Humanism and Muslim Culture: Historical Heritage and Contemporary Challenges

189 Pages·2012·1.483 MB·English

by  Stefan Reichmuth

Reflections on (In)Humanity
Volume 2
Edited by
Sorin Antohi, Chun-ChiehHuangand Jörn Rüsen
AssistantEditors:StefanJordan(München),MariusTurda(Oxford)
EditorialBoard:AzizAl-Azmeh(Budapest),DipeshChakrabarty
(Chicago),PumlaGobodo-Madizikela(CapeTown),YehudaElkana
(Jerusalem/Berlin),MosheIdel(Jerusalem),OliverKozlarek(Morelia),
GraziaMarchian(cid:253)(Montepulciano),JuttaScherrer(Paris/Berlin),
HaydenWhite(SantaCruz),ZhangLongxi(HongKong)
Stefan Reichmuth / Jörn Rüsen /
Aladdin Sarhan (eds.)
Humanism and Muslim Culture
Historical Heritage and Contemporary Challenges
V&R unipress
National Taiwan University Press
ThisbookseriesissponsoredbytheBerendelFoundation.
PublishedincooperationwiththeInstituteforAdvancedStudiesinHumanities
andSocialSciences,NationalTaiwanUniversity.
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableintheInternetathttp://dnb.d-nb.de.
ISBN978-3-89971-937-6[Print,withoutAsiaPacific]
ISBN978-986-03-1650-6[Print,AsiaPacificonly]
ISBN978-3-86234-937-1[E-Book]
(cid:211)Copyright2012byV&RunipressGmbH,D-37079Goettingen
(cid:211)Copyright2012byNationalTaiwanUniversityPress,Taipei,Taiwan
Allrightsreserved,includingthoseoftranslationintoforeignlanguages.Nopartofthisworkmay
bereproducedorutilizedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechanical,including
photocopying,microfilmandrecording,orbyanyinformationstorageandretrievalsystem,
withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
Coverimage:(cid:211)bildarchivpreussischerkulturbesitz,No.00092562,bpk/Museumfürislamische
Kunst,SMB/GeorgNiedermeiser.KalligraphischesSchmuckblatt
Page2:EngravingbyJohannHeinrichMeyerforthetitlepageofJohannGottfriedHerder,
BriefezurBeförderungderHumanität
In grateful memoryofNasr Hamid Abu Zayd (d. 5 July 2010)
and Mohammed Arkoun(d. 14 September 2010)

Contents
StefanReichmuth/JörnRüsen/AladdinSarhan
1.Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
StefanReichmuth/JörnRüsen/AladdinSarhan
2.HumanismandMuslimCulture:HistoricalHeritageand
ContemporaryChallenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
PartI:AhumanisthermeneuticsofIslam?
StefanWild
3.TheConceptofManintheQur’an.Non-MuslimPerspectives . . . . . 27
NasrHamidAbuZayd
4.RethinkingtheQur’an:TowardsaHumanisticHermeneutics . . . . . 39
MohammedArkoun
5.TheVicissitudesofEthicsinIslamicThought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
PartII:DebatesonhumanistelementsinIslamicculture
RenateWürsch
6.HumanismandMysticism–InspirationsfromIslam . . . . . . . . . . 89
HinrichBiesterfeldt
7.ThePerfectMan–aHumanist? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
StefanReichmuth
8.HumanisminIslambetweenMysticismandLiterature . . . . . . . . . 115
MichaelKreutz
9.UnderstandingtheOther:TahaHusaynonReasonandIndividualism . 127
8 Contents
PartIII:HumanismandIslaminEuropeanidentitypolitics:
GermanandDutchcases
BirgitSchäbler
10.Humanism,Orientalism,Modernity:ACritique . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
MichaelKemper
11.TheCracksinCivilizations:TheDutchPublicDiscourseon
HumanismandIslam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
AbouttheContributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
IndexofNames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
IndexofPlaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Stefan Reichmuth/Jörn Rüsen/Aladdin Sarhan
1. Foreword
Thebackgroundofthisbookwasaninternationalsymposiumon“Humanismin
Islam:AnInter-CulturalDiscourse”,heldfrom6to8April2009inAlexandria,
Egypt. This event was among the international conferences convened by the
project“HumanismintheEraofGlobalisation–AnInterculturalDialogueon
Humanity,CultureandValues”oftheInstituteforAdvancedStudy intheHu-
manities (KWI), Essen, Germany. It was held in cooperation with the Goethe
InstituteAlexandriaattheBibliothecaAlexandrinainEgypt.
WewouldliketothankDanielStoevesandt,MariamShalanandtheteamof
theGoetheInstituteAlexandriafortheirconstructiveandprolificcooperation.
WealsothankourhostsinEgypt,theBibliothecaAlexandrina,inparticularits
director, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Ambassador Hagar Islambouly, Dr. Mohsen
Youssef and his team, who provided us with the representative rooms of the
BibliothecaAlexandrinaasavenuefortheconferenceandalsohelpedwiththe
organizationalprocesses.
WearegratefultoAslıAymaz,AngelikaWulffandIainSinclairforassistance
incopy-editingthemanuscriptandseeingittoprint.
Lastbutnotleast,wewishtoexpressourgratitudetotheKWIinEssenforthe
excellentfacilitieswhichitofferedfortherunningofsuchanambitiousresearch
project;totheMercatorFoundationinEssen,whichfundedandpromotedthe
Humanism Project for four years; andto the Seminar ofOriental and Islamic
StudiesattheRuhrUniversityofBochumforitscontributiontothefundingof
thisbook.
Essen,November2011 StefanReichmuth,JörnRüsen,AladdinSarhan