Reason and Religion in Ottoman Syria

奥斯曼叙利亚的理性与宗教

• 批准号: AH/W006006/1
• 负责人: Peter Hill
• 金额: $ 19.82万
• 依托单位: Northumbria University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW006006%2F1
• 关键词: Reason; Religion; Ottoman; Syria

The polarity between secularism and religious identities is often seen as defining the modern Middle East. But where did it come from? My project traces the intertwined roots of both secular and religious revivalist currents back into the Arab-Ottoman world of the first half of the nineteenth century. Through a close microhistorical study of one remarkable individual, it will reveal long-neglected debates over the proper relationship between religious faith and 'reason', or critical thought, as well as the little-known communities and networks of Arab literati who took part in them. These debates later went on to shape both the secular-leaning Arab 'revival' or Nahda, and the emergence of both Salafist and Christian revivalisms in the Middle East.Mikha'il Mishaqa was raised as a Catholic at the court of the ruler of Mount Lebanon. But at the age of eighteen he lost faith in all revealed religion after encountering the first ever Arabic translations of writings of the European Enlightenment. He would spend the next quarter-century as a deist and sceptic, during which time he educated himself in a polymathic range of knowledge and played a major, behind-the-scenes role in the complex, often violent local political scene. In his forties, however, he read Protestant tracts translated into Arabic by American missionaries: initially sceptical, he became persuaded of their truth, and re-emerged as a pamphleteering defender of his newly-adopted Evangelical faith. His personal trajectory, and the voluminous archive of manuscripts, printed tracts, and correspondence he left behind, provides a unique entry-point into a wider set of Arabic-speaking networks who were avidly debating the relationship between faith and reason. Through a detailed, microhistorical account of Mishaqa's own conversions and the varied social milieux through which he moved, my study will uncover both the issues at stake in such debates and the social and political factors which shaped them, in a period of growing European influence and Ottoman state centralisation. Taking inspiration from the work of microhistorians of faith and doubt in early modern Europe, this project will combine the archival methods of social and cultural history with a focus on textual close reading and the resonances of 'keywords'. Poised between manuscript and print cultures, clerical and lay authority, the early modern and colonial modernity, Mikha'il Mishaqa and his interlocutors partook of a shift towards the rationalisation of religious belief which would ultimately underpin both secularist and religious revivalist traditions in the Arab world. An account of their history has the potential to inform, not just historians, but those thinking through the respective roles of religion and critical thought in the Arab world of today.

世俗主义和宗教身份之间的对立通常被视为现代中东的特征。但它是从哪里来的呢？我的项目追溯了世俗和宗教复兴潮流交织在一起的根源，追溯到19世纪上半叶的阿拉伯-奥斯曼世界。通过对一位杰出人物的微观历史研究，这本书将揭示长期以来被忽视的关于宗教信仰与“理性”或批判性思维之间适当关系的辩论，以及参与其中的鲜为人知的阿拉伯文人社区和网络。这些辩论后来影响了倾向世俗的阿拉伯“复兴”或Nahda，以及中东萨拉菲斯特和基督教复兴主义的出现。米沙卡是在黎巴嫩山统治者的宫廷里长大的天主教徒。但在18岁时，他在接触了第一批阿拉伯语翻译的欧洲启蒙运动作品后，对所有的启示宗教都失去了信仰。在接下来的四分之一个世纪里，他一直是自然神论者和怀疑论者，在此期间，他自学了广泛的知识，并在复杂的、经常充满暴力的当地政治舞台上扮演了重要的幕后角色。然而，在他四十多岁的时候，他读了美国传教士翻译成阿拉伯语的新教小册子：起初，他持怀疑态度，后来他被说服了，并重新成为他新接受的福音派信仰的小册子的捍卫者。他的个人轨迹，以及他留下的大量手稿、印刷小册子和信件，为进入更广泛的阿拉伯语网络提供了一个独特的入口，这些网络正在热烈地讨论信仰与理性之间的关系。通过对米沙卡自己的皈依和他所经历的不同社会环境的详细、微观的历史描述，我的研究将揭示在欧洲影响力不断增强和奥斯曼帝国中央集权的时期，这些辩论中利害关系的问题，以及塑造它们的社会和政治因素。从早期现代欧洲信仰和怀疑的微观历史学家的工作中获得灵感，该项目将把社会和文化史的档案方法与文本细读和“关键词”的共鸣结合起来。在手稿和印刷文化、神职和世俗权威、早期现代和殖民现代之间，米哈伊尔·米沙卡和他的对话者参与了宗教信仰合理化的转变，这最终巩固了阿拉伯世界的世俗主义和宗教复兴主义传统。对他们的历史的描述不仅可以为历史学家提供信息，还可以为那些思考当今阿拉伯世界中宗教和批判性思维各自角色的人提供信息。