Abstract
In the early nineteenth century the social structure of Greater Syria, the birthplace of Arab nationalism, was similar to that of Egypt before the reforms of Muhammad ’Ali. The system of tax-farming known as iltizam in Egypt was called muqata’a in Syria.1 Although also under Ottoman rule, Syria differed from Egypt in that it had not been governed centrally, but by a number of contending independent local dynasties. Hence it was more difficult to surmount the feudal system in Syria than in Egypt, and the feudal system in fact survived longest in this part of the Ottoman Empire.2 In Egypt the social structures had undergone an almost complete transformation as a result of the destruction of the feudal system3 by Muhammad ’Ali after 1805. In the Ottoman heartlands a similar transformation had taken place in the reign of Mahmud II (1808–39), particularly after the dissolution of the sipahis and the Janissaries.4 In Syria, however, social conditions remained virtually unchanged until the 1830s.5 The continuous internecine struggles between the local dynasties on the one hand and between themselves and the civil and military representatives of the Porte on the other had exhausted the country. Furthermore, outlying cities were regularly pillaged by Bedouin raiders, and, ‘the inevitable consequence of this state of affairs was the impoverishment and depopulation of both towns and the countryside’.6
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Notes
See G. Baer, ‘Land Tenure in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, 1800–1950’, in Charles Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of the Middle East 1800–1914 (Chicago and London, 1966) pp. 79–90, here p. 82.
Ibid., see also P. M. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516–1922 (London and New York, 1966) pp. 102 ff.;
A. N. Poliak, Feudalism in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and the Lebanon 1250–1900 (London, 1939);
Abdul-Latif Tibawi, A Modern History of Syria including Lebanon and Palestine (London and New York, 1969).
See K. Steinhaus, Soziologie der türkischen Revolution (Frankfurt/Main, 1969) pp. 35 f.
Moshe Ma’oz, Ottoman Reform in Syria and Palestine 1840–1861, The Impact of the Tanzimat on Politics and Society (London, 1968) pp. 4 ff.
See Philip K. Hitti, ‘The Impact of the West on Syria and Lebanon in the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of World History, II (1955) No. 3, 608–33; P. M. Holt, op. cit., pp. 112 ff.;
Albert Hourani, Syria and Lebanon, A Political Essay, 4th ed. (Beirut and London, 1968); on Westernisation, see pp. 59 ff.
See also Hans Kohn, Nationalism and Imperialism in the Hither East, 2nd ed. (New York, 1959); and idem, Die Europäisierung des Orients (Berlin, 1934).
In spite of the fact that there is an abundance of secondary writing on the Arab national movement and Arab nationalism, the primary sources have not so far been satisfactorily researched. It is even more regrettable that most of the secondary literature has been produced by Western historians and social scientists. Apart from Arab authors educated at Western universities, most of the work that has appeared in Arabic is journalistic, superficial and uncritical. Arab authors educated abroad have tended to publish their work in European languages, e.g. H. Z. Nuseibeh, The Ideas of Arab Nationalism (Ithaca and New York, 1956) (2nd ed., 1959);
H. Saab, The Arab Federalists of the Ottoman Empire (Amsterdam, 1958); see also the extremely comprehensive work by Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought. …
The classic account of the early Arab national movement by an Arab author, still unsurpassed, is George Antonius, The Arab Awakening: The Story of the Arab National Movement, 2nd ed. (London, 1938) (4th ed., New York 1965). Sylvia Haim has stated her objections to Antonius in ‘“The Arab Awakening”: A Source for the Historian?’, Die Welt des Islams, n.s., II, (1953) 237–50, which are however not particularly convincing. R. Hartmann evidently valued Antonius’ work, describing it as ‘Antonius’ particularly valuable book’, and ‘reliable’.
See R. Hartmann, ‘Arabische Gesellschaften bis 1914’, in idem (ed.), BASI (Leipzig, 1944) pp. 439–67. Antonius’ work has proved invaluable for the present study. The following are typical examples of Arabic secondary literature which are more or less valueless for academic purposes: ’Abd al-’Aziz al-Duri, al-Judhur al-Tarikhiyya li’l-Qawmiyya al-’Arabiyya (The Historical Roots of Arab Nationalism) (Beirut, 1960);
‘Abd al-Hadi Dakiki al-Shu ‘ubiyya wa’l-Qaumiyya al-’Arabiyya (Xenophilia and Arab Nationalism) (Beirut, n.d. [about 1962]);
’Abd al-Latif Sharara, al-Janib al-Thaqafi min al-Qawmiyya al-’Arabiyya (The Cultural Dimension of Arab Nationalism) (Beirut, 1961);
finally Muhammad Maghzub, al-Qawmiyya al-’Arabiyya (Arab Nationalism) (Beirut, 1960). The few useful studies of Arab nationalism in Arabic will be discussed below.
