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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
Albert Hourani's survey of “The Present State of Islamic and Middle Eastern Historiography” has one obvious lacuna: it fails to mention the author's own (Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939).1 This masterpiece, published in 1962 when its author was forty-seven, has left its mark on a whole generation of English-speaking scholars of the Middle East.
Hisham Sharabi writes: “I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Albert Hourani, whose pioneering work, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789–1939, is an indispensable reference to any study of modern Arab intellectual history.”2
1 “The Present State of Islamic and Middle Eastern Historiography,” in Hourani, Albert, Europe and the Middle East (Berkeley, Calif., 1980), pp. 161–196;CrossRefGoogle ScholarArabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (London, 1962).Google Scholar
2 Sharabi, Hisham, Arab Intellectuals and the West: The Formative Years, 1875–1914 (Baltimore, Md., 1970), p. x.Google Scholar
3 Dawn, C. Ernest, From Ottomanism to Arabism: Essays on the Origins of Arab Nationalism (Urbana, Ill., 1973), p. 123 n.3.Google Scholar
4 Wendell, Charles, The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image: from Its Origins to Aḥmad Lutfī al-Sayyid (Berkeley, Calif., 1972), p. xv.Google Scholar
5 Jansen, G. H., Militant Islam (New York, N.Y., 1979), p. 9.Google Scholar
6 We will not consider here the needs of the French reader, for whom the works of Jacques Berque may occupy a position similar to those of Hourani, or of the Arabic reader, whose needs and perspective on the field would necessarily be different. See Charles, C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt: A Study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad ⊂Abduh (London, 1933);Google ScholarAntonius, George, The Arab Awakening (London, 1938);Google Scholar and Gibb, H. A. R., Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago, Ill., 1947).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7 Wilfred, Cantwell Smith, Islam in Modern History (Princeton, N.J., 1957);Google ScholarCragg, Kenneth, Counsels in Contemporary Islam (Edinburgh, 1965);Google ScholarGustave, von Grunebaum, Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity (New York, N.Y., 1962);Google ScholarSafran, Nadav, Egypt in Search of Political Community: An Analysis of the Intellectual and Political Evolution of Egypt. 1804–1952 (Cambridge, Mass., 1961);Google ScholarHaim, Sylvia, ed., Arab Nationalism: An Anthology (Berkeley, Calif., 1964);Google ScholarHazem, Zaki Nuseibeh, The Ideas of Arab Nationalism (Ithaca, N.Y., 1956);Google ScholarBinder, Leonard, Ideological Revolution in the Middle East (New York, N.Y., 1964);Google ScholarKhaldun, S. al-Husry, Three Reformers: A Study in Modern Arab Political Thought (Beirut, 1966):Google ScholarLewis, Bernard, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London, 1961);Google ScholarBerkes, Niyazi, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal, 1964).Google Scholar
8 Gibb, H. A. R. and Bowen, H., Islamic Society and the West, Vol. I (London, 1950–1957).Google Scholar
9 “The Arab Awakening Forty Years After,” in Hourani, Albert, The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (Berkeley, Calif., 1981), pp. 195–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 Khadduri, Majid, Political Trends in the Arab World: The Role of Ideas and Ideals in Politics (Baltimore, Md., 1970), and Sharabi, Arab Intellectuals.Google Scholar
11 “Introduction,” Emergence, p. xiv.Google Scholar
12 Arabic Thought, p. 135.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., p. 167.
14 Ibid., p. 349.
15 Ibid., pp. 311–312.
16 Hourani's reflections on his own development come from “Introduction,” Emergence, pp. xi–xx.Google Scholar
17 Kedourie, Elie, “The Chatham House Version,” in his The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies (New York, N.Y., 1970), pp. 351–394.Google Scholar
18 Emergence, p. xiii.Google Scholar
19 Great Britain and the Arab World (London, 1945), pp. 45–46 (pamphlet).Google Scholar
20 Syria and Lebanon (London, 1946), p. 1.Google Scholar
21 Ibid., p. 18.
22 “A Vision of History: An examination of Professor Toynbee's Ideas,” in his A Vision of History: Near Eastern and Other Essays (Beirut, 1961), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar
23 “Volney and the Ruin of Empires,” Europe and the Middle East, pp. 81–86;Google Scholar and Arnold, J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. X (London, 1954), pp. 7–8, 107.Google Scholar
