Heritage (Turath)

Having discussed all of the mostly West-inspired questions of the Nahda, Arabs were next led to decide precisely what their own heritage and history meant to them and what they meant for the future also. Was Arab history a burden or a support? What really was the history? Was modernity possible? These were the kinds of questions with which many Arab thinkers sought to grapple.

The first great historical thinker of the three modern thinkers whose ideas I will briefly discuss is Constantine Zurayq (1909 - 2000) from Syria-Lebanon. In his We and History he explores Arab attitudes to the past and another major contribution to debate was his In the Battle of Civilization: Dynamics of Present and Future.

‘Abd al-‘Aziz ad-Duri of Iraq propounded a modern methodology for studying Arab history in, for example, Historical Formations of the Arab Nation. He stressed the importance of economic and social histories, identity and awareness.

Abdullah Laroui of Morocco wrote The Arabs and Historical Thought; the Problem of History and Crisis of the Arab Intellectual on the problem of tradition versus historicism.

Four modern Arab philosophers have specifically critiqued traditional Arab approaches to learning and the resultant intellectual heritage. Muhammad ‘Abid al-Jabiri of Morocco critiques both classical and modern Arabic thought, Hasan Hanafi of Egypt discusses heritage, Sadiq al-Azm of Syria critiques religious thought specifically and Fehmi Jadaane of Palestine/Jordan has also provided constructive criticism.

The artist Adonis (‘Ali Ahmad Said of Syria, Lebanon and Paris) has also made a significant contribution. He examined concepts of tradition and originality in exploring the changeless and yet changing natures of Arabic literature and thought.

The transportation of that heritage into a platform for the future was another special concern of Zurayq in his works We and the Future and Demands of the Arab Future. He optimistically speculates on the role of Arab agency and possible futures for the Arab world.

Edward Said (1935 - 2003) of Palestine and the US spoke on the Voice of Palestine radio station of “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” in his assessment of the Arab future. His contributions to especially Al-Ahram and Al-Hayat from 1990 to his death were especially significant contributions to the debate. He especially stressed the role of the intellectuals of “speaking truth to power” in relation to both culture and politics.

Other such speculators and visionaries among Arab social scientists include Saad Eddine Ibrahim, Ghassan Salamé, Abdelbaki Elhermassi and Khaldoun al-Naqeeb. Contributions continue to be made by individuals and the Arabic intellectual and cultural press. I’ve discussed Palestinian American Hisham Sharabi’s critique of the current neo-patriarchy, Syrian Lebanese American Halim Barakat’s efforts to analyse the changing face of 20^th Century Arab society and Fehmi Jadaane’s current critique of modern blockages inhibiting progress. The journals include Arab Future (Al-Mustaqbal al-‘Arabi), a pan-Arab monthly published in Beirut, Al-‘Arabi, an illustrated monthly from Kuwait and The Critic (Al-Naqid) and Horizons (Afaq), both published in Beirut and London.