Abstract
An analysis of Arab liberal thought, with its core values of rationalism, freedom, civic rights, constitutionalism, and cultural ecumenism, involves several methodological and historical difficulties. Arab liberals in the twentieth century, especially since 1967, have constituted a heterogeneous and poorly organized group. They have lacked a coherent school of thought, divided as they were by religious creed, professional training, and attitudes toward Islam, the West, and Israel. Their language was too rational and remote for the general public, and they offered no attractive solutions to socioeconomic ills beyond calling for gradual educational and political reform. Moreover, they lacked an effective network of civil associations, not to mention political parties, that could back their cause. Many liberals were identified with centers of Western civilization, whose colonial history in the region was such that anyone who empathized with a Western political or cultural agenda was accused of seeking to destroy their society’s indigenous identity, and in fact of constituting a fifth column.
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Notes
For a critical reading of Western scholarly literature on Arab liberalism see Meir Hatina, “Arab Liberal Discourse: Old Dilemmas, New Visions,” Middle East Critique 20 (Spring 2011), pp. 5–8.
See also Edward Said, Representations of the Intellectual (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), chapter 5;
John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, Makers of Contemporary Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 3–22;
Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (London: Hurst, 2002), pp. 158–171.
Christoph Schumann, “Introduction,” in Liberal Thought in the Eastern Mediterranean: Late 19th Century until the 1960s, ed. Christoph Schumann (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 3.
Christoph Schumann, “The Failure of Radical Nationalism and the Silence of Liberal Thought in the Arab World,” in Nationalism and Liberal Thought in the Arab East: Ideology and Practice, ed. Christoph Schumann (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 173–189;
Charles Kurzman, “Introduction: Liberal Islam and Its Context,” in Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, ed. Charles Kurzman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 3–26; Roel Meijer’s chapter in this volume (Chapter 3).
Lawrence Stone, “The Revival of the Narrative: Reflections on a New Old History,” Past and Present 85 (1979), pp. 3–24.
Fu’ad Zakariya, al-Haqiqa wa’l-wahm fi’l-haraka al-Islamiyya al-mu’asira, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr, 1988), pp. 170–174.
See also Michaelle Browers, “Arab Liberalism: Translating Civil Society, Prioritizing Democracy,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 7/1 (2004), pp. 51–75;
Michaelle Browers, Political Ideology in the Arab World: Accommodation and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Meir Hatina, “The ‘Other Islam’: The Egyptian Wasat Party,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14 (Summer 2005), pp. 171–184.
Michael J. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), esp. pp. 1–14, 66–103, 184–218;
Paul Kelly, Liberalism (Cambridge: Polity, 2005), pp. 1–16, 92–111, 132–157.
See, for example, Kirk F. Koerner (ed.), Liberalism and Its Critics (London: Croom Helm, 1985).
See, for example, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot, Egypt’s Liberal Experiment 1922–1936 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977);
Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Confronting Fascism in Egypt: Dictatorship versus Democracy in the 1930s (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010); Schumann (ed.), Liberal Thought in the Eastern Mediterranean; Schumann (ed.), Nationalism and Liberal Thought in the Arab East;
Peter Wein, Iraqi Arab Nationalism: Authoritarian, Totalitarian, and Pro-fascist Inclinations 1932–1941 (London: Routledge, 2006);
Orit Bashkin, The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009);
Orit Bashkin, New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2102).
The Nahda, mainly in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, was an impressive cultural project that included a wide range of intellectual pursuits by both Christians and Moslems. It advocated an embrace of modernity, side by side with a revival of the Arab heritage adapted to Western values of science, humanism, progress, and national identity. On the Nahda, see Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age; Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity: Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Beirut (Leiden: Brill, 2005);
Fruma Zachs and Sharon Halevi, Gendering Culture in Greater Syria: Intellectual and Ideology in the Late Ottoman Empire (London: I.B. Tauris, 2015);
Adel Beshara (ed.), Butrus al-Bustani: Spirit of the Age (Melbourne: Iphoenix Publishing, 2014);
Peter Hill, “The First Arabic Translations of Enlightenment Literature: The Damietta Circle of the 1800s and 1810s,” Intellectual History Review 25/2 (2015), pp. 209–233.
