Abstract
Social change1 in the Middle East may be explained in terms of acculturation theory, to the extent that the archaic-chiliastic and secular-nationalist variants of the literary and political renaissance which took place in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the early nineteenth century were generated by forces from outside the area. However, this theory cannot be particularly fruitful if it implies a Euro-centric approach. Thus Behrendt devalues his otherwise useful explanation by claiming, as a European, that the ‘underdeveloped nations’ imitate all the achievements of Europe in a negative fashion2 from a position of psychological weakness. von Grunebaum’s more sophisticated attempts to interpret Westernisation in the Islamic world are equally questionable. He sees it as a process which can only be understood in psychological terms: in other words ‘cultural change’ is seen in terms of psychologically-based American cultural anthropology.3
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Notes
See Chapter 3, note 2. For studies of social change in the Middle East based on modernisation theory, see Carl Leiden (ed.), The Conflict of Traditionalism and Modernity in the Muslim Middle East (Austin, 1966);
see also Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society; Modernising the Middle East (Glencoe, 1962).
On this, and on matters raised in Chapter 5, see Fritz Steppat, ‘Die arabische Welt in der Epoche des Nationalismus’, which forms the postscript to Franz Taeschner, Geschichte der arabischen Welt (Stuttgart, 1964) pp. 178–236. However, the modernisation theorists’ notion of the spectrum traditionalism/modernism seems inadequate.
See R. F. Behrendt, Soziale Strategie für Entwicklungsländer (Frankfurt/Main, 1965) esp. Ch. VI, pp. 331 ff. See also Chapter 2 above, and the critique in Chapter 3. The theory of ‘cultural change’ is an integral part of Behrendt’s thesis. See ibid., pp. 110 f., where development is described as ‘directed cultural change’.
See for instance G. von Grunebaum, ‘The Intellectual Problems of Westernization in the self-view of the Arab world’, in idem., Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962) pp. 128–79, and ‘Acculturation as a theme in contemporary Arabic literature’, in ibid., pp. 248–88.
Walther Braune, ‘Die Entwicklung des Nationalismus bei den Arabern’, in R. Hartmann (ed.), BASI (Leipzig, 1944) pp. 425 ff., and on this p. 247.
S. D. Goitein, ‘The Rise of the Near-Eastern Bourgeoisie in the Early Islamic Times’, Journal of World History, III (1957) 583–604, which also contains a number of important references.
See also Rudolf Seilheim, ‘Neue Materialien zur Biographie des Yaqut’, in R. Seilheim et al., Schriften und Bilder, Drei orientalische Untersuchungen (Wiesbaden, 1967) pp. 41–72, who discusses these relationships with reference to the life of the eminent Arab geographer Yaqut, who was an active member of the mercantile society of his time.
Kurt Steinhaus, Soziologie der türkischen Revolution, Zum Problem der Entfaltung der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft irt sozioökonomisch schwach entwickelten Ländern (Frankfurt/Main, 1969) p. 19.
C. H. Becker, Islamstudien, Vom Werden und Wesen der islamischen Welt, 2 vols (Hildesheim, 1967) (first publ. 1924, 1932); here vol. I, p. 247.
See Maxime Rodinson. Islam and Capitalism (London, 1974).
Steinhaus, op. cit., p. 16: see also Karl Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, a Study of Total Power (New Haven and London, 1964) pp. 181 ff, 284 ff.
See C. F. Volney, Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie les années 1783–1785 (repr. Paris, 1959). Eng. transl., Travels through Syria and Egypt in the years 1783, 1784, and 1785, 2 vols (London, 1787), facsimile reproduction, Farnborough, 1972.
Extracts from the English translation are also in C. Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of the Middle East, 1800–1914 (Chicago and London, 1966) pp. 213–19. On the division of labour in the Middle East, see p. 218.
Zvi Y. Hershlag, Introduction to the Modern Economic History of the Middle East (Leiden, 1964) p. 17.
Shari’a = Islamic law; see H. A. R. Gibb, Mohammedanism, An Historical Survey, 2nd ed. (London, 1950) pp. 88–106,
as well as Majid Khadduri, ‘The Nature and Sources of the Shari’a’, George Washington Law Review, XX (1953)3–23.
