Contributors, including C. Ernest Dawn, Mahmoud Haddad, Reeva Simon, and Beth Baron, provide a broad survey of the Arab world at the turn of the century, permitting a comparison of developments in a variety of settings from Syria and Egypt to the Hijaz, Libya, and Iraq.

Arab nationalism has been one of the dominant ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa since the early twentieth century. However, a clear definition of Arab nationalism, even as a subject of scholarly inquiry, does not yet exist. Arab Nationalism sheds light on cultural expressions of Arab nationalism and the sometimes contradictory meanings attached to it in the process of identity formation in the modern world. It presents nationalism as an experienceable set of identity markers – in stories, visual culture, narratives of memory, and struggles with ideology, sometimes in culturally sophisticated forms, sometimes in utterly vulgar forms of expression. Drawing upon various case studies, the book transcends a conventional history that reduces nationalism in the Arab lands to a pattern of political rise and decline. It offers a glimpse at ways in which Arabs have constructed an identifiable shared national culture, and it critically dissects conceptions about Arab nationalism as an easily graspable secular and authoritarian ideology modeled on Western ideas and visions of modernity. This book offers an entirely new portrayal of nationalism and a crucial update to the field, and as such, is indispensable reading for students, scholars and policymakers looking to gain a deeper understanding of nationalism in the Arab world.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of figures -- Avant-Propos -- 1 Introduction: a critique of Arab nationalism -- 2 The trials and tribulations of the poet Fu'ad al-Khatib: a biographical essay on the origins of Arab nationalism -- 3 Holding up the mirror: imperialism and the poetics of cultural pan-Arabism -- 3.1 Saladin the Victor: national Saints, Great Men, and the rise of the individual -- 3.2 From the glory of conquest to paradise lost: al-Andalus in Arab historical consciousness -- 4 Of Kings and Cavemen: museums and nationalist museology in twentieth-century Egypt -- 5 Damascus transfers: dead bodies and their translocal meanings -- 6 Nearly victorious: the art of staging Arab military prowess -- 7 Arab nationalism, fascism, and the Jews -- 8 Epilogue and conclusion: broken narratives -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

In this new edition Professor Tibi analyses the impact and function of nationalism and its contribution to social and political change in the Third World, taking the rise of nationalism in the Middle East as a historical example. He concentrates on the period after the First World War, when many Arab intellectuals became disillusioned with Britain and France as a result of the occupation of their countries. Professor Tibi's careful study of the writings and influence of Sati' al-Husri illustrates the connection between modern Arab nationalism and nineteenth century German Romantic nationalism, which will be of particular interest to the English reader. Professor Tibi concludes that while nationalism has played a necessary and important role in the movement for national independence in the Middle East, it has since developed into an ideology which seems to obstruct further social and political emancipation. This book will be of particular interest to historians and social scientists as well as to specialists in the area itself.

Radical Arab nationalism emerged in the modern era as a response to European political and cultural domination, culminating in a series of military coups in the mid-20th century in Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. This movement heralded the dawn of modern, independent nations that would close the economic, social, scientific, and military gaps with the West while building a unity of Arab nations. But this dream failed. In fact, radical Arab nationalism became a barrier to civil peace and national cohesion, most tragically demonstrated in the case of Syria, for two reasons: 1) national armies militarized nationalism and its political objectives; 2) these nations did not keep pace with the intellectual and political and cultural and social progress of European nations that offered, for example, freedom of speech and thought. It was the failure of radical Arab nationalism, Addi contends, that made the more recent political Islam so popular. But if radical nationalism militarized politics, the Islamists politicized religion. Today, the prevailing medieval interpretation of Islam, defended by the Islamists, prevents these nations from making progress and achieving the kind of social justice that radical Arab nationalism once promised. Will political Islam fail, too? Can nations ruled by political Islam accommodate modernity? Their success or failure, Addi writes, depends upon this question.