See Henry Dodwell, The Founder of Modern Egypt, A Study of Muhammad ’Ali (Cambridge, 1931) pp. 41 ff., and G. Antonius, op. cit., pp. 21 ff.
Mehmet Şinasi, ‘Studien zur Geschichte der syrischen Politik Mehmed Alis von Ägypten’, unpubl. Ph.D. thesis (Göttingen, 1936) p. 1. Şinasi, who disapproves of Muhammad ‘Ali’s policy in Syria, dismisses the enthusiastic reception given to the Egyptian troops by the local population, as the result of ‘preparatory work by Muhammad ‘Ali’s spies’!
Moshe Ma’oz, op. cit., p. 17 and A. L. Tibawi, British Interests in Palestine 1800–1901 (London, 1961) pp. 13 ff.
Contrary to what is generally believed, the printing press of the American mission to Malta, which was taken to Beirut after the conquest of Syria by Muhammad ‘Ali’s troops, was not in fact an Arabic press. It was first set up with Arabic type in 1835–6. See A. L. Tibawi, American Interests in Syria 1800–1901, A Study of Educational, Literary, and Religious Work (London, 1966) p. 306.
Jürgen Brandt, ‘Zum Charakter der französischen Mandatspolitik in Syrien nach dem ersten Weltkrieg’, in Walter Markov (ed.), Kolonialismus und Neokolonialismus in Nordafrika und Nahost (Berlin, 1964) pp. 197–225; here p. 200. This study is however not always reliable.
For the activities of the American missions, see especially A. L. Tibawi, American Interests in Syria 1800–1901, op. cit., and David H. Finnie, Pioneers East, The Early American Experience in the Middle East (Cambridge, Mass., 1967).
See especially Derek Hopwood, The Russian Presence in Syria and Palestine 1843–1914: Church and Politics in the Near East (London, 1969) pp. 159 ff. For the interrelationship between political and ecclesiastical interests in the Russian Orthodox missions in the Middle East,
see Igor Smolitsch, ‘Zur Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen der russischen Kirche und dem orthodoxen Osten: die russische kirchliche Mission in Jerusalem’, Ostkirchliche Studien, V (1956) No. 1, 33–51, Nos. 2/3, 89–136.
W. Braune, ‘Die Entwicklung des Nationalismus bei den Arabern’, in R. Hartmann (ed.), BASI (Leipzig, 1944) pp. 425–38; here p. 429.
See also W. Braune, ‘Beitrage zur Geschichte des neuarabischen Schrifttums’, Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen, XXXVI (1933) No. 2, 117–40.
On Nasif al-Yaziji, see Hanna Fakhuri, Tarikh al-Adab al-’Arabi (History of Arab literature), 3rd ed. (Beirut, 1960) pp. 941–57; A. Hourani, Arabic Thought …, pp. 95 f. W. Braune, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte des neuarabischen Schrifttums’, op. cit., p. 127; and G. Antonius, op. cit., pp. 45 ff.
On Faris Shidyaq see Hanna Fakhuri, op. cit., pp. 1039–46, and A. Hourani, Arabic Thought … , pp. 97 ff; also Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, The Arab Rediscovery of Europe (Princeton, 1963) passim.
Faris al-Shidyaq, Kashf al-Mukhabba’ an Funnun Urubba (The. Discovery of the Arts of Europe) 2nd ed. (Istanbul, 1881); see also I. Abu-Lughod, op. cit.
For the history of the Syrian Protestant College, see A. L. Tibawi, ‘The Genesis and Early History of the Syrian Protestant College’, Middle East Journal, XXI (1967) No. 1, 1–15 and No. 2, 199–212.
The most important parts of the ode have been reproduced in: ’Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, Hadhihi Qawmiyyatuna (This is our Nationalism), 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1964) pp. 374 f., and in Muhammad ‘Ammara, al-’Urubahfial-’Asr al-Hadith (Arabism in the Modern Age) (Cairo, 1967) pp. 316 ff.
See W. Braune, Der islamische Orient zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft (Berne and Munich, 1960) p. 59.
Adib Ishaq, al-Durar, ed. ’Auni Ishaq (Beirut, 1909).
See C. Ernest Dawn, ‘From Ottomanism to Arabism: The Origin of an Ideology’, in C. Ernest Dawn, From Ottomanism to Arabism: Essays on the Origins of Arab Nationalism (Urbana and London, 1973) pp. 122–47, as well as H. Z. Nuseibeh, op. cit., p. 142, note 45.