On the doctrine of Islamic universalism see W. M. Watt, Islam and the Integration of Society (London, 1961) pp. 273 ff. Watt sees Islamic universalism primarily in terms of the claim of Islam to be a universal religion in contrast to other religions; he neglects the political, that is the supra-national, dimension of authority which this universalism has sanctioned in Islamic history.
S. J. Shaw, The Financial and Administrative Organization and Development of Ottoman Egypt 1517–1798 (Princeton, New Jersey, 1962) pp. 3f. This extensive and copiously documented study gives a detailed picture of Ottoman Egypt.
See also H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen, Islamic Society and the West: Part I, Islamic Society in the 18th Century, 2 vols (London, 1950, 1957) on Egypt, II, pp. 59 ff.
Before the Sublime Porte sent troops to Egypt, it asked Cezzar Ahmad Pasha to prepare a report on the situation in Egypt under the Mamlukes in the eighteenth century, which he produced in 1785. Cezzar Ahmad Pasha was a Mamluke in Ottoman service who was governor of Sa’ida and Damascus, residing in Acre. S. J. Shaw has produced an edition of the original Turkish text together with an introduction and English translation: see Shaw (ed.), Ottoman Egypt in the Eighteenth Century. The Nizamname-i-Misr of Cezzar Ahmad Pasha (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). In his introduction Shaw says that the Ottomans would have been prepared to allow the Mamlukes to continue to govern Egypt if the latter could have assured them that the country’s valuable revenues would be delivered to the treasury in Istanbul. However, the Ottomans’ military intervention failed, since their troops were engaged in Campaigns elsewhere in the Empire and soon had to be withdrawn.
See C. H. Becker, op. cit., p. 200. This can also be seen in the stagnation of cultural life. Apart from the relevant sections of Brockelmann’s GAL which have been cited above, see also the short survey by J. Heyworth-Dunne in ‘Arabic Literature in Egypt in the Eighteenth century’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, IX (1937/39) pp. 675–89.
Hans Henle, Der neue Nahe Osten (Hamburg, 1966) p. 19. On European influences on the Middle East since 1798 apart from those works cited in the notes below,
see e.g. Walther Braune, Der islamische Orient zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft (Berne and Munich, 1960);
Bernard Lewis, The Middle East and the West, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, 1965);
Carleton S. Coon, ‘The Impact of the West on Middle Eastern Social Institutions’, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, XXIV (1952) No. 4, 443–66;
Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, VIII The West and the Islamic World (London, 1954) pp. 216 ff.; B. Tibi, introduction to Die arabische Linke (Frankfurt Main, 1969) pp. 7–41;
Ibraham Abu-Lughod, The Arab Rediscovery of Europe, A study in Cultural Encounters (New Jersey, 1963);
and finally 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.
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (London, 1962) p. 49.
Nationalism is therefore a new phenomehon in the Middle East. Hence Richard Hartmann is incorrect in saying, in the first sentence of his Islam and Nationalismus, (Berlin, 1948), that the relationship between nationalism and Islam is as old as Islam itself. The thesis that Arab nationalism goes back to the early history of the Arabs is untenable, although some Arab scholars subscribe to it, e.g. H. Z. Nuseibeh, The Ideas of Arab Nationalism, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, 1959);
H. Saab, The Arab Federalists of the Ottoman Empire (Amsterdam, 1959).
For details of the Napoleonic Expedition see F. Charles-Roux, Bonaparte, Gouverneur d’Egypte, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1946),
and more recently, Georges Spillmann, Napoléon et l’Islam (Paris, 1969) esp. Part I, pp. 49–149. Further references can be found in Spillmann’s bibliography.
The complete text can be found in Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, The Arab Rediscovery of Europe, op. cit., pp. 13–16, here esp. pp. 13 f.; see also Abu-Lughod note i, p. 13, where he gives details of the production of this leaflet, of which none of the originals have survived. On the general subject of the relations between ruler and ruled in Islamic history see Fritz Steppat, ‘Der Muslim und die Obrigkeit’, Zeitschrift für Politik, XII (1965) No. 4, 319–32, which may help to explain the reception that the leaflet received.
