An encyclopaedia article about Naguib Mahfouz. In Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asi... more An encyclopaedia article about Naguib Mahfouz. In Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa (Sage, 2012).
This chapter surveys the career of the Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah (born 1952). Through a... more This chapter surveys the career of the Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah (born 1952). Through an analysis of the eight feature-length films he directed between 1988 and 2012, it considers the relationships between his social background and biography, his pursuit of autonomy from the economic interests of mainstream film production, and the ways his films challenge social norms.
If you would like a copy of this chapter, please email me at [email protected] and I'll be glad to send it to you.
مجموعة 9 مارس من أجل استقلال الجامعات (حركة 9 مارس) هي مجموعة من الأكاديميين المصريين الذين خاضوا... more مجموعة 9 مارس من أجل استقلال الجامعات (حركة 9 مارس) هي مجموعة من الأكاديميين المصريين الذين خاضوا طوال العشرية الأخيرة، حملات لرفع درجة الاستقلالية المؤسسية للجامعة والحرية الأكاديمية في الجامعات العمومية المصرية. يستكشف هذا المقال أجوبة ممكنة عن ثلاثة أسئلة حول 9 مارس: أولا، ما الذي يفسر توجه الأعضاء المؤسسين نحو تكوين مثل هذه المجموعة على اعتبار ما بدا على أساتذة الجامعة في مصر من قلة الاهتمام بأي نوع من النشاط الحركي وقلة سوابق حركة اجتماعية مركزة على هذه القضية؟ ثانيا، كيف تمكنت المجموعة من البقاء طوال تلك المدة التي ظلت فيها قائمة في سياق سياسي تسلطي، بل ومن خوض حملات ناجحة من دون أن تكون عرضة لقمع النظام؟ وثالثا، لماذا انحسرت تعبئة المجموعة على أثر الانتفاضة الجماهيرية لسنة 2011؟
Qualities that can make activism possible under an authoritarian regime can become disadvantages ... more Qualities that can make activism possible under an authoritarian regime can become disadvantages when restrictions on the political field are eased. Under the Mubarak regime in Egypt, the March 9 Group for University Autonomy, a small group of academics, campaigned against the interference of the state security apparatus and the ruling party in academic affairs and campus life. This article suggests that the group’s survival in that context, and its ability to organize successful campaigns within certain limits, depended on the involvement of highly accomplished academics, some of whom are well-known outside academia, on its practice of a particular type of participatory democracy, and on its focus on institutional autonomy from the state. All these assets became liabilities following the revolutionary uprising of January 2011, and the group has to a large extent demobilized as a result.
This thesis considers the effects of nationalism on the autonomy of intellectuals in Egypt. I arg... more This thesis considers the effects of nationalism on the autonomy of intellectuals in Egypt. I argue that nationalism limits intellectuals’ ability to challenge social hierarchies, political authority and economic inequality, and that it has been more readily used to legitimise new forms of domination in competition with old ones. I analyse similarities between religion and nationalism, using the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu together with cognitive linguistics. Focusing mainly on the similarities between priests and nationalist intellectuals, and secondarily between prophets and charismatic nationalist political leaders, I show that nationalism and religion are based on relatively similar concepts, which lend themselves to similar strategies for gaining credibility, recognition and moral authority. I present case studies of a few nationalist intellectuals, focusing on ones who advocated views that later became dominant. The translator and teacher Rifa‘a Rafi‘ al-Tahtawi, who was trained as a religious scholar before studying secular subjects in France, brought nationalism to Egypt by blending European nationalist concepts with centuries-old concepts from Islamic religious and literary traditions. In the early 20th century, the nationalism of intellectuals such as Muhammad Husayn Haykal enabled them to compete with men of religion for prestige and political influence, and also served particular class and professional interests. Tawfiq al-Hakim’s concept of the charismatic national leader influenced the young Gamal Abdel Nasser, who became a successful nationalist prophet and military autocrat. Ihsan ‘Abd al-Quddus articulated the concept of the nationalist martyr, who dies for his country; this concept also contributed to Nasser’s charisma. Both al-Hakim and al-Quddus arguably lost autonomy under Nasser’s regime. Al-Hakim was unable to criticise the regime until after Nasser’s death. Al-Quddus was imprisoned and tortured for advocating democracy, then became one of the most fervent supporters of Nasser’s autocracy.
