Abstract
A prominent shift in the post-1967 Arab intellectual discourse was an intensive intellectual preoccupation with the issue of turath (historical heritage) by intellectuals in various secular, non-Islamist political streams. The theoretical assumption underlying the majority of these works was the need to produce an “authentic” Arab Islamic foundation for modernity to bypass what had been labeled “imported,” “superficial,” and “Western” ideologies. The intellectual discourse around turath pursued the creation of new frames of reference for questions of legitimacy in Arab thought, and it aimed to produce a genuine interpretation and understanding of the contemporary era (mu’asara), which was perceived as being in crisis (’azma).1
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Notes
For general studies on turath preoccupation in Arab thought, see the following works: Issa J. Boullata, Trends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), pp. 11–56;
Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab, Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), pp. 116–173;
Michaelle Browers, Political Ideology in the Arab World: Accommodation and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 23–33.
For an extensive discussion about the inter-Arab regional relations during this era, see Avraham Sela, The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics and the Quest for Regional Order (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), pp. 79–109, 145–133.
For the influence of Foucault on prominent Arab scholars such as Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and Mohammed Arkoun, see al-Zawawi Baghura, Mishil Fucu fi al-fikr al-‘arabi (Beirut: Dar al-Tali’a, 2001), pp. 42–87.
In this regard, it is important to emphasize the impact of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) critique—following Anwar ‘Abd al-Malik—on the Arab intellectual milieu. The establishment of the postcolonial school left a deep impact on the Arab Marxist left and enforced the quest for authenticity. For Said’s reception in Arab thought, see Emmanuel Sivan, Interpretations of Islam: Past and Present (Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1985), pp. 133–154.
Jurj Tarabishi, “Takhaluf wa’i al-takhaluf,” Dirasat Arabiyya 8 (1974), pp. 29, 34.
Fu’ad Zakariya, “al-Lahza al-ta’rikhiyya li-kitab mustaqbal al-thaqafa fi misr,” al-Hilal 2 (1988), p. 26.
For representative primary texts containing the Islamist narrative of the 1967 defeat, see Muhammad Jalal Kishk, al-Naksa wa’l-ghazu al-fikri (Beirut: n.p., 1969);
Salah al-Din al-Munjid, A’midat al-nakba: bahth ‘ilmi fi asbab hazimat 5 huzayran (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Jadid, 1968).
For published studies see Fuad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice since 1967 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 52–61;
Ibrahim Abu-Rabi’, Contemporary Arab Thought: Studies in Post-1967 Arab Intellectual History (London: Pluto Press, 2004), pp. 43–62; and Kassab, Contemporary Arab Thought, pp. 48–115.
See works by Jurj Tarabishi: al-Muthaqafun al-‘arab wa’l-turath: al-tahlil al-nafsi li-‘isab jama’i (London: Riyyad al-Rayyis li’l-Nashr, 1991); Madhbahat al-turath fi’l-thaqafa al-‘arabiyya (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 1993); Nazariyyat al-‘aql (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 1999); Ishkaliyyat al-‘aql al-‘arabi (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 2002); Wahdat al-‘aql al-‘arabi al-Islami (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 2002); al-‘Aql al-mustaqil fi’l-Islam? (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 2004).
One of the most important and most frequently quoted works promoting this critical orientation is Mohammed Abed al-Jabri’s book The Contemporary Arab Discourse, published in 1982. See al-Jabri, al-Khitab al-‘arabi al-mu’asir: dirasa tahliliyya (Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1999), pp. 21–61.
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri, Nahnu wa’l-turath: qira’at mu’asira fi turathina al-falsafi (Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-‘Arabi, 1993), p. 45.
Sayyid al-Qimni, Ahl al-din wa’l-dimuqratiyya (Cairo: Dar Misr al-Mahrusa, 2005), pp. 303–304.
Al-Qimni participated in many live debates on TV. For further examples, see Sayyid al-Qimni, al-Su’al al-akhar (Cairo: Ruz al-Usuf, 1998), pp. 109–162.
Al-Qimni took these two phrases from the Islamic and Jewish traditions to emphasize the transformation from the secular perception of the conflict to the religious one: Sayyid al-Qimni, al-Ustura wa’l-turath (Cairo: al-Markaz al-Misri li-Buhuth al-Hadara, 1999), p. 15.