For the significance of the Expedition, see Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, op. cit., passim; A. Hourani, op. cit., 49 ff.; J. M. Ahmed, The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism (London, 1960) pp. 1–6; F. Charles-Roux, op. cit.; G. Spillmann, op. cit.; W. Braune, op. cit.;
M. Rifaat, The Awakening of Modern Egypt (London, 1947) pp. 1–15.
See H. Pérès, ‘L’Institut d’Egypte et l’oeuvre de Bonaparte jugés par deux historiens arabes contemporains’, Arabica, IV (1957) pp. 113–30; see also the references in note 36 above, esp. F. Charles-Roux, op. cit., pp. 154 ff.
‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, ‘Aja’ib al-Athar fi’l-Tarajim w’al-Akhbar, 4 vols (Cairo, 1904–05), cited in K. Stowasser, ‘al-Tahtawi in Paris’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Münster, 1966) p. 5. al-Jabarti’s four-volume work is the most important historical source for the period of transition from Ottoman and Mamluke to modern Egypt. There is a French translation, Merveilles biographiques et historiques, ou chroniques du Cheikh Abu El-Rahman El-Djabarti, 9 vols (Cairo, 1888–96). al-Jabarti was generally opposed to the Europeanisation that began with the Napoleonic Expedition. For the historical significance of his position, see W. Braune, Der islamische Orient zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft, pp. 38 ff. On al-Jabarti see David Ayalon, ‘The Historian al-Jabarti and his Background’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XXII (1960) pp. 217–49. Ayalon advises caution in the use of the French translation, which contains grave errors.
For Sheikh ’Attar see J. M. Ahmed, op. cit., pp. 5 f, and J. Shayyal, Rifa’a R. al-Tahtawi, 1801–1873 (Cairo, 1958) pp. 13–15, as well as C. Brockelmann, GAL, II, pp. 623 f. ‘Attar fled from the French to Upper Egypt but later returned and cooperated with them. Under Muhammad’ Ali he played an important role as rector of al-Azhar in Cairo, to which reference will be made in part (c) of this section in connection with al-Tahtawi.
This was after the British fleet had sunk the French ships in which the Expedition had been transported. For the Anglo-French conflict over Egypt at this time, see John Marlowe, Anglo-Egyptian Relations 1800–1953 (London, 1954) pp. 7–29, esp. pp. 15 ff.
C. Issawi, Egypt in Revolution, an Economic Analysis (London, 1963) pp. 18–31;
see also P. M. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516–1922 (Ithaca and London, 1966) esp. pp. 176 ff.
Ibid. In Egyptian national historiography the progressive character of Muhammad ‘Ali’s regime is denied, and Muhammad ‘Ali himself dismissed as a foreigner (he was Albanian). The progressive Egyptian historian ‘Ammara has attacked this point of view, which although understandable from a nationalist standpoint, is not academically acceptable. See Muhammad ‘Ammara, al-’Uruba fi’l-’Asr al-Hadith (Arabism in Modern History) (Cairo, 1967) pp. 29 ff., esp. 61 ff. See also the original and extensive research of A. Abdel-Malek, Idéologie et Renaissance Nationale; L’Egypte Moderne (Paris, 1969), which discusses all aspects of social change in Egypt since Muhammad ‘Ali’s time. It has unfortunately not been possible to make detailed use of the results of this research in the main body of this study. Wherever possible reference will be made in the notes to relevant comments by Abdel-Malek.
Amos Perlmutter, ‘Egypt and the Myth of the New Middle Class: A Comparative Analysis’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, X (1967/8) 46–65; here p. 50; see also note 57 below.
For the Muhammad ‘Ali period in general, see the monograph by Henry Dodwell, The Founder of Modern Egypt. A Study of Muhammad ’Ali (Cambridge, 1931); Arnold Toynbee, op. cit., pp. 239 ff.; as well as M. Rifaat, op. cit., pp. 16 ff.;
Helen Anne B. Rivlin, The Agricultural Policy of Muhammad ’Ali in Egypt (Cambridge, Mass., 1961).
