What is the relationship between thought and practice in the domains of language, literature and politics? Is thought the only standard by which to measure intellectual history? How did Arab intellectuals change and affect political, social, cultural and economic developments from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries? This volume offers a fundamental overhaul and revival of modern Arab intellectual history. Using Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (Cambridge, 1962) as a starting point, it reassesses Arabic cultural production and political thought in the light of current scholarship and extends the analysis beyond Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the outbreak of World War II. The chapters offer a mixture of broad-stroke history on the construction of 'the Muslim world', and the emergence of the rule of law and constitutionalism in the Ottoman empire, as well as case studies on individual Arab intellectuals that illuminate the transformation of modern Arabic thought.

This book is a most comprehensive study of the modernizing trend of political and social thought in the Arab Middle East.

Cutting-edge scholarship on post-war Arab intellectual history that challenges conventional thinking about authoritarianism, religion and revolution in the modern Middle East.

Arabic thought in the liberal cage / Hussein Omar -- Corrupting politics / Nadia Bou Ali -- Illiberal Islam / Faisal Devji -- Postcolonial prophets: Islam in the liberal academy / Neguin Yavari -- A new deal between mankind and its gods / Abdennour Bidar -- The dissonant politics of religion, circulation, and civility in the sociology of Islam / Armando Salvatore -- Islamic democracy by numbers / Zaheer Kazmir -- Bourgeois Islam and Muslims without Mosques / Carool Kersten -- Islamic secularism and the question of freedom / Arshin Adib-Moghaddam -- Militancy, monarchy and the struggle to desacralise kingship in Arabia / Ahmed Dailami -- Islamotopia: revival, reform, and American exceptionalism / Michael Muhammad Knight -- Preliminary thoughts on art and society / Sadia Abbas -- The political meanings of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam / Edward E. Curtis IV -- Post-Islamism as neoliberalism / Peter Mandaville

A preoccupation with the subject of freedom became a core issue in the construction of all modern political ideologies. Here, Wael Abu-'Uksa examines the development of the concept of freedom (hurriyya) in nineteenth-century Arab political thought, its ideological offshoots, their modes, and their substance as they developed the dynamics of the Arabic language. Abu-'Uksa traces the transition of the idea of freedom from a term used in a predominantly non-political way, through to its popularity and near ubiquity at the dawn of the twentieth century. Through this, he also analyzes the importance of associated concepts such as liberalism, socialism, progress, rationalism, secularism, and citizenship. He employs a close analysis of the development of the language, whilst at the same time examining the wider historical context within which these semantic shifts occurred: the rise of nationalism, the power of the Ottoman court, and the state of relations with Europe.

Explores the many facets of Arab political thought from the nineteenth century to the present day.

'An extraordinary accomplishment that is original and thought-provoking. In the late-twentieth and early-twenty first century, during what appeared to be the hegemony of political Islamic radicalism and the authoritarian state in the Arab Middle East, Hatina masterfully reconstructs Arab liberalism and liberal political thought. Analysing in detail, liberal voices and actions by courageous public-intellectuals, they challenged the overriding authoritarianism with trenchant criticism, speaking truth to power and providing an alternative agenda for freedom of thought and speech, human rights, social equality, women's emancipation, and genuine liberal democracy. Hatina demonstrates that Arab liberalism is still a vital force in both intellectual and practical spheres, and stands to influence political life in the future.' Professor Israel Gershoni, Tel Aviv University 'A novel and stimulating approach to varieties of Liberalism which go well beyond political or economic doctrine.' Professor Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen, University of Copenhagen Combining a historical perspective that traces lines of continuity and change in Arab liberalism, an integrative discussion of cross-sectional themes, and a comparative analysis of the West, Turkey and Iran, this book seeks to enrich our knowledge of liberal thought in the Arab Middle East. In intertwining these dimensions--the historic, integrative and comparative, Arab liberal thought in the modern age responds to a tendency to overlook the significance of Middle Eastern liberalism in favour of more powerful and assertive forces embodied by authoritarian regimes and Islamic movements. The study focuses on the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. Post-1967 liberals, as their predecessors, confronted old dilemmas, socio-economic upheavals, political instability and cultural disorientation, but also demonstrated ideological rejuvenation and provided liberal thought with new emphases and visions. Arab liberals' ongoing debates over freedom of religion, secularism, individualism, democracy and human rights were aimed at formulating of a comprehensive liberal project seeking to enact an Arab Enlightenment.