24 See his essay “H. A. R. Gibb: The Vocation of an Orientalist,” Europe and the Middle East, pp. 104–134.Google Scholar
25 Ibid., p. 115.
26 Emergence, pp. xii–xiii, discusses his own move toward more detached scholarship. Hourani here regrets his earlier “confusion between two types of discourse, the expository and the moral.”Google Scholar
27 Badawi, Ahmad, Rifa⊂a al-Tahtawi Bey (Cairo, 1950);Google ScholarJamal, al-Din al-Shayyal, Rifa⊂a Rafi⊂ al-Tahtawi (Cairo, 1958);Google ScholarMuhammad, al-Makhzumi, Khatirat Jamal al-Din (Beirut, 1931);Google ScholarMirza, Lutfallah Khan, Jamal al-Din al-Asadabadi, Arabic translation from Persion by Nash⊃at, S. and Hasanayn, A. (Cairo, 1957);Google ScholarMuhammad, Rashid Rida, Ta⊃rikh al-Ustadh al-Imam al-Shaykh Muhammad ⊂Abduh (3 vols.; Cairo, 1931–1948);Google Scholar⊂Abbas, Mahmud al-⊂Aqqad, Sa⊂d Zaghlul (Cairo, 1936).Google Scholar
28 Daghir, Yusuf, Masadir al-Dirasa al Adabiyya. Vol. II (Beirut, 1955).Google Scholar
29 Adams, , Islam and Modernism:Google ScholarJomier, J., Le Commentaire Coranique du Manār (Paris, 1954);Google ScholarAmin, Osman, Muhammad Abduh, essai sur ses idées philosophiques et religieuses (Cairo, 1944);Google ScholarCachia, P., Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (London, 1956);Google ScholarSteppat, F., “Nationalismus und Islam bei Mustafa Kamil,” Die Welt des Islams, n.s., 4 (1956), 241–341;Google Scholar and Tapiero, Nobert, Les Idées réformistes d' al-Kawakībī (Paris, 1955).Google Scholar
30 Darnton, Robert, “Intellectual and Cultural History,” in Kammen, Michael, ed., The Past before Us: Contemporary Historical Writing in the United States (Ithaca, N. Y., 1980), p. 337.Google Scholar
31 The books include Van Krieken, G. S., Khayr al-Din et la Tunisie (1850–1881) (Leiden, 1976); Wendell, Egyptian National Image;Google ScholarWilliam, L. Cleveland, The Making of an Arab Nationalist: Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati⊂ al-Husri (Princeton, N.J., 1971);Google Scholar and Donald, M. Reid, The Odyssey of Farḁh Anṭun: A Syrian Christian's Quest for Secularism (Minneapolis, Minn., 1975).Google ScholarAhmed, Jamal, The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism (London, 1960),Google Scholar which concentrates on Lutfi al-Sayyid, should probably be included here too even though it appeared before Arabic Thought. Hourani was Ahmed's adviser at Oxford, and part of the framework which Hourani used in Arabic Thought is evident in Ahmed. Two other books were already too far along when Arabic Thought appared to reflect much of its influence: Malcom, H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muḥammad ⊂Abduh and Rashīd Ridā (Berkeley, Calif., 1966);Google Scholar and L. Carl Brown, trans. and intro., The Surest Path: The Political Treatise of a Nineteenth-Century Muslim Statesman, a translation of the introduction to Khayr, al-Din al Tunisi, The Surest Path to Knowledge Concerning the Condition of Countries (Cambridge, Mass., 1967).Google Scholar
Articles include Zolondek, Leon, “Al-Ahrām and Westernization: Socio-Political Thought of Bishārah Taqlā (1853–1901),” Die Welt des Islams, n.s. 12 (1969), 182–195;Google Scholaridem, “Socio-political Views of Salim al-Bustani (1848–1884),” Middle Eastern Studies, 2 (1966), 144–156;Google ScholarIbrahim, A. Ibrahim, “Salama Musa: An Essay on Cultural Alienation,” Middle Eastern Studies, 15 (1979), 346–357;CrossRefGoogle ScholarButrus, Abu-Manneh, “The Christians between Ottomanism and Syrian Nationalism: The Ideas of Butrus al-Bustani,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 9 (1980), 287–304;Google Scholaridem, “Sultan Abiulhamid II and Shaikh Abulhuda Al-Sayyadi,” Middle Eastern Studies. 15 (1979), 131–153.Google Scholar Many of the studies in the recently published Intellectual Life in the Arab East. 1890–1939, Marwan, R. Buheiry, ed. (Beirut, 1981), also pick up where Arabic Thought left off. Among the writers whom Hourani treated, it includes studies of ⊂Ali Yusuf, Muhammad Kurd ⊂Ali, Negib Azoury, and al-Husri.Google Scholar
Unpublished dissertations include Farag, N., “Al-Muqtataf 1876–1900: A Study of the Influence of Victorian Thought on Modern Arabic Thought” (Oxford University, 1969);Google ScholarMohammed, Bakir Alwan, “Ahmad Fans al-Shidyaq and the West” (Indiana University, 1970);Google ScholarArid, David, “lKhālid Muḥammad Khālid: An Egyptian Islamic Reformer,” (Tel Aviv University, 1974);Google ScholarAltman, Israel, “The Political Thought of Rifa⊂ ah Rafi⊂ al-Tahtawi: A Nineteenth-Century Egyptian Reformer” (University of California, Los Angeles, 1976);Google ScholarConstantin, Iluiu Georgescu, “A Forgotten Pioneer of the Lebanese ‘Nahdah’; Salim al-Bustani (1848–1884)” (New York University, 1978);Google ScholarMary, Flounders Arnett, “Qāsim Amīn and the Beginnings of the Feminist Movement in Egypt” (Dropsie College, 1966). David Ruedig is working on Adib Isḥaq, Vernon Egger on Salama Musa, William Cleveland on Shakib Arsian, and Susan Ziadeh on Shibli Shumayyil.Google Scholar
32 Ayatullahi, S. M. H., “Jurji Zaydan, the Pioneer of Historical Fiction in Arabic Literature” (University of Indiana, 1973);Google ScholarLewis, Beier Ware, “Jurjī Zaydān: The Role of Popular History in the Formation of a New Arab World-View” (Princeton University, 1973);Google Scholar and Alkhayat, Hamdi, ğurğī Zaidān: Leben und Werk” (University of Cologne, 1973).Google Scholar Thomas Phillip's dissertation was revised and published as a book: Ğurği Zaidān: His Life and Thought (Beirut and Wiesbaden, 1979).Google Scholar