See Gabriel Baer, ‘The Evolution of Private Landownership in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent’, in C. Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of the Middle East, 1800–1914, pp. 80–90, esp. p. 80 f.; see also G. Baer, A History of Landownership in Modern Egypt 1800–1950 (London, 1962) pp. 1 ff.; Z. Y. Hershlag, op. cit., pp. 78 ff.; H. A. B. Rivlin, op. cit. which the Egyptians had made to assimilate themselves to Europe. Instead, he and his staff waged a bitter campaign against French culture in Egypt.’ (p. 399) On the nature of British colonial policy in Egypt, see A. Perlmutter, op. cit., p. 51. For references to the British colonisation of Egypt, see Chapter 9, note 5,
and ’Abd al-Fattah Haikal, ‘Die Auswirkung der Britischen Kolonialpolitik auf die Wirtschaft Ägyptens’, in Walter Markov (ed.), Kolonialismus und Neokolonialismus in Nordafrika und Nahost (Berlin, 1964) pp. 226–48.
For Muhammad ‘Ali’s educational policy, see J. Heyworth-Dunne’s valuable Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt. 2nd ed. (London, 1968) (1st ed. London, 1939) pp. 96 ff.
It is remarkable that in spite of al-Tahtawi’s considerable importance no detailed study of his work exists. Apart from J. Shayyal’s inadequate Rifa’a R. al-Tahtawi 1801–1873 (Cairo, 1958), the following are useful: J. Heyworth-Dunne, ‘Rifa’a Bey Rafi’ al-Tahtawi: The Egyptian Revivalist’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, IX (1937/39) 961–7, and X (1940/42) 399–415. The first part is biographical, and second deals with al-Tahtawi’s writings. Heyworth-Dunne’s article includes some corrections of M. Chemoul’s article on al-Tahtawi in the Encyclopedia of Islam. See also Ibraham Abu-Lughod, The Arab Rediscovery of Europe (Princeton, 1963) passim; Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought …, pp. 68–83;
also Khaldun S. Husry, Three Reformers, A Study in Modern Arab Political Thought (Beirut, 1966) pp. 11–32;
also W. Braune, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte des neuarabischen Schrifttums’, Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen, XXXVI (1933) No. 2, 117–40.
Rifa’a R. al-Tahtawi, Takhlis al-ibriz ila talkhis Paris (Paris Diary) (Cairo, 1834).
There is a German translation: Karl Stowasser, Al-Tahtawi in Paris, ein Dokument des arabischen Modernismus aus dem frühen 19. Jahrhundert, unpubl. thesis (Münster, 1966), which has already been quoted. It is a reliable translation of the first edition with unimportant abridgements. Later editions are not authentic.
For further material on al-Tahtawi’s Paris diary see Wiebke Hermann, ‘Rifa’a Beys Beschreibung seiner Reise nach Paris, ein Werk der Frühzeit des islamischen Modernismus’, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle, XII (1963) Nos. 3/4, 221–8, which is an analysis of the diary, including extensive quotations; Khaldun S. Husry, op. cit., pp. 13–22; J. Heyworth-Dunne; ‘Rifa’a Bey Rafi’ al-Tahtawi: The Egyptian Revivalist’, op. cit., part two; I. Abu-Lughod, op. cit., passim; A. Hourani, Arabic Thought …, pp. 70 ff.;
B. Tibi, ‘Akkusationsprozesse im modernen Orient’, Neue Politische Literatur, XV (1970) 77 ff.
For the Saint-Simonians in Egypt see A. Hourani, Arabic Thought …, pp. 53 f. On the ‘Mission de l’Orient’ of the Saint-Simonians, see G. Solomon-Delatour (ed.), Die Lehre Saint-Simons (Neuwied, 1962), especially the introduction, p. 23. There is no detailed study of the activities of the Saint-Simonians in Egypt. See the comments by A. Abdel-Malek, op. cit., pp. 189–98.
R. R. al-Tahtawi, al-Murshidal-Aminfi Ta’lim li’l-Banat wa’l-Banin (Guiding Truths for Girls and Youths) (Cairo, 1875). To call for female education is fairly revolutionary even in the contemporary Middle East, and was even more so in al-Tahtawi’s day.
R. R. al-Tahtawi, Kitab Manahij al-Albab al-Misriyya fi Mabahij al-Adab al-Asriyya (Cairo, 1912). For an interpretation, see J. M. Ahmed, op. cit., p. 13–15, and Khaldun Husry, op. cit., pp. 23 ff.
