Modern Arab Historiography: Historical Discourse and the Nation-State

by Choueiri,Youssef

• ISBN13: 9780700716500
• ISBN10: 0700716505
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-03-07
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

The study of Arab historiography and the emergence of the Arab nation-state as an object of historical treatment is a matter of considerable current interest. Despite its importance, no academic work has so far dealt with this subject as a major preoccupation of Arab historians and intellectuals. This book discusses the development of modern Arab historiography and its study of the nation-state in the 19th century, and analyses the work of three contemporary Arab historians from Egypt, the Lebanon and Morocco. An important and highly readable account, it reaffirms the importance of historiography and proposes a revision of the manner in which modern Arab thought has hitherto been classified and interpreted.

Author Biography

Youssef M. Choueiri is Reader in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Glossary	xi
A list of dynasties	xiii
Introduction	1	(14)
PART I Pioneers and amateurs 1820--1920	15	(60)
Patriotic intellectuals and enlightened patrons: al-Tahtawi and the Egyptian identity	17	(22)
The concept and use of history	20	(2)
Egypt resurrected	22	(6)
Religion and science	28	(3)
Another Azharite	31	(8)
Two histories of Syria	39	(29)
The burden of the past	42	(6)
Matar's Syria	48	(5)
Yanni's history	53	(15)
New identities and imperial vistas	68	(7)
Carthage, Rome, and Arabia	69	(6)
PART II The professional historians: managers of legitimation 1920--1980	75	(122)
Muhammad `Ali and the Sphinx: Shafiq Ghurbal's histories of Egypt	77	(48)
Views of history	79	(3)
The villains, the ignorant, and the unlucky	82	(13)
Two rivals	95	(17)
Muhammad `Ali revisited	112	(3)
The Pharaohs or the Arabs?	115	(10)
Kamal Salibi and the history of Lebanon: the making of a nation?	125	(49)
A new history	129	(5)
In the beginning . . .	134	(6)
An enlightened prince?	140	(5)
A Christian nation and a Greek ethos	145	(11)
The politics of history	156	(18)
The panacea of historicism: Abdallah Laroui and Morocco's cultural retardation	174	(23)
An ideological leap	176	(5)
History as culture	181	(5)
A Hobbesian sultan	186	(11)
Conclusion	197	(16)
Appendix A: History books translated under the supervision of al-Tahtawi	213	(1)
Appendix B: Muhammad al-Alfi's visit to London and the British press	214	(11)
Bibliography	225	(8)
Index	233