33 Cleveland, , Arab Nationalist, pp. 71, 114–115.Google Scholar
34 Ibid., p. vii.
35 Afaf, Lutfi Al-Sayyid, Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations (New York, N.Y., 1969);Google ScholarMoshe, Ma⊂oz, Ottoman Reform in Syria and Palestine 1840–1861: The Impact of the Tanzimat on Politics and Society (Oxford, 1968).Google Scholar
36 Nikki, R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal al-Din “al-Afghani” (Berkeley, Calif., 1968);Google Scholaridem, Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn “al-Afghānī” A Political Biography (Berkeley, Calif., 1972);Google ScholarKedourie, Elie, Afghani and Abduh: An Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in Modern Islam (London, 1966);Google Scholar and Hourani, review of Keddie, , Islamic Response in International Journal of Middle East Studies. 1 (1970), 90–91.Google Scholar
37 “Arab Awakening,” Emergence. p. 199.Google Scholar
38 See the reviews by Kedourie, Elie, Political Quarterly, 34 (1963), 217–219;Google ScholarBaer, Gabriel, New Outlook 7 (1964), 71–75;Google Scholar and Shamir, Shimon, Hamizrah Hehadash. Vol. XIII, no. 3, pp. 333–334 (as cited in Baer, p. 72).Google Scholar
39 See, for example, Darnton, , “Intellectual and Cultural History”; Said, Edward, Orientalism (New York, N.Y., 1978);Google ScholarAmin, Samir, Unequal Development, (New York, N.Y., 1976);Google Scholar and Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Modern World-System (New York, N.Y., 1974).Google Scholar
40 Emergence, pp. xiv–xv.Google Scholar
41 Juan, Ricardo Cole, “Rifa⊃a al-Ṭahṭāwī and the Revival of Practical Philosophy,” The Muslim World, 70 (1980), 29–46.Google Scholar
42 “Sufism and Modern Islam: Mawlana Khalid and the Naqshbandi Order,” and “Sufism and Modern Islam: Rashid Rida,“ Emergence, pp. 75–89, 90–;102.
43 Hourani, , “Reflections on the Present State of Islamic Historiography,” in Berque, Jacques and Chevallier, Dominique, eds., Les Arabes par leurs archives (XVIe-XXeesiècles) (Paris, 1976), pp. 19–27,Google Scholar and “Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables,” Emergence. pp. 36–39.Google Scholar
44 Emergence, p. xvi.Google Scholar
45 “Present State,” Europe and the Middle East, pp. 191–192.Google Scholar
46 Emergence, p. xiv.Google Scholar
47 Ibid., p. xix.
48 “Gibb,” Europe and the Middle East, p. 139.Google Scholar
49 I owe this suggestion to Edmund Burke Ill. Moshe Ma⊃oz, Ottoman Reform, is perhaps one of the first studies to reflect the influence of Hourani's new line of thinking about the “notables.” Karl, K. Barbir, Ottoman Rule in Damascus, 1708–1758 (Princeton, N.J., 1980) is a more recent example.Google Scholar
50 “Gibb,” Europe and the Middle East, p. 105.Google Scholar
51 Minorities in the Arab World (London, 1947), p. 30.Google Scholar
52 Ibid., p. 57.
53 Syria and Lebanon. p. 68.Google Scholar
54 For example, “The Ottoman Background of the Modern Middle East,” Emergence, pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
55 “Arab Awakening, ” Emergence, p. 198.Google Scholar See also his “The Middleman in a Changing Society: Syrians in Egypt in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” Emergence. pp. 103–123.Google Scholar
56 “Arab Awakening,” Emergence, pp. 213–214. Professor Hourani informs me that he does not feel the affinity with Antonius which I read into his work. He sees Antonius's way of thinking as thoroughly political in contrast to his own.Google Scholar
57 Ibid., p. 214.
58 There are six references for 1978, eight for 1979, and six for 1980.
59 Longrigg, S. H., review of Arabic Thought and A Vision of History: Near Eastern and Other Essays in International Affairs, 39 (1963), 620. Ironically, Arabic Thought has recently gone out of print. I am persuaded that this deplorable state of affairs cannot be more than temporary.Google Scholar