See R. Hartmann, ‘Die Wahhabiten’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, LXXVIII (1924) No. 2, 176–213:
see also W. C. Smith, Islam in Modern History (Princeton, 1957),
and M. Rifaat, al-Tawjih al-Siyasi li’l-Fikra al-’Arabiyya al-Haditha (Political Trends in Modern Arabic Thought) (Cairo, 1964) pp. 11–31.
Ibid., p. 177. Hans Bräker also emphasises that the Wahhabi movement ‘radically rejected any foreign intellectualism in philosophy as well as in theology. It insisted on the original law, whose sources were the Qur’an and the pure Sunna alone, and it wanted these to cleanse Islam of its inner decay by calling Muslim society to its original purity and order’. Hans Bräker, Islam-Sozialismus-Kommunismus: zur ideengeschichtlichen Grundlage der Sozialismus-und Kommunismus-Diskussion innerhalb des Islams (Cologne, 1968) Privatdruck des Bundesinstitut für Ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, p. 14.
Of Muhammad ‘Ali’s victory over the Wahhabis, R. Hartmann writes: ‘The money and the perfidy of the Egyptians triumphed over Ibn Sa’ud’s bravery’ (ibid., p. 198). However, the victory was due to Muhammad ‘Ali’s new army, which was trained and equipped on modern lines and was generally superior to that of the Wahhabis. Hartmann continues: ‘Once again the old chaotic conditions replaced temperate order in Arabia’ (p. 198). Hartmann laid great emphasis on this ‘temperate order’ because he believed: ‘Even today it is only the simple puritannical, temperate belief which will discipline the unruly Arabs and convert them into fighters for the faith who do not fear death.’ (p. 211) Fifteen years later, however, Hartmann describes the ‘reactionary Puritanism of Wahhabism’. See R. Hartmann, ‘Gegenwartsfragen und-strömungen des Islam’, Koloniale Rundschau, XXXIII (1942) No. 2, 57–71, here p. 59. See also note 113 below.
See C. C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt (London, 1933); see also A. Abdel-Malek, op. cit., pp. 371 ff.
E.g. the highly prejudiced work of Elie Kedourie, Afghani and ’Abduh, An Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in Modern Islam (London, 1966);
see also the introduction to Sylvia Haim (ed.), Arab Nationalism (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962);
also Nikki Keddie’s introduction to her (ed.), An Islamic Response to Imperialism, Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal al-Din ‘al-Afghani’ (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968).
For islamic universalism, see note 20 above, and ’Ammara, op. cit., passim. The supersession of Islamic universalism by nationalism is discussed by Hassan Saab, The Arab Federalists of the Ottoman Empire (Amsterdam, 1958) pp. 131 ff. Saab also shows how Pan-Islamism, the irredentist interpretation of Islamic universalism, gave way to nationalism; see ibid., pp. 213 ff.
’Abduh was introduced to Herbert Spencer by Wilfrid Blunt, an English aristocrat who sympathised with Islam. For the meeting between ’Abduh and Spencer see W. S. Blunt, My Diaries, Being a Personal Narrative of Events 1888–1914, 4th ed. (New York, 1934) (first published in 1921 in 2 vols) pp. 480 f.
See also Charles C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt, A Study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad ’Abduh (London, 1933);
also Max Horten, ‘Muhammad ’Abduh, sein Leben und seine theologisch-philosophische Gedankenwelt, eine Studie zu den Reformbestrebungen im modernen Ägypten’, Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Orients, Jahrbuch der Deutschen Vorderasiengesellschaft, XIII (1916) 83–114, and XIV (1917) 74–128.
P. J. Vatikiotis, ‘Muhammad ’Abduh and the Quest for a Muslim Humanism’, Arabica, IV (1957) 55–72, here p. 55.
Here and on the following see Malcolm Kerr, Islamic Reform, The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Ridha (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966) pp. 103 ff.
See Fritz Steppat, ‘Nationalismus und Islam bei Mustafa Kamil’, Die Welt des Islams, n.s. IV (1956) 241–341, and Chapter 9 below.