Similarities between religion and nationalism are well known but not well understood. They can be... more Similarities between religion and nationalism are well known but not well understood. They can be explained by drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory in order to consider symbolic interests and the strategies employed to advance them. In both religion and nationalism, the “strategy of the prophets” relies on charisma while the “strategy of the priests” relies on cultural capital. In 20th-century Egypt, nationalism permitted intellectuals whose cultural capital was mainly secular, such as Naguib Mahfouz, to become “priests of the nation” in order to compete with the ʿulamaʾ for prestige and influence. However, it severely limited their autonomy, particularly after Nasser took power and became a successful nationalist prophet. Mahfouz's novel Al-Karnak, which explores the fate of the Nasser regime's political prisoners and the effects of Egypt's 1967 military defeat, reflects this limitation. Under a nationalist regime, the film adaptation of the novel contributed to Mahfouz's heteronomy.
While an increasing volume of primary source materials and research data in the humanities is now... more While an increasing volume of primary source materials and research data in the humanities is now available in online repositories, it is often difficult to work with this data in new research. Facilities for searching, annotating, linking, and extending data produced by different projects, and stored in different repositories, are limited or nonexistent, or at best highly heterogeneous. Moreover, the great diversity of storage systems underlying existing repositories makes it cumbersome to construct such facilities at present. We argue that these problems can be solved by storing research data in RDF triplestores, using a flexible set of shared ontologies that abstract out the basic commonalities in diverse data sets, along with project-specific ontologies derived from these, and by providing a generic, extensible Application Programming Interface (API) for accessing the data. We describe Knora (Knowledge Organization, Representation, and Annotation), an implementation of this approach, and discuss the lessons learned from its development and use.
This blog post includes (a) a video of a talk I gave on the early history of Islam, in which I su... more This blog post includes (a) a video of a talk I gave on the early history of Islam, in which I summarise mainstream scholarship on that topic, and (b) an essay discussing possible reasons for the lack of interaction between sociology and the study of the early history of Islam.
In the early 20th century, Egyptian effendi intellectuals used nationalism to introduce new taste... more In the early 20th century, Egyptian effendi intellectuals used nationalism to introduce new tastes in literature, cinema, music, journalism, and other cultural practices into Egypt. To this end, they constructed a nationalism that portrayed them as ideally qualified to be the nation’s guides, in contrast to the clergy, whose qualifications they devalued. Thus the promotion of nationalist tastes not only advanced effendi intellectuals’ careers by creating demand for their products; it was also a strategy in a broader struggle among Egyptians over prestige, credibility, and economic interests. This struggle was carried out in the pages of novels and essays, in political conflicts over educational policy, in courtrooms, and in the streets. The nationalism that emerged from this struggle, and became part of respectable mainstream tastes, increasingly resembled religion, and helped legitimize military dictatorship in the 1950s.
A Man in Our House (1961), which remains one of the best-loved Egyptian films, is a hymn to natio... more A Man in Our House (1961), which remains one of the best-loved Egyptian films, is a hymn to nationalist martyrdom. In the 1940s, a dashing young law student assassinates the prime minister, considered an instrument of the British occupation of Egypt; an ordinary middle-class family then hides the assassin in their apartment. He and the girl in the family fall in love, but he leaves her to die for his country in a suicide bombing against a British arms depot. The film is based on a novel by Ihsan Abdel Quddus, then Egypt’s most popular novelist and a prominent nationalist intellectual. When Gamal Abdel Nasser took power in a military coup in 1952, Abdel Quddus was one of his trusted advisers, but Nasser had him imprisoned in 1954 for advocating democracy. As Nasser’s charisma increased, Abdel Quddus then became one of his most ardent supporters, contributing to the widespread perception of Nasser as prophet of the nation, and A Man in Our House is also a panegyric to Nasser. I propose a sociological and cognitive interpretation of the relations between the film, the author, and the dictator. Showing how religious concepts were blended with nationalist ones to create the concept of nationalist martyrdom used in the film, I argue that this blended concept became a key element in the construction of Nasser’s charisma, which enabled him to exercise symbolic domination over intellectuals such as Abdel Quddus and transform them into instruments of his propaganda machine.
