introduction 1-18 Chapter II: Rise of Arab Nationalism and Impact of World War I 19-40 (A) Decline of Ottoman Empire 19-32 (B) The Arab Revolt of 1915 32-37 Chapter III: Arab Nationalism at the Advent of Twentieth Century 41-65 (A) Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani 41-46 (B) Muhammad Abduh 47-54 (C) Rashid Ridha 54-61 Chapter IV: Contemporary Islamic Political Activism 66-128 (A) Hasan Al-Banna 66-82 (B) Sayyid Qutb 83-102 (C) Abul Al'a Mawdudi 103-120 Chapter-V: Islamic Revolution of Iran and its Impact on West Asia 129-169 (A) Ayatullah Ruhullah Musavi Khomeini 129-152 (B) Dr. All Shariati 152-163 Chapter VI: Concept of Transnational Islam, Political Islam and Contemporary Activities of Arab Muslim Militants 170-233 (A) Transnational Islam 170-176 (B) Political Islam 176-191 (C) Major Islamic Militant Groups 191-223 Summary and Conclusion 234-251 Bibliography 252-268 Glossary 269-271 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND PREFACE At the outset I bow before "My God" whose blessings had always been with me and enabled me to complete this thesis. I feel privileged to acknowledge deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Fazal Mahmood for his able guidance throughout my research work. I shall never forget to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Jawaid Iqbal Centre of West Asian Studies Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh for his constructive criticism and valuable suggestions. Without his help this work would have not seen the dawn of the day. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Prof. Tayyaba Husain, Chairperson, Centre of West Asian Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh for her kind advice. This acknowledgement would be incomplete without mentioning the name of Prof. Nazim Ali, Prof. M.R.K. Nadwi, Prof. M.A. Saleem Khan, Prof. Mahmudul Haq, Prof. Irfan Habib, Dr. Gulrez, Dr. Shamir Hassan, Dr. Arif Rizvi, Dr. Javed Ahmad Khan, Dr. Ghulam Mursaleen, Dr. Afzal Wani, Dr. SannauIIah Mir and Dr. Anwar Alam for exchanging their ideas regarding my field of research. I register my thanks to Prof. A.M. Matto Director, Centre of Central Asian Studies Kashmir University for his sagacious and timely advice. It is worth to mention the support and cooperation of the library staff of Central Library Jawaharlal Nehru University, Centre of Central Asian Studies Kashmir University, Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University and Library of Islami darulmutala Hutmarah Kashmir. I am highly thankful to Mr. Mohd Aiim Ullah, Mr. Qamar Javed, Mr. Anwar Shah of Seminar Library West Asian Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh for providing me the necessary help during my research. Thanks are also due to Mr. Haroon for typing and binding my thesis. My thanks are due to my loving friends, Aejaz, Mukhtar, Rafeeq, Waseem, Farooq, Khalid, Shabir, Nisar, Asif, Younis, Gh. Mohi-u-din ,Abass, Ismaeel, Reyaz, Fayaz, Gh. Mustafa ,Fayaz Sogami, Salman Shayir,Shahi,JaIiI, and Primrose for their August company. I am thankful to Miss Sahba Jamal, Ab. Ghani, Miss Salma Khan, Miss Shafqat Siddiqui and Mr. Isaldeen M.A. Amayar for their help and love. It gives me immense pleasure to acknowledge my deep sense of gratitude to my Parents who inculcated in me the values and virtues, which helped me to be on tract throughout my life. Special credit goes to my brothers-Bhai Lai, Bhai Ji, Imuji, Suhail Bhaya, Showkat; Sisters-Aeji Behna, little Nadish; Mamaji-Mr. Nazir Ahmad for their prayers and best wishes. I feel indebted towards Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh whose tradition has become the part of my existence. Last but not the least I will never forget to acknowledge the person who was, is and will be there forever and a day thereafter to encourage me in every walk of my life. The present study consists of six chapters. The first chapter introduction deals with the background of the study. In this chapter attempts have been made to highlight the rise of Arab Nationalism and contemporary Islamic movement of Arab world. The chapter second gives a detail about the causes of downfall of Ottoman empire and the rise of modern Arab World. In this chapter a brief account of Arab revolt and the effect of World War I on Arab world has been discussed. The third