The Arab Renaissance: Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement

这项研究项目是关于阿拉伯思想史和文化史上最重要的时期之一。在阿拉伯世界的十九世纪和二十世纪初，一般都与Nahdah有关--即阿拉伯文学和思想在西方影响下的“文艺复兴或觉醒”。Nahdah运动的起源和发展仍然是一个有争议的问题，但很明显的是，这个词的广泛使用意味着对阿拉伯地区在19世纪经历的社会、文化和政治变革的动态过程的认识。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，出现了平行的复兴运动，以及与奥斯曼帝国有关的活跃的改革运动。然而，与这些伊斯兰复兴运动不同的是，Nahdah可能被理解为一场巨大的知识和文化复兴运动，涉及基督徒和穆斯林、世俗和宗教改革者，并在地理上--至少在早期阶段--专注于埃及和大叙利亚。虽然没有明确的日期标志着Nahdah的结束，但消息来源普遍认为它在1920年结束了。从那时起，任何复兴阿拉伯伊斯兰思想的尝试都与那达教派密不可分，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，那达都是一个具有重要意义的主题。然而，那达的故事仍有待书写。我们不仅缺乏用英语对Nahdah进行全面的描述，而且迄今为止的研究过于侧重于外部力量的贡献，而忽视了重要的内部因素；这导致了对Nahdah的崛起和发展的混乱和不完整的图景。既有的研究从受现代化影响的角度来探讨Nahdah，几乎只关注那些接受来自西方的思想的思想家和运动，而忽略了他们的同代人，他们要么不接受西方的思想，要么试图将其纳入自己的文化价值观框架。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默默无闻，他们同样关注社会改革，但追求的是实践职业，而不是哲学职业。这些人--语言学家、文学家和教育家--我称之为人文主义者，对那达做出了重大贡献。他们是阿拉伯和伊斯兰传统的守护者，是文化的传播者和学习的推动者。因此，到目前为止，研究的重点不均衡，未能捕捉到Nahdah及其知识分子的复杂性和独特性。在广泛研究阿拉伯语原始资料的基础上，该项目旨在帮助更全面地了解阿拉伯思想和文化发展的这一重要时期。从前现代时期(公元1700年)开始，我将探索促成那达教兴起和发展的内部和外部关键因素。我还将第一次集中讨论那个时期的人文主义运动，它是与那达相关的许多语言、文学和教育活动背后的驱动力。借助思想史、文学史和后殖民研究，我将探索那达在多大程度上是当地发展和外国援助相结合的产物。我会争辩说，Nahdah是由土著势力煽动的，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。总体而言，该项目将对整个Nahdah进行第一次全面的说明。

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.