Intellectual Life In The Arab East, 1890- 1939

DESCRIPTION

x, 195 pp; special seminar organized by the American University of Beirut, 13 studies with a foreword by Ihsan Abbas. Papers presented to a 1979 seminar at A.U.B. by Roger Owen, Abbas Kelidar, Wadad al-Qadi, Rashid Khalidi, Marwan Buheiry, Hisham Nashabi, Stefan Wild, Arnold Hottinger, Tarif Khalidi, Samir Seikaly, Walid Kazziha, Khaldun al-Husry and Gerald Obermeyer. Copy in Mint condition, New. In May 1979, the Department of History and Archaeology and the Center of Arab and Middle East Studies organized an international seminar to reconsider some aspects of the intellectual and social history of the Arab East between 1890 and 1939. A high priority was accorded to a number in need of further exploration. Notable among these was the political press as a mirror reflecting the vital issues of the period: nationalism; relations with the west; political and social reform; and the role of religion in society. Of the thirteen articles in this volume, seven deal in some way with the press: the newspapers and periodicals discussed include al-Mu'ayyad, Thamarat al-Funun, al-Mufid, al-Muqtabas, al-'Irfan, al-Iman, and la revue phenicienne. A general consensus emerged both from many of the seminar papers and from the ensuing discussions that the Nahda, or Arab Renaissance, took on a marked emphasis on literature, philosophy, history and culture. Thus, several of the papers give evidence of a growing awareness in the region of such intrusions as imperialism and Zionism, and of some of the pitfalls of westernization . Other contribution focused on the theme of identity, as found in the works of Najib 'Azoury, Sati' al-Husri and Yunis al-Saba'awi; and the economic thought of the Egyptian national bourgeoisie.