chapter attempts to analyse the thoughts of three great Islamic thinkers, Jamal al-Din Afghani, Abduh and Rashid Ridha. These three thinkers had been of immense importance in the history of Islamic movement of 20"^ century Arab world. The fourth chapter focuses on the contemporary Islamic political activism in Arab world. The part first and second of this chapter deals with the personality and ideology of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the ideologue of Brotherhood Syed Qutb. The third part deals with the ideology of a non Arab Islamic political thinker, Mawlana Mawdudi. Mawdudi has been made part of the present study because of his immense influence on the Arab Islamic movement. Mawdudi is the first non-Arab thinker who has been a constant source to the radical Islamists of the Arab world even up to the present times. The fifth chapter aspires to understand the thoughts of two main think tanks of Iranian revolution of 1979, Khomeini and Ali Shariati. Iranian revolution has been made part of the present study because of its role in catalyzing the Islamic militant forces of Arab world. The sixth and the last chapter discusses the rise of transnational and political Islam in cotemporary Arab world. In this chapter attempts have also been made to highlight the activities and the rise of some major Islamic militant groups. At the end of the chapters there is summary and conclusion of the study. After summary and conclusion there is also a bibliography and glossary of some Arabic term used in this thesis. ^'tWi/'V /)U'^CyCl ^^^Ct Zamir Ahmad Bhat ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^r^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^i^ 1€ £ S £ £ C £ 1c £ f ^ £ £ £ k «1 € •1 f?^ £ ^ £ 0^ £ £ f <v^ £«i Chapter I £ €1 «? JntrjtMttiirn £ £ «T £ k £ k £ £ £ 1 k £ k £ £1 k £ k £ £ k1^ £ & f & 1 £ £ k £ & a £ £ £ £ £ »T«T,^f^^^*^«^i?^^^*jr«T^«r«r,T,?r«^i^%%*^tT,"?^«T,T«^^ ^ CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The modern idea of Al-quawmiyya al-arrbiya, generally rendered in English as 'Arab Nationalism ' is not equivalent to the Arabic al-qawmiya, the latter derived from qawm, is a new­ comer to the Arab political terminology.' Before the twentieth century, the word qawm had no political connotation, but as used during present time it has come to denote all the Arab speaking people, disregarding, in principle, the geographical and political boundaries which separate the Arab states. Thus, the term al-qawmiyya al-arrbiya stands, today, not only for 'Arab Nationalism ' but also for the Arab unity. Although there has been a language obstacle in understanding Arab Nationalism by non-Arabs, still attempts have been made by several western and non-Arab scholars to understand the phenomenon of Arab Nationalism. The study of Arab Nationalism by them has helped a lot for the better understanding of Arab world. Arab Nationalism as an ideology and a factor in West As ian politics is a twentieth century phenomenon and comprehensive doctrine of Arab Nationalism emerged after World War I. However, it is not to say that its appearance in twentieth century is mere fortuitous event. On the contrary. considered as a doctrine, and divorced from the accidents of the war and politics, which have facilitated its prodigious spread, it is possible to see in it the outcome of the severe intellectual crisis that Islam experienced during the nineteenth century. The absence of a specific ideology of Arab Nationalism until the end of the First World War is indeed note worthy. It was not until the 1930's that a serious attempt was made to define the meaning of Arab Nationalism. In the manifesto written by the members of Decentralization Party, appeals were made to the non-Muslims to fight for the common cause with the Muslim Arabs against Turks.^ In the early days of the twentieth century, two ideologies competed for the loyalties of the Arab inhabitants of Ottoman territories, which lay to the East of Suez. The dominant ideology, Ottomanism, defended the continuation of Ottoman empire. The challenging ideology, Arabism, proclaimed that the Arabs were a special people who possessed peculiar virtues and rights. Arabism, as propounded by its creators and advocates was a defence and vindication of Islam and the East in the face of the dominance of Christian West.