Note: if you're interested in this topic, you should read my PhD: https://works.bepress.com/benjam... more Note: if you're interested in this topic, you should read my PhD: https://works.bepress.com/benjamin_geer/2/
Scholars have tended to credit the Egyptian scholar, author, translator and teacher Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) with the introduction of the concept of patriotism into the Arabic language, and with the use of the Arabic word “watan” as an equivalent of the French word “patrie”, after his return from France in 1831. At the same time, it has also been observed that the word “watan” already had a long history in Arabic. A literary genre expressing “longing for one’s watan” had existed since at least the early centuries of Islam, along with a genre of treatises in which authors boasted about the merits of, for example, Egypt in comparison with Syria. What, precisely, was new in al-Tahtawi’s conceptions of “watan”, of Egypt, and of the relationship between Egypt and the Egyptians? To the extent that al-Tahtawi’s conceptions were innovative, what accounts for this innovation? This paper proposes to answer these questions by means of a comparison of earlier sources with al-Tahtawi’s own writings, using theoretical tools borrowed from cognitive linguistics and sociology.
First, I examine the conceptions of places and their inhabitants found in al-Jahiz’s 10th-century anthology Risalat al-Hanin ila al-Awtan, the definition of “watan” in the 13th-century dictionary Lisan al-Arab, Ibn Zahira’s 15th-century treatise on the good qualities of Egypt, and the three historical accounts that Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1754 – c.1824) wrote of the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Al-Jabarti is a particularly valuable source, since his chronicles immediately precede al-Tahtawi’s studies in France, and provide unique eyewitness evidence of the ways in which Egyptians of different social classes conceptualised a foreign occupation of Egypt at the end of the 18th century. The French occupation met with fierce resistance, including mass uprisings; did this resistance reflect patriotic concepts, and if not, how was it conceptualised?
Next I turn to French sources to consider the patriotic concepts that al-Tahtawi encountered during his studies in France (1826-1831). He was in Paris during the revolution of July 1830, which he observed closely and sympathetically, and in which patriotic newspapers played a central role; moreover, he notes that he was an avid reader of French newspapers. I therefore consider not only the patriotic concepts found in the philosophical treatises that were assigned to him in his studies, but also those that he most likely encountered in the press.
I then examine al-Tahtawi’s own concepts of “watan”, of Egypt and of its relationship with its inhabitants, using evidence from several of his major prose works as well as his patriotic poems. Using the theory of conceptual blending, I argue that his conception of “watan” can best be understood as an innovative blend of concepts that already existed in Arabic with new ones that he had encountered in France, and I propose an analysis of this blend. Finally, considering al-Tahtawi’s career in its social and political context, and the functions that patriotic concepts serve in his writings, I propose a sociological explanation of the reasons why he formulated this blend, at that particular historical moment.
An encyclopaedia article about Naguib Mahfouz. In Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asi... more An encyclopaedia article about Naguib Mahfouz. In Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa (Sage, 2012).
This chapter surveys the career of the Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah (born 1952). Through a... more This chapter surveys the career of the Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah (born 1952). Through an analysis of the eight feature-length films he directed between 1988 and 2012, it considers the relationships between his social background and biography, his pursuit of autonomy from the economic interests of mainstream film production, and the ways his films challenge social norms.
If you would like a copy of this chapter, please email me at [email protected] and I'll be glad to send it to you.
