The Historical Formation of the Arab Nation: A Study in Identity and Consciousness

385 Pages·2012·33.301 MB·English

by  A.A. Duri

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
THE ARAB NATION
THE HISTORICAL FORMATION OF
THE ARAB NATION

THE HISTORICAL FORMATION OF
THE ARAB NATION
A Study in Identity and Consciousness
A. A. DURI
Translated by
LAWRENCE I. CONRAD
Volume 1
R Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in 1987
This edition first published in 2012
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© 1987 Centre for Arab Unity Studies
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ISBN: 978-0-415-62197-7 (Set)
eISBN: 978-0-203-10593-1 (Set)
ISBN: 978-0-415-62286-8 (Volume 1)
eISBN: 978-0-203-10496-5 (Volume 1)
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The
Historical
Formation
of the Arab
Nation
A Study in Identity and Consciousness
A.A. DURI
TRANSLATED BY
LAWRENCE I. CONRAD
CROOM HELM
London • New York • Sydney
© 1987 Centre for Arab Unity Studies
Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent, BR3 1AT
Croom Helm Australia, 44-50 Waterloo Road,
North Ryde, 2113, New South Wales
Published in the USA by
Croom Helm
in association with Methuen, Inc.
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Duri, 'Abd al-Aziz
The historical formation of the Arab
nation.
1. Arab countries — History
I. Title
909'.0974927 DS37.7
ISBN 0-7099-3471-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publkation Data
Dun, 'Abd al-'AzIz.
The historical formation of the Arab nation.
Translation of: al-Takwin al-tarikhi lil-ummah
al-'Arablyah.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Nationalism — Arab countries. 2. Arabism.
3. Arab countries — History — 1798- . I. Title.
DS63.6.D8713 1987 909'.0974927 87-17116
ISBN 0-7099-3471-8
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham Ltd, Kent
Contents
Preface
Introduction 1
1. The Arabs before Islam: Their Homeland,
Location and Origins 4
The Arab homeland 5
The position of the Arabs 13
The origins of the Arab nation 16
2. Islam and Arabic: The Formation of Arab-
Islamic Society 29
The caliphate of early Islam 30
The transformation and decline of the political
order 36
The formation of the Arab nation 41
Arab emigration and expansion 52
The Arabs and Islam in Egypt 60
Developments in the Maghrib 65
3. The Arab Nation and its Sense of Identity 84
The rise of Arab culture 84
The concept of the Arab nation in actuality 94
The concept of the Arab nation in thought 106
The concept of the Arab nation in literature 113
The concept of the Arab nation in the
popular consciousness 117
4. The Arabs in the Age of the Tanzimat 134
Economic developments 134
Modernisation 141
Socio-economic changes 146
Cultural revival 147
Beginnings of the modern consciousness 153
5. The Arab-Islamic Consciousness: Beginnings of
the Nationalist Awakening 183
Muhammad 'Abduh 186
Contents
Rashid Rida 186
Al-KawakibI 188
Al-Zahrawi 194
Rafiq al-'Azm 198
Shakib Arslan 204
6. The Development of Arab Consciousness from
1908 until the First World War 214
The Committee of Union and Progress 215
Arab activity in the societies 219
Intellectual features in periodical literature 226
The nationalist perspective 235
7. The Arab Movement 277
The reform movement 277
The First Arab Congress 288
From decentralisation to independence 294
The Arab national awakening 302
Conclusion 324
Bibliography 336
Index 354
Preface
The origins and rise of the modern Arab consciousness and sense
of identity as a people comprise both an important problem in the
study of the historical process of social formation and, of no less
interest, a topic of continuing scholarly debate. A.A. Dun's con
tribution to the discussion represents the insight of an eminent Arab
historian whose research spans the period from the rise of Islam
to modern times, and ranges over historical studies in their political,
social, economic and intellectual dimensions. The original Arabic
work, Al-Takwin al-ta'rikhi li-l-umma at- 'arabiya: dirasafi l-huwiya wa-l-
dhat, published in Beirut by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies in
September 1984, has been received with great interest, and the
author has already presented an English summary of his views on
the medieval aspects of the subject in his 1981 Annual Distinguished
Lecture at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab
Studies.
Duri's study requires no additional introduction here, but a few
prefatory remarks concerning the translation would perhaps be in
order. The author's lucid Arabic style lends itself to translation, and
I have tried to stay as close to it as possible. Misprints in the Arabic
text have been corrected without comment; and similarly, technical
terminology has at times been rendered in a somewhat exegetical
fashion for the benefit of the uninitiated reader. At the same time,
however, it would seem important that the informed reader be
granted the means to determine whether a word in a book title or
item of technical vocabulary is, for example, amal (hope), or 'amal
(work), or whether an individual under discussion is someone named
'Amir or simply an individual bearing the title of Amir. To ignore
this problem at the least raises the possibility of unnecessary confu
sion, and at worst implies that it does not matter whom or what
we are talking about. I have thus rendered all personal names and
book titles, as well as all but the most commonly known place names
(Damascus, Baghdad) and terms (ulema), in formal transliteration.
In some cases it has been necessary to introduce certain addi
tions into the notes. Some of these are offered to clarify allusions
which, although clear enough to the Arabic reader for whom the
original work was intended, would not necessarily be so to one mak
ing use of this translation. In other cases, where the author cites
Arabic translations of works originally written in European