See E. Beeri, Army Officers in Arab Politics and Society (London and New York, 1970) pp. 286 ff, 300. The ’Urabi revolt, which was the first Arab military rebellion, must be distinguished from this, since the development of the modern army in Egypt had followed an entirely different course. For information and source material on the ’Urabi revolt, see Chapter 9, note 4.
Bernard Lewis, The Middle East and the West, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, 1965) p. 40;
see also B. Tibi, ‘Zum Verhältnis von Militär und kolonialem Nationalismus am Beispiel der arabischen Länder’, Sozialistische Politik, I (1969) No. 4, 4–19.
See K. Steinhaus, op. cit., pp. 40 f. On Abdul Hamid II, see also the rather journalistic and heavily ‘psychological’ biography by Joan Haslip, The Sultan, the Life of Abdul Hamid (London, 1958).
See Serif Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought, A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas (Princeton, 1962).
See Feroz Ahmad, The Young Turks, The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics 1908–1914 (London, 1969).
R. Hartmann, ‘Die arabische Frage und das türkische Reich’, Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Orients, Jahrbücher der deutschen Vorderasiengesellschaft, XV (1918) 1–31; herep. 17.
Ibid., pp. 108 f.; see also Z. N. Zeine, The Emergence of Arab Nationalism, With a Background Study of Arab- Turkish Relations in the Near East, 2nd ed. (Beirut, 1966). Although this source is rich in material it should be used with caution. In his presentation of Arab nationalism and its relationship with the Ottoman Empire, the author tends to mould the material to fit his own interpretation. For a critique of Z. N. Zeine’s work see the essay by W. Sharaf al-Din in Dirasat ‘ Arabiyya, VI (1970) No. 7, 113–24.
See G. Jäschke, ‘Der Turanismus der Jungtürken’, Die Welt des Islams, XXIII (1941) Nos. 1/2, 1–55.
In addition to R. Hartmann’s so far unsurpassed essay ‘Arabische Gesellschaften bis 1914’, op. cit., the following works on the Arab national secret societies may also be consulted: Muhammad ’Ammara, op. cit., pp. 313 ff., and Muhammad ’Izzat Darwaza, Hawlal-Harakaal-’Arabiyyaal-Haditha (The Arab Movement in Modern Times), 6 vols (Beirut and Sidon, 1950), here vol. I, pp. 22 ff. The last of these is particularly useful, since the author was secretary of Jam’iyyat al-Fatat in 1919, and thus had intimate acquaintance with his subject matter.
On Shibli Shumayyil see B. Tibi (ed.), Die Arabische Linke (Frankfurt/Main, 1969) pp. 16 f.
Helmut Ritter, ‘Die Abschaffung des Kalifats’, Archiv für Politik und Geschichte, II (1924) part I, 343–68; here p. 346.
R. Hartmann, Islam und Nationalismus (Berlin, 1948) p. 35; and idem, ‘Arabische Gesellschaften bis 1914’, op. cit., p. 460.
See the excellent study by Anis al-Sayigh, al-Hashimiyyun w’-al-Thawra al-’Arabiyya al-Kubra (The Hashimites and the Great Arab Revolt) (Beirut, 1966), in which the background of the Revolt of 1916 and the role of the Hashimite dynasty has been properly investigated for the first time, with the aid of valuable source material.
See also the rather less brilliant but more popular work of Anis al-Sayigh, Tatawwur al-Majhum al-Qawmi’inda al-’Arab (The Development of Arab National Thought) (Beirut, 1961).
Rudolf Sellheim, Der zweite Bürgerkrieg im Islam 680–692, Das Ende der Mekkanisch-Medinensischen Vorherrschaft (Wiesbaden, 1970) p. 30.
See C. E. Dawn, ‘Ideological Influences in the Arab Revolt’, in J. Kritzeck and R. Bayly Winder (eds), The World of Islam, Studies in Honor of Philip K. Hitti (New York, 1960) pp. 233–48; here p. 244; idem, ‘The Amir of Mecca, al-Husayn ibn- ’Ali and the Origin of the Arab Revolt’, From Ottomanism to Arabism, pp. 1–53.
See M. Kischli, Kapitalismus und Linke im Libanon, ed. B. Tibi (Frankfurt/Main, 1970) pp. 99 f.
The development of the Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire since the First World War has been documented by Erich Topf, Die Staatenbildung in den arabischen Teilen der Türkei seit dem Weltkriege nach Entstehung, Bedeutung und Lebensfähigkeit (Hamburg, 1929); this also includes original documents. See also Naji ’Allush, ‘al-Haraka al-’Arabiyya ba’d al-Harb al-’Alamiyya al-Ula’ (The Arab Movement after the First World War) Dirasat ‘Arabiyya, II (1965) No. 3, 54–75; Jürgen Brandt, op. cit.;
Ann Williams, Britain and France in the Middle East and North Africa 1914–1967 (London and New York, 1968);
and Lothar Rathmann, Araber Stehen auf (Berlin, 1960) pp. 126 ff.