مجموعة 9 مارس من أجل استقلال الجامعات (حركة 9 مارس) هي مجموعة من الأكاديميين المصريين الذين خاضوا... more مجموعة 9 مارس من أجل استقلال الجامعات (حركة 9 مارس) هي مجموعة من الأكاديميين المصريين الذين خاضوا طوال العشرية الأخيرة، حملات لرفع درجة الاستقلالية المؤسسية للجامعة والحرية الأكاديمية في الجامعات العمومية المصرية. يستكشف هذا المقال أجوبة ممكنة عن ثلاثة أسئلة حول 9 مارس: أولا، ما الذي يفسر توجه الأعضاء المؤسسين نحو تكوين مثل هذه المجموعة على اعتبار ما بدا على أساتذة الجامعة في مصر من قلة الاهتمام بأي نوع من النشاط الحركي وقلة سوابق حركة اجتماعية مركزة على هذه القضية؟ ثانيا، كيف تمكنت المجموعة من البقاء طوال تلك المدة التي ظلت فيها قائمة في سياق سياسي تسلطي، بل ومن خوض حملات ناجحة من دون أن تكون عرضة لقمع النظام؟ وثالثا، لماذا انحسرت تعبئة المجموعة على أثر الانتفاضة الجماهيرية لسنة 2011؟
Qualities that can make activism possible under an authoritarian regime can become disadvantages ... more Qualities that can make activism possible under an authoritarian regime can become disadvantages when restrictions on the political field are eased. Under the Mubarak regime in Egypt, the March 9 Group for University Autonomy, a small group of academics, campaigned against the interference of the state security apparatus and the ruling party in academic affairs and campus life. This article suggests that the group’s survival in that context, and its ability to organize successful campaigns within certain limits, depended on the involvement of highly accomplished academics, some of whom are well-known outside academia, on its practice of a particular type of participatory democracy, and on its focus on institutional autonomy from the state. All these assets became liabilities following the revolutionary uprising of January 2011, and the group has to a large extent demobilized as a result.
This thesis considers the effects of nationalism on the autonomy of intellectuals in Egypt. I arg... more This thesis considers the effects of nationalism on the autonomy of intellectuals in Egypt. I argue that nationalism limits intellectuals’ ability to challenge social hierarchies, political authority and economic inequality, and that it has been more readily used to legitimise new forms of domination in competition with old ones. I analyse similarities between religion and nationalism, using the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu together with cognitive linguistics. Focusing mainly on the similarities between priests and nationalist intellectuals, and secondarily between prophets and charismatic nationalist political leaders, I show that nationalism and religion are based on relatively similar concepts, which lend themselves to similar strategies for gaining credibility, recognition and moral authority. I present case studies of a few nationalist intellectuals, focusing on ones who advocated views that later became dominant. The translator and teacher Rifa‘a Rafi‘ al-Tahtawi, who was trained as a religious scholar before studying secular subjects in France, brought nationalism to Egypt by blending European nationalist concepts with centuries-old concepts from Islamic religious and literary traditions. In the early 20th century, the nationalism of intellectuals such as Muhammad Husayn Haykal enabled them to compete with men of religion for prestige and political influence, and also served particular class and professional interests. Tawfiq al-Hakim’s concept of the charismatic national leader influenced the young Gamal Abdel Nasser, who became a successful nationalist prophet and military autocrat. Ihsan ‘Abd al-Quddus articulated the concept of the nationalist martyr, who dies for his country; this concept also contributed to Nasser’s charisma. Both al-Hakim and al-Quddus arguably lost autonomy under Nasser’s regime. Al-Hakim was unable to criticise the regime until after Nasser’s death. Al-Quddus was imprisoned and tortured for advocating democracy, then became one of the most fervent supporters of Nasser’s autocracy.
