The Arab Renaissance: Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement

这个研究项目是关于阿拉伯思想和文化史上最重要的时期之一。十九世纪和二十世纪初的阿拉伯世界通常与nahdah有关-阿拉伯文学和西方影响下的思想的“文艺复兴或觉醒”。该nahdah运动的起源和发展仍然是一个有争议的问题，但什么是明确的是，该词的广泛使用意味着社会，文化和政治变革的动态过程中，阿拉伯地区经历了在十九世纪的认识。在这一时期，阿拉伯和穆斯林世界也发生了其他类型的改革：在非现代复兴和复兴的伊斯兰历史传统中，有平行的复兴运动，以及与奥斯曼帝国有关的充满活力的改革运动。然而，与这些伊斯兰复兴运动相比，纳赫达可以被理解为一场巨大的知识和文化复兴运动，基督徒和穆斯林、世俗和宗教改革者都参与其中，并且在地理上--至少在早期阶段--集中在埃及和大叙利亚。虽然没有严格的日期标志着结束的nahdah，来源普遍同意，它已结束了1920年。从那时起，任何复兴阿拉伯-伊斯兰思想的尝试都变得与nahdah密不可分，以至于它继续主导着当代阿拉伯-伊斯兰关于传统和现代性的话语。因此，在任何试图理解现代阿拉伯思想的尝试中，纳赫达都是一个具有重要意义的主题。然而，纳赫达的故事还有待于书写。我们不仅缺乏一个全面的帐户在英语的nahdah，但迄今为止的研究过于专注于外部力量的贡献，而牺牲了重要的内部因素，这导致了混乱和不完整的图片兴起和发展的nahdah。已建立的研究从现代化影响的角度接近nahdah，并几乎完全集中在那些接受来自西方的思想的思想家和运动，而忽略了他们的同时代人，他们要么不接受西方思想，要么试图将其纳入自己的文化价值观的框架。此外，对某些思想家的专门关注意味着，他们的许多同时代人仍然不为人所知，他们同样关心社会的改革，但追求的是实用事业而不是哲学事业。这些人--语言学家、文学家和教育家--我称之为人文主义者，他们对nahdah做出了重大贡献。他们是阿拉伯和伊斯兰传统的守护者、文化的传播者和学习的促进者。因此，到目前为止，研究的重点不均衡，未能捕捉到那达慕及其知识分子的复杂性和独特性。基于对阿拉伯语原始资料的广泛研究，该项目旨在促进对阿拉伯思想和文化发展这一重要时期的更全面理解。从前现代时期（约1700年）开始，我将探讨内部和外部的关键因素，这些因素促成了nahdah的兴起和发展。我也将第一次集中讨论那个时期的人文主义运动，它是与那达有关的许多语言、文学和教育活动背后的驱动力。借鉴思想史，文学史和后殖民研究，我将探讨在何种程度上的nahdah是一个“本土”的发展和外国援助相结合的产物。我会说，nahdah是由本土势力煽动的，但它后来更明显的孕育既是对外部影响的反应，也是外部影响的产物。总的来说，这个项目将产生第一个全面的帐户的nahdah作为一个整体。

This research project is about one of the most important periods in the history of Arabic thought and culture. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Arab world are generally associated with the nahdah - the 'Renaissance or Awakening' of Arabic literature and thought under Western influence. The origins and development of the nahdah movement remains a matter of controversy, but what is clear is that the broad use of the term implies an awareness of the dynamic process of social, cultural, and political change which the Arab region underwent during the nineteenth century. Other types of reform were also occurring in the Arab and Muslim world in this period: there were parallel movements of resurgence operating within the Islamic historical tradition of non-modern renewal and revival, as well as vibrant reform movements linked to the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to such Islamic resurgence movements, however, the nahdah might be understood as a vast intellectual and cultural movement of renewal, involving both Christians and Muslims, secular and religious reformers, and focused geographically - at least in its early phases - on Egypt and Greater Syria. Although there is no rigid date marking the end of the nahdah, sources generally concur that it had ended by 1920. Since then, any attempt at rejuvenating Arab-Islamic thought has become so inextricably tied to the nahdah that it continues to dominate contemporary Arab-Islamic discourse on tradition and modernity. The nahdah is therefore a subject of great significance in any attempt to understand modern Arab thought.The story of the nahdah, however, remains to be written. Not only do we lack a comprehensive account in the English language of the nahdah, but the research to date has focused too exclusively on the contribution of external forces at the expense of important internal factors; this has resulted in a confused and incomplete picture of the rise and development of the nahdah. Established studies have approached the nahdah from modernization-influenced perspectives and focused almost exclusively on those thinkers and movements that accepted ideas coming from the West, while ignoring their contemporaries who either did not accept Western ideas, or tried to incorporate them within a framework of their own cultural values. Moreover, the exclusive focus on certain thinkers has meant that many of their contemporaries, who were equally concerned with the reform of their societies but pursued practical careers over philosophical ones, remain unknown. Such men - linguists, litterateurs, and educationalists - whom I refer to as the humanists, contributed significantly to the nahdah. They were the guardians of Arabic and Islamic tradition, the transmitters of culture and promoters of learning. The uneven emphasis of research to date has therefore failed to capture the complexity and distinctiveness of the nahdah and its intellectuals. Based on an extensive study of original sources in Arabic, this project aims to contribute to a more complete understanding of this important period in the development of Arabic thought and culture. Starting in the pre-modern period (c.1700), I will explore the key factors, both internal and external, that contributed to the rise and development of the nahdah. I will also focus, for the first time, on the humanist movement of the period which was the driving force behind much of the linguistic, literary, and educational activity associated with the nahdah. Drawing on intellectual history, literary history, and postcolonial studies, I will explore to what extent the nahdah was the product of a combination of 'native' development and foreign assistance. I will argue that the nahdah was instigated by indigenous forces, but its later and more visible gestation was both a reaction to and product of external influences. Overall, this project will produce the first comprehensive account of the nahdah as a whole.