Fall 2009

HIS 388K • MODERN ARAB RENAIS: AN INQUIRY

Course Description

This class examines the political, intellectual, social and scientific aspects of the Arab project of modernity, the Nahda. We will review the first encounters with European enlightenment, the initial cultural optimism that characterized Arab thinkers, the birth of the modern Arab intellectual, the great schism between religious and secular thought, the rejection of Western-style modernity and the search for an indigenous path to progress and prosperity. Considering several different projects of Nahda, from early 19th century encounters to the radical thought of the early 21st century, we conclude by exploring the question: What is Arab modernity?

Texts

Avishai Margalit, Ian Buruma. Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of its Enemies (New York: Penguin Press, 2004) Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1989 Press, Banna, Hasan, Five tracts of Hasan Al-Banna' (1906-1949 : a Selection from the Majmu'at rasa'il al-Imam al-shahid Hasan al-Banna' (Berkeley, 1978) Musallam, Adnan, From Secularism to Jihad: Sayyid Qutb and the Foundations of Radical Islamism (Westport, Conn. 2005). Sayyid Qutb, Milestones (New Delhi: Islamic Book Service, 2005.) Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi, An Imam in Paris: Account of A Stay in France By an Egyptian Cleric, 1826-1831 (London: Saqi, 2004). Salama Musa, The Education of Salama Musa (Leiden, Brill, 1961). Taha Hussein, The Days (Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press, 1997). Usama Bin Laden, Message to the World: the Statements of Osama Bin Laden (London ; New York : Verso, 2005)

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