Similarities between religion and nationalism are well known but not well understood. They can be... more Similarities between religion and nationalism are well known but not well understood. They can be explained by drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory in order to consider symbolic interests and the strategies employed to advance them. In both religion and nationalism, the “strategy of the prophets” relies on charisma while the “strategy of the priests” relies on cultural capital. In 20th-century Egypt, nationalism permitted intellectuals whose cultural capital was mainly secular, such as Naguib Mahfouz, to become “priests of the nation” in order to compete with the ʿulamaʾ for prestige and influence. However, it severely limited their autonomy, particularly after Nasser took power and became a successful nationalist prophet. Mahfouz's novel Al-Karnak, which explores the fate of the Nasser regime's political prisoners and the effects of Egypt's 1967 military defeat, reflects this limitation. Under a nationalist regime, the film adaptation of the novel contributed to Mahfouz's heteronomy.
While an increasing volume of primary source materials and research data in the humanities is now... more While an increasing volume of primary source materials and research data in the humanities is now available in online repositories, it is often difficult to work with this data in new research. Facilities for searching, annotating, linking, and extending data produced by different projects, and stored in different repositories, are limited or nonexistent, or at best highly heterogeneous. Moreover, the great diversity of storage systems underlying existing repositories makes it cumbersome to construct such facilities at present. We argue that these problems can be solved by storing research data in RDF triplestores, using a flexible set of shared ontologies that abstract out the basic commonalities in diverse data sets, along with project-specific ontologies derived from these, and by providing a generic, extensible Application Programming Interface (API) for accessing the data. We describe Knora (Knowledge Organization, Representation, and Annotation), an implementation of this approach, and discuss the lessons learned from its development and use.
This blog post includes (a) a video of a talk I gave on the early history of Islam, in which I su... more This blog post includes (a) a video of a talk I gave on the early history of Islam, in which I summarise mainstream scholarship on that topic, and (b) an essay discussing possible reasons for the lack of interaction between sociology and the study of the early history of Islam.
In the early 20th century, Egyptian effendi intellectuals used nationalism to introduce new taste... more In the early 20th century, Egyptian effendi intellectuals used nationalism to introduce new tastes in literature, cinema, music, journalism, and other cultural practices into Egypt. To this end, they constructed a nationalism that portrayed them as ideally qualified to be the nation’s guides, in contrast to the clergy, whose qualifications they devalued. Thus the promotion of nationalist tastes not only advanced effendi intellectuals’ careers by creating demand for their products; it was also a strategy in a broader struggle among Egyptians over prestige, credibility, and economic interests. This struggle was carried out in the pages of novels and essays, in political conflicts over educational policy, in courtrooms, and in the streets. The nationalism that emerged from this struggle, and became part of respectable mainstream tastes, increasingly resembled religion, and helped legitimize military dictatorship in the 1950s.
A Man in Our House (1961), which remains one of the best-loved Egyptian films, is a hymn to natio... more A Man in Our House (1961), which remains one of the best-loved Egyptian films, is a hymn to nationalist martyrdom. In the 1940s, a dashing young law student assassinates the prime minister, considered an instrument of the British occupation of Egypt; an ordinary middle-class family then hides the assassin in their apartment. He and the girl in the family fall in love, but he leaves her to die for his country in a suicide bombing against a British arms depot. The film is based on a novel by Ihsan Abdel Quddus, then Egypt’s most popular novelist and a prominent nationalist intellectual. When Gamal Abdel Nasser took power in a military coup in 1952, Abdel Quddus was one of his trusted advisers, but Nasser had him imprisoned in 1954 for advocating democracy. As Nasser’s charisma increased, Abdel Quddus then became one of his most ardent supporters, contributing to the widespread perception of Nasser as prophet of the nation, and A Man in Our House is also a panegyric to Nasser. I propose a sociological and cognitive interpretation of the relations between the film, the author, and the dictator. Showing how religious concepts were blended with nationalist ones to create the concept of nationalist martyrdom used in the film, I argue that this blended concept became a key element in the construction of Nasser’s charisma, which enabled him to exercise symbolic domination over intellectuals such as Abdel Quddus and transform them into instruments of his propaganda machine.
