Suchergebnisse

THE VARIEGATED CLASSICAL LEGACY IN THE WEST, EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM, ARAB NATIONALISM, AND MODERN ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS HAVE RECEIVED MUCH SCHOLARLY ATTENTION. WITH THE PARTIAL EXCEPTION OF THE MAGHRIB, THE INTENSE CLASSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF MANY WESTERNERS IN THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST HAS NOT BEEN SIMILARLY HIGHLIGHTED. TAKING EGYPT AS A CASE STUDY, THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTS TO FILL IN A SIGNIFICANT GAP IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPERIALIST-NATIONALIST ENCOUNTER.

Albert Hourani's survey of "The Present State of Islamic and Middle Eastern Historiography" has one obvious lacuna: it fails to mention the author's own(Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939).1This masterpiece, published in 1962 when its author was forty-seven, has left its mark on a whole generation of English-speaking scholars of the Middle East.Hisham Sharabi writes: "I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Albert Hourani, whose pioneering work,Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789–1939, is an indispensable reference to any study of modern Arab intellectual history."2