For a sketch of the effendiyya see Michael Eppel, “Note about the Term Effendiyya in the History of the Middle East,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 41 (2009), pp. 535–539.
See also Haggai Erlich, Students and University in 20th Century Egyptian Politics (London: Frank Cass, 1989), pp. 58–62;
Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Egypt, Islam and the Arab (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 7–22.
Dale Eickelman and Jon W. Anderson (eds.), New Media in the Muslim World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999);
Naomi Sakr (ed.), Arab Media and Political Renewal (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007);
also Shai Zohar, Arab Liberal Discourse in the Internet: The Case of al-Elaph (MA thesis; Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 2011) (in Hebrew).
See also Muhammad Qasim Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002);
Meir Hatina, Ulama, Politics and the Public Sphere (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2010).
Meir Hatina, Identity Politics in the Middle East: Liberal Thought and Islamic Challenge in Egypt (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), pp. 14–28.
See also Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 54–78.
Nasr Abu Zaid with Esther R. Nelson, Voice of an Exile (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), pp. 165–208;
Mahmoud Mohamed, “Mahmud Muhammad Taha’s Second Message of Islam and His Modernist Project,” in Islam and Modernity, ed. J. Cooper, J. Nettler, and M. Mahmoud (London: I. B. Tauris, 1998), pp. 105–128;
Muhammad Shahrour, “The Divine Text and Pluralism in Muslim Societies,” in The New Voices of Islam: Reforming Politics and Modernity, ed. Mehran Kamrava (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006), pp. 143–152;
Muhammad Shahrour, The Qur’an, Morality and Critical Reason, ed., trans., and with an introduction by Andreas Christmann (Leiden: Brill, 2009), esp. chapters 1–3;
Abdelmadjid Charfi, Islam: Between Message and History (Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2005); first published in Arabic as al-Islam bayna al-risala wa’l-tar’ikh (Beirut: Dar al-Tali’a, 2000).
See also Mohammad Abu Samra, “Liberal Critics, ‘Ulama and the Debate on Islam in the Contemporary Arab World,” in Guardians of Faith in Modern Times: ‘Ulama in the Middle East, ed. Meir Hatina (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 265–289;
Suha Taji-Farouki (ed.), Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 1–36.
Hatina, Identity Politics in the Middle East, pp. 71–96, 119–138; Muhammad Sa’id al-’Ashmawi, al-Khilafa al-Islamiyya (Cairo: Maktabat al-Madbuli al-Saghir, 1996).
Mahmud Muhammad Taha, al-Risala al-thaniya min al-Islam, new ed. (Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-’Arabi, 2007); also Mohamed, “Mahmud Muhammad Taha’s Second Message.”
See, for example, Muhammad Talbi, “Arabs and Democracy: A Record of Failure,” Journal of Democracy 11 (2000), pp. 58–68;
Amin al-Mahdi, al-Sira’ al-’arabi al-isra’ili (Cairo: al-Dar al-’Arabiyya, 1999), pp. 58–68.
Talbi, “Arabs and Democracy”; al-Mahdi, al-Sira’ al-’arabi al-isra’ili, pp. 58–59; Tariq Hajji, Culture, Civilization and Humanity (London: Frank Cass, 2003), pp. 9–41, 56–64, 134–151, 205–220.
Talbi, “Arabs and Democracy,” pp. 66–67; Sayyid al-Qimni, al-Fashiun wa’l-Arab (Cairo: al-Markaz al-Masri li’l-Buhuth al-Hadari, 1999), esp. pp. 158–170.
Hazim Saghie, “Introduction,” in The Predicament of the Individual in the Middle East, ed. Hazim Saghie (London: Saqi Books, 2001), pp. 7–14.
See, for example, Shakir al-Nabulsi, “Man hum al-libiraliyyun al-’arab al-judad wa ma huwa khitabuhum,” in al-Libiraliyyun al-judad jadal fikri, ed. Shakir al-Nabulsi (Cologne: Manshurat al-Jamal, 2005), p. 24; also Kamal Ghabriyal, “al-Libiraliyya al-jadida wa-fadha’ yatashakkalu,” in ibid., pp. 76–78.