See also Heinrich Kaesewieter, Syrien und Libanon als A-Mandate (Darmstadt, 1935).
Anis al-Sayigh, al-Hashimiyyun wa al-Thawra al-’Arabiyya al-Kubra, passim, as well as Naji ’Allush, ‘al-Thawra al-’Arabiyya al-Kubra: Muhawalat Taqyim’ (The Great Arab Revolt: an Attempt at an Evaluation), Dirasat Arabiyya, II (1966) No. 8, 4–12.
See Hisham B. Sharabi, Governments and Politics in the Middle East in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, New York, 1962) pp. 27 f.
Hans Kohn, Nationalism and Imperialism in the Hither East, 2nd ed. (New York, 1959) p. 64.
Ibid., p. 42; For German cultural influences in the Ottoman Empire see Otto Kley, ‘Der deutsche Bildungseinfluß in der Türkei’, Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Orients, Jahrbücher der Deutschen Vorderasiengesellschaft, XIV (1917) 1–73.
See B. Tibi, ‘Zum Verhältnis von Militär und kolonialem Nationalismus am Beispiel der arabischen Länder’, op. cit. For Arab nationalists of the post-colonial era the coup d’état has become a normal method of seizing power. See also H. B. Sharabi, Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World (Princeton, 1966) pp. 56 ff.
S. A. Morrison, ‘Arab Nationalism and Islam’, Middle East Journal, II (1948) No. 2, 147–59, explains the ‘totalitarian’ character of Arab Nationalism in its later phase by claiming that Islam as a totalitarian-theocratic dogma has been synthesised with nationalism. According to Morrison, who was a missionary, this synthesis came about because post-war Arab nationalism was no longer dominated by Arab Christians. Of course this notion is far-fetched, because fanatical Arab nationalism is strongly secular, and one of its intellectual founders, Michel ’Aflaq, is an Arab Christian.
See C. F. Gallagher, ‘Language, Culture, and Ideology: The Arab World’, in K. H. Silvert (ed.), Expectant Peoples, Nationalism and Development (New York, 1963) pp. 199–231; here p. 214.
L. M. Kenny, ‘Sati’ al-Husri’s view on Arab Nationalism’, Middle East Journal, XVII (1963) No. 3, 231–56; here p. 232.
See Kemal H. Karpat (ed.), Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (London, 1968) pp. 55 ff. Karpat also shows the structural similarities between al-Husri’s and Gökalp’s organic theory of the nation. He regrets that scholars have neglected al-Husri’s activities in the Ottoman Empire and his political and educational writing in Ottoman Turkish newspapers.
For Ziya Gökalp as the theoretician of the Young Turks and the Kemalists see the selection of texts edited by Niyazi Berkes, Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilisation (New York, 1959);
also Uriel Heyd, The Foundations of Turkish Nationalism, The Life and Teachings of Ziya Gökalp (London, 1950).
The leadership of the Hashimites and that of Mufti al-Husaini has been analysed within the framework of a general examination of political leadership in modern Arab history by Anis al-Sayigh, Fi Majhum al-Za ’ama al-Siyasiyya, Min Faisal al-Awwal ila Jamal ’Abd al-Nasir (The Concept of Political Leadership, from Faisal I to Jamal ’Abd al-Nasir) (Beirut, 1965).
There is an abundance of literature on Mufti Amin al-Husaini of which only a few examples will be cited: M. P. Waters, Mufti over the Middle East (London, 1942);
Maurice Pearlman, Mufti of Jerusalem, The Story of Haj Amin el-Huseini (London, 1947);
Joseph B. Schechtmann, The Mufti and the Führer, The Rise and Fall of Haj Amin el-Huseini (New York and London, 1965). Fritz Grobba has written on the relationship between the Mufti and the Third Reich from his own experience as a diplomat: Männer und Mächte im Orient, 25 Jahre diplomatischer Tätigkeit im Orient (Göttingen, 1967).
For al-Gailani’s coup d’état see also Lukasz Hirszowicz, The Third Reich and the Arab East (London, 1966);
Heintz Tillmann, Deutschlands Araberpolitik im zweiten Weltkrieg (Berlin, 1965);
Majid Khadduri, Independent Iraq, 2nd ed. (London, 1960).
See Shibli ’Aisami, Haulal-Wahda al-Arabiyya (On Arab Unity) (Damascus, 1957) pp. 4 f.
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© 1997 Bassam Tibi
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Tibi, B. (1997). The Genesis of Arab Nationalism. In: Arab Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376540_6
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