’Abduh, quoted by Muhammad al-Bahay, Muhammad ‘Abduh, Eine Untersuchung seiner Erziehungsmethode zum Nationalbewußtsein und zur nationalen Erhebung in Ägypten, unpubl. Ph.D. thesis (Hamburg, 1936) p. 36. For ‘Abduh’s views on nationalism, see P. J. Vatikiotis, op. cit., p. 63: ‘Although ’Abduh begins by rejecting the idea of national units in Islam, his own attempt at a “religious patriotism” leads him to a befuddled concept of religious Nationalism’. See also J. M. Ahmed, op. cit., pp. 35 ff., 44 ff.
R. Hartmann, Islam und Nationalismus (Berlin, 1948) p. 25; idem; ‘Gegenwartsfragen und -Strömungen des Islam’, op. cit., pp. 59 ff. Hartmann refers to the term ‘cultural Wahhabism’, which Goldziher uses to describe the followers of ’Abduh.
For modern Islam see also A. M. Goichon, ‘Le Panislamisme d’hier et d’aujourd’hui’, Afrique et l’Asie (1950) 18–44; Kenneth Cragg, ‘Religious Developments in Islam in the 20th Century’, Journal of World History, III (1956) No. 2, 504–24.
In a publication of the Nazi period, Arthur Rock’s Ibn Saud gründet das Gottesreich Arabien (Berlin, 1935) pp. 9 ff. Saudi Arabia is favourably referred to as The Third Reich of Islam’.
On this movement see the following works: J. Heyworth-Dunne, Religious and Political Trends in Modern Egypt (Washington, 1950);
Zvi Kaplinsky, ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’, Middle Eastern Affairs, V (1954) 377–85;
I. M. Husayni, The Moslem Brethren (Beirut, 1956);
Christina Phelps Harris, Nationalism and Revolution in Egypt, The Role of the Muslim Brotherhood (The Hague, 1964);
and the extensive study by Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London, 1969). For the Muslim Brothers’ attitude to Pan-Arab nationalism,
see Erwin I. J. Rosenthal, Islam in the Modern National State (Cambridge, 1965) pp. 103–24. In Rußland und der Messianismus des Orients (Tübingen, 1955) pp. 281–96, Emanuel Sarkisyanz, somewhat incongruously labels right-wing radical movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, as ‘Islamic modernism’ and at the same time attempts to prove their relationship to ‘Bolshevism’.
For a long time Islamic modernism remained the only political current uniting the Arab Middle East with the Maghrib. Ben Badis, one of the most influential pioneers of Algerian nationalism was strongly influenced by ’Abduh. For the political significance of Ben Badis. see the references to him in Wolfgang Ohneck, Die französiche Algerienpolitik von 1919–1939 (Cologne and Opladen, 1967),
and the monograph by Mahmud Qasim, ’Abd al-Hamid ben Badis, al-Za’im al-Ruhi li-Harb al-Tahrir al-Jaza’iriyya (Ben Badis, the spiritual leader of the Algerian war of liberation) (Cairo, 1968).
On the failure of the attempt to save Islam by a reformist-modernist interpretation which would not affect the core of the religion see Manfred Halpern, op. cit., pp. 119 ff. On the triumph of secularism see ibid., pp. 129 ff. In this context the interpretation of H. Bräker, op. cit., pp. 17 f, according to which Arab nationalism has developed within Islam itself, is incorrect. Islam today has generally been degraded into an instrument of state propaganda: in Saudi-Arabia and in the other Arab feudal states, the rulers declare themselves to be the legitimate representatives of Islam and engage in military alliances in order to hinder movements for social change, all in the name of religion. In contrast, Bonapartist regimes like that of Nasser claim that they rather than the feudal states know how to interpret Islam correctly. In fact, Islam performs a stabilising function for both systems. For the Islamic pact, see Axel Steden’s somewhat uncritical ‘Islampakt und Nassers Opposition’, Orient, VII (1966) No. 3, 79–83.
For Islam under Nasser, see Martin Grzeskowiak, ‘Islam und Sozialismus in der VAR’, Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung, XIV (1968) No. 1, 28–44
H. O. Ziegler, Die moderne Nation, ein Beitrag zur politischen Soziologie (Tübingen, 1931) p. 137.
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Tibi, B. (1997). The Historical Background of Arab Nationalism. In: Arab Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376540_5
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