See also Ahmad al-Baghdadi, Tajdid al-fikr al-dini: da’wa li-istikhdam al-’aql (Beirut: al-Intishar al-’Arabi, 2008), pp. 53–63.
In the liberal published works the Nahda was also associated with enlightenment (tanwir), and rationalism (‘aqlaniyya). Al-Nabulsi, “Man hum al-libiraliyyun al-’arab al-judad,” p. 19; Saad Eddin Ibrahim, “Reviving Middle Eastern Liberalism,” Journal of Democracy 14 (October 2003), pp. 9–10;
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, “Arab Liberal Legacies Full Circle,” in Modernization, Democracy, and Islam, ed. Shireen T. Hunter and Huma Malik (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005), pp. 205–213;
Turki al-Hamad, Min huna yabda’ al-taghyir (London; Dar al-Saqi, 2009), pp. 183–188.
See, for example, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, “Inscribing Socialism into the Nahda: al-Muqtataf, al-Hilal and the Construction of Leftist Reformist Worldview, 1880–1914,” in The Making of the Arab Intellectual: Empire, Public Sphere and the Colonial Coordinates of Slefhood, ed. Dyala Hamzah (London: Routledge, 2013), pp. 62–89.
Ibid.; Faraj Fuda, al-Irhab (Cairo: Dar Misr al-Jadida, 1988), pp. 6–9;
Faraj Fuda, Nakun aw la nakun (Cairo: Dar Misr al-Jadida, 1990), pp. 6–7;
Rif’at al-Sayyid, ‘Ama’im al-libiraliyya fi sahat al-’aql wa’l-huriyya (Suria: al-Mada, 2002); also Hatina, Identity Politics in the Middle East, pp. 113–114.
Husayn Ahmad Amin, Fi bayt Ahmad Amin, 2nd ed (Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli, 1989).
Fuda, al-Irhab, p. 3; Faraj Fuda, Hiwar hawla al-’ilmaniyya (Cairo: Dar al-Mahrusa li’l-Nashr, 1986), pp. 13–14.
Muhammad Sa’id al-’Ashmawi, Usul al-shari’a, 4th ed. (Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli al-Saghir, 1996), p. 5.
See, for example, Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid, Turath Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid, 2 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 2008).
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), p. 205.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, “Reviving Middle Eastern Liberalism,” Journal of Democracy 14 (October 2003), pp. 9–10.
Also Nasif Nassar, al-Tafkir wa’l-hijra: min al-turath ila al-nahda al-’arabiya al-thaniya (Beirut: Dar al-Nahar, 1997); see also Clemens Recker’s chapter in this volume (Chapter 6).
Nasif Nassar, “al-Nahda al-’arabiyya al-thaniya wa-tahaddi al-hurriyya,” in al-Nahda al-’arabiyya al-thaniya, tahaddiyat wa-aafaq, ed. Ghassan Isma’il ‘Abd al-Khaliq (Amman: Mu’assassat ‘Abd al-Hamid Shuman, 2000), pp. 137–167.
On Mustafa’s worldview see David Govrin, “Hala Mustafa and the Liberal Predicament,” Middle East Quarterly 17/2 (Spring 2010), pp. 41–52.
Phrases coined by the Egyptian writers Husayn Ahmad Amin and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. See Emmanuel Sivan, “The Clash within Islam,” Survival 45/1 (2003), p. 39; Abu Zaid with Nelson, Voice of an Exile, p. 4. See also Elizabeth Kassab’s more general exploration of the stance of contemporary Arab thinkers regarding the first Nahda legacy of the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries and its perceived failure: Kassab, Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), pp. 18–115, 347–363.
Schumann, “The Failure of Radical Nationalism”; Christoph Schumann, “Freiheit und Staat im islamistischen Diskurs,” in Islam und Moderner Nationalstaat (forthcoming); also Chris Harnisch and Quinn Mecham, “Democratic Ideology in Islamist Opposition? The Muslim Brotherhood’s Civil State,” Middle Eastern Studies 45 (2009), pp. 189–205; Hatina, “The ‘Other Islam.’”
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Hatina, M. (2015). Arab Liberal Thought in Historical Perspective. In: Hatina, M., Schumann, C. (eds) Arab Liberal Thought after 1967. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137551412_2
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