Abstract
This section discusses the conflict over Darwin and revelation that was mainly conducted between Sarruf on the one hand and Louis Cheikho, the editor of al-Mashriq, and Ibrahim al-Yaziji, the editor of al-Diya, on the other.1 As we will see, the Arab thinkers used Scripture to support their arguments. While Darwin’s Origin of Species made almost no reference to humankind, the publication of the The Descent of Man sparked a bitter conflict between religious opinion and evolutionary ideas. As in the West, Arab religious groups adhered to the literal truth of the word of God in the Bible. Louis Cheikho was perhaps the most prominent among the Christian Arabs to counter any challenge to religious opinion.
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Notes and References
L. Cheikho, ‘Al-Quwa al-Aqila fi al-Hayawan’ al-Mashriq, 2 (1899), p. 753.
Cheikho, ‘Aql al-Hayawan’ (Animal Reason), al-Mashriq, 2 (1899), p. 900.
Saad, ‘Al-Quwa al-Aqila fi al-Hayawan’ (On Animal Rational Power), al-Diya, 2 (1899–1900), pp. 24–80, pp. 109–12.
Cheikho, ‘Nahnu wa al-Muqtataf’ (We and al-Muqtataf), al-Mashriq, 17 (1914), pp. 695–700. cf. al-Muqtataf, 38 (1914), pp. 162–67.
Cheikho, ‘Manna Bani Israil’ (The Manna of the Israelites), al-Mashriq, 1 (1898), pp. 1078–83. cf. al-Muqtataf, 21 (1897). p. 23 and 16, (1891), p. 641.
Cheikho, ‘Tanqud al-Din wa al-Ilm’ (Contradiction Between Science and Religion), al-Mashriq, 3 (1900). p. 303.
Quoted in I. Hazim, ‘Shawaghl al-Fikr al-Arabi al-Masihi Mondu 1866’ (Preoccupation of Arab Christian Thought since 1866), in al-Fikr al-Arabi fi Miat Sana (Beirut, 1967) (Arabic Thought in a Hundred Years), pp. 359–60.
Y. Sarruf, ‘Iftiat al-Mashriq Ala al-Muqtataf,’ al-Muqtataf, 45 (1914), p. 167.
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© 1986 Adel A. Ziadat
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Ziadat, A.A. (1986). Traditionalist Responses to Darwinism. In: Western Science in the Arab World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18345-6_5
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