Note: if you're interested in this topic, you should read my PhD: https://works.bepress.com/benjam... more Note: if you're interested in this topic, you should read my PhD: https://works.bepress.com/benjamin_geer/2/
Scholars have tended to credit the Egyptian scholar, author, translator and teacher Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) with the introduction of the concept of patriotism into the Arabic language, and with the use of the Arabic word “watan” as an equivalent of the French word “patrie”, after his return from France in 1831. At the same time, it has also been observed that the word “watan” already had a long history in Arabic. A literary genre expressing “longing for one’s watan” had existed since at least the early centuries of Islam, along with a genre of treatises in which authors boasted about the merits of, for example, Egypt in comparison with Syria. What, precisely, was new in al-Tahtawi’s conceptions of “watan”, of Egypt, and of the relationship between Egypt and the Egyptians? To the extent that al-Tahtawi’s conceptions were innovative, what accounts for this innovation? This paper proposes to answer these questions by means of a comparison of earlier sources with al-Tahtawi’s own writings, using theoretical tools borrowed from cognitive linguistics and sociology.
First, I examine the conceptions of places and their inhabitants found in al-Jahiz’s 10th-century anthology Risalat al-Hanin ila al-Awtan, the definition of “watan” in the 13th-century dictionary Lisan al-Arab, Ibn Zahira’s 15th-century treatise on the good qualities of Egypt, and the three historical accounts that Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1754 – c.1824) wrote of the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Al-Jabarti is a particularly valuable source, since his chronicles immediately precede al-Tahtawi’s studies in France, and provide unique eyewitness evidence of the ways in which Egyptians of different social classes conceptualised a foreign occupation of Egypt at the end of the 18th century. The French occupation met with fierce resistance, including mass uprisings; did this resistance reflect patriotic concepts, and if not, how was it conceptualised?
Next I turn to French sources to consider the patriotic concepts that al-Tahtawi encountered during his studies in France (1826-1831). He was in Paris during the revolution of July 1830, which he observed closely and sympathetically, and in which patriotic newspapers played a central role; moreover, he notes that he was an avid reader of French newspapers. I therefore consider not only the patriotic concepts found in the philosophical treatises that were assigned to him in his studies, but also those that he most likely encountered in the press.
I then examine al-Tahtawi’s own concepts of “watan”, of Egypt and of its relationship with its inhabitants, using evidence from several of his major prose works as well as his patriotic poems. Using the theory of conceptual blending, I argue that his conception of “watan” can best be understood as an innovative blend of concepts that already existed in Arabic with new ones that he had encountered in France, and I propose an analysis of this blend. Finally, considering al-Tahtawi’s career in its social and political context, and the functions that patriotic concepts serve in his writings, I propose a sociological explanation of the reasons why he formulated this blend, at that particular historical moment.
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If you would like a copy of this chapter, please email me at [email protected] and I'll be glad to send it to you.
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Scholars have tended to credit the Egyptian scholar, author, translator and teacher Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) with the introduction of the concept of patriotism into the Arabic language, and with the use of the Arabic word “watan” as an equivalent of the French word “patrie”, after his return from France in 1831. At the same time, it has also been observed that the word “watan” already had a long history in Arabic. A literary genre expressing “longing for one’s watan” had existed since at least the early centuries of Islam, along with a genre of treatises in which authors boasted about the merits of, for example, Egypt in comparison with Syria. What, precisely, was new in al-Tahtawi’s conceptions of “watan”, of Egypt, and of the relationship between Egypt and the Egyptians? To the extent that al-Tahtawi’s conceptions were innovative, what accounts for this innovation? This paper proposes to answer these questions by means of a comparison of earlier sources with al-Tahtawi’s own writings, using theoretical tools borrowed from cognitive linguistics and sociology.
First, I examine the conceptions of places and their inhabitants found in al-Jahiz’s 10th-century anthology Risalat al-Hanin ila al-Awtan, the definition of “watan” in the 13th-century dictionary Lisan al-Arab, Ibn Zahira’s 15th-century treatise on the good qualities of Egypt, and the three historical accounts that Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1754 – c.1824) wrote of the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Al-Jabarti is a particularly valuable source, since his chronicles immediately precede al-Tahtawi’s studies in France, and provide unique eyewitness evidence of the ways in which Egyptians of different social classes conceptualised a foreign occupation of Egypt at the end of the 18th century. The French occupation met with fierce resistance, including mass uprisings; did this resistance reflect patriotic concepts, and if not, how was it conceptualised?