Arkoun identified his works with “liberalism,” “modernity,” and the “Muslim Enlightenment.” For his views about the term “liberal Islam,” see Mohammed Arkoun, al-Islam, auruba, al-gharb: rihanat al-ma’na wa-iradat al-haymana (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi, 2001), pp. 81–87.
Mohammed Arkoun, Pour une critique de la raison Islamique (Paris: Maison neuve et Larose, 1984), p. 162.
For further details about Arkoun’s methodological concepts see Wael Abu-‘Uksa, “Rediscovering the Mediterranean: Political Critique and Mediterraneanism in Mohammed Arkoun’s Thought,” Journal of Levantine Studies 1 (2011), p. 175;
also Mohammed Arkoun, “The Notion of Revelation: From Ahl al-Kitab to the Societies of the Book,” Die Welt des Islam 28/1 (1988), pp. 62–89.
Sayyid al-Qimni, Rab al-thawra: uziris wa-‘aqidat al-khulud fi misr al-qadima (Cairo: al-Markaz al-Misri li-Buhuth al-Hadara, 1999), pp. 83, 158, 231–233.
Sayyid al-Qimni, Qisat khalq: manabi’ sifr al-takwin (Damascus: Dar Kan’an, 1994), pp. 9–149.
Sayyid al-Qimni, Isra’il: al-tawrah, al-ta’rikh, al-tadlil (Cairo: Dar Qiba, 1998), pp. 7–13.
Al-Qimni, al-Su’al al-akhar; Sayyid al-Qimni, Rab al-zaman: al-kitab wa-malaf al-qadiyya (Cairo: Dar Qiba, 1998);
Sayyid al-Qimni, al-Fashiun wa’l-watan (Cairo: al-Markaz al-Misri li-Buhuth al-Hadara, 1999);
Sayyid al-Qimni, Shukran … Bin Ladin! (Cairo: Dar Misr al-Mahrusa, 2003); al-Qimni, Ahl al-din wa’l-dimuqratiyya.
Sayyid al-Qimni, al-Hizb al-hashimi wa-ta’sis al-dawla al-Islamiyya: madhal ila qira’at al-waqi’ al-ijtima’i li-‘arab al-jahiliyya wa-ifrazatihi al-iydulujiyya (Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli al-Saghir, 1996), pp. 51–154.
Despite his new secularist narrative about the formation of Islam, it should be emphasized that a few leftist and Marxist scholars during the 1970s had already interpreted the history of the prophet and the establishment of Islam using a materialist approach. See, for example, the Syrian Marxist philosopher Tayyib Tizini, Mashru’ ru’ya jadida li’l-fikr al-‘arabi al-wasit (Damascus: Dar Dimashq, 1981), pp. 154–193.
Abu Zayd wrote his book Mafhum al-nass (The concept of text) in the late 1980s, while Arkoun wrote his collection of lectures about the Qur’an from 1970 to 1982. Arkoun’s book was later published in Arabic. See Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Mafhum al-nass: dirasa fi ‘ulum al-Qur’an (Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-‘Arabi, 2000);
Mohammed Arkoun, Lectures du Coran (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1982).
For more details about Abu Zayd’s work and subsequent prosecution see Navid Kermani, “From Revelation to Interpretation: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and the Literary Study of the Qur’an,” in Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an, ed. Suha Taji-Farouki (London: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 169–192.
Abu Zayd claims that Mafhum al-nass was used against him in the trial in which an Egyptian court declared him an apostate and divorced him from his wife: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, al-Khitab wa’l-ta’wil (Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-‘Arabi, 2000), p. 260.
Abu Zayd, Mafhum al-nass, p. 79; Mohammed Arkoun, al-Qur’an: min al-tafsir al-mauruth ila tahlil al-khitab al-dini (Beirut: Dar al-Tali’a, 2005), pp. 38, 55.
For more details about the Islamic Research Academy’s function in this trial, see 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, 2009), pp. 275–276.
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© 2015 Meir Hatina and Christoph Schumann
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Abu-‘Uksa, W. (2015). Liberal Renewal of the Turath: Constructing the Egyptian Past in Sayyid al-Qimni’s Works. In: Hatina, M., Schumann, C. (eds) Arab Liberal Thought after 1967. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137551412_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137551412_6
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