Next I turn to French sources to consider the patriotic concepts that al-Tahtawi encountered during his studies in France (1826-1831). He was in Paris during the revolution of July 1830, which he observed closely and sympathetically, and in which patriotic newspapers played a central role; moreover, he notes that he was an avid reader of French newspapers. I therefore consider not only the patriotic concepts found in the philosophical treatises that were assigned to him in his studies, but also those that he most likely encountered in the press.
I then examine al-Tahtawi’s own concepts of “watan”, of Egypt and of its relationship with its inhabitants, using evidence from several of his major prose works as well as his patriotic poems. Using the theory of conceptual blending, I argue that his conception of “watan” can best be understood as an innovative blend of concepts that already existed in Arabic with new ones that he had encountered in France, and I propose an analysis of this blend. Finally, considering al-Tahtawi’s career in its social and political context, and the functions that patriotic concepts serve in his writings, I propose a sociological explanation of the reasons why he formulated this blend, at that particular historical moment.
If you would like a copy of this chapter, please email me at [email protected] and I'll be glad to send it to you.
Scholars have tended to credit the Egyptian scholar, author, translator and teacher Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) with the introduction of the concept of patriotism into the Arabic language, and with the use of the Arabic word “watan” as an equivalent of the French word “patrie”, after his return from France in 1831. At the same time, it has also been observed that the word “watan” already had a long history in Arabic. A literary genre expressing “longing for one’s watan” had existed since at least the early centuries of Islam, along with a genre of treatises in which authors boasted about the merits of, for example, Egypt in comparison with Syria. What, precisely, was new in al-Tahtawi’s conceptions of “watan”, of Egypt, and of the relationship between Egypt and the Egyptians? To the extent that al-Tahtawi’s conceptions were innovative, what accounts for this innovation? This paper proposes to answer these questions by means of a comparison of earlier sources with al-Tahtawi’s own writings, using theoretical tools borrowed from cognitive linguistics and sociology.
First, I examine the conceptions of places and their inhabitants found in al-Jahiz’s 10th-century anthology Risalat al-Hanin ila al-Awtan, the definition of “watan” in the 13th-century dictionary Lisan al-Arab, Ibn Zahira’s 15th-century treatise on the good qualities of Egypt, and the three historical accounts that Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1754 – c.1824) wrote of the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Al-Jabarti is a particularly valuable source, since his chronicles immediately precede al-Tahtawi’s studies in France, and provide unique eyewitness evidence of the ways in which Egyptians of different social classes conceptualised a foreign occupation of Egypt at the end of the 18th century. The French occupation met with fierce resistance, including mass uprisings; did this resistance reflect patriotic concepts, and if not, how was it conceptualised?
Next I turn to French sources to consider the patriotic concepts that al-Tahtawi encountered during his studies in France (1826-1831). He was in Paris during the revolution of July 1830, which he observed closely and sympathetically, and in which patriotic newspapers played a central role; moreover, he notes that he was an avid reader of French newspapers. I therefore consider not only the patriotic concepts found in the philosophical treatises that were assigned to him in his studies, but also those that he most likely encountered in the press.
I then examine al-Tahtawi’s own concepts of “watan”, of Egypt and of its relationship with its inhabitants, using evidence from several of his major prose works as well as his patriotic poems. Using the theory of conceptual blending, I argue that his conception of “watan” can best be understood as an innovative blend of concepts that already existed in Arabic with new ones that he had encountered in France, and I propose an analysis of this blend. Finally, considering al-Tahtawi’s career in its social and political context, and the functions that patriotic concepts serve in his writings, I propose a sociological explanation of the reasons why he formulated this blend, at that particular historical moment.