Table Of ContentTHE IDEAS OF ARAB NATIONALISM
THE IDEAS OF
ARAB NATIONALISM
HAZEM ZAKI NUSEIBEH
M.P.AM.A., Ph.DPrinceton University
Cornell University Press
ITHACA, NEW YORK
© 1956 by Cornell University
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 1956
Second printing 1959
The Library of Congress card information
will be found on page 228.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PREFACE
THIS book is an attempt to explore the genesis, ideas, at
titudes, and orientations of Arab nationalism as they are
discernible in contemporary thought on the subject. The
Arab peoples of the Middle East and North Africa—in
habiting a constellation of territories stretching from Syria
in the north to the Sudan in the south and from the At
lantic Ocean in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east
—include the Syrians, the Lebanese, the Palestinians,
the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Sudanese, the Libyans,
the Tunisians, the Algerians, the Moroccans, the Iraqis, the
Saudi Arabians, the Yemenites, and the inhabitants of the
Persian Gulf sheikhdoms. Most of the seventy million peo
ple of these territories regard themselves as Arabs, and in
their striving to reconstruct the foundations of their life
after centuries of disastrous lethargy they are embracing
Arab nationalism as the standard-bearer of their hopes and
aspirations for the new order struggling grimly to be bom.
Books and articles on the manifold activities of the Arab
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vi PREFACE
world have been so abundant over the past half-century as
to impose upon any new contributor to the subject the task
of justifying further additions. To begin the task, let me
say that the great bulk of the available literature is episodi
cal and descriptive, whereas this book is intended as an
analysis of ideas and provides descriptive material only
insofar as that material contributes to the task of analysis.
While a great deal is known about the outward activities
of the Arab world, there is profound ignorance concern
ing what lies behind those stirrings and activities—what
goes on in the realm of thought and belief, which, after all,
are the volitional and dynamic forces in the lives of nations.
Apart from George Antonius’ The Arab Awakening—
written almost twenty years ago—there has been no serious
attempt at a systematic study of the ideas of modem Arab
nationalism. Western scholars well versed in the problems
of the Arab and Muslim worlds are seemingly reluctant
to recognize this movement as a viable, durable, and crea
tive force. They deal with it—if at all—either as an aberra
tion or as a European virus, transient, ephemeral, and
erasable.
The claim to attention—let alone the fascination—which
the classical studies of the old Arab-Islamic legacy offers to
scholars is easily understandable and should by no means
be disparaged. The results of these painstaking researches
are a treasured achievement of modem scholarship because
of the light which they have so brilliantly shed on the life,
thought, and beliefe of a people whose contribution has
been of signal import in the ever-expanding horizon of
knowledge and the progress of human civilization.
But, are not the living Arabs of the contemporary world
deserving of some of the attention which their forefathers
attract in the exertions of modem scholars? While it is true
f that contemporary Arabs are still in the stage of muddling
: through and of probing their way toward a new and un-
PREFACE ▼ii
charted order of existence and while it is a fact that they
are, and for quite a while will continue to be, mainly
recipients of rather than contributors to the common pool
of human knowledge, they do nevertheless deserve atten
tion and study for two reasons: (1) because they are active
participants in one of those historic encounters between
different civilizations, the outcome of which may well be
epoch-making in the political as well as the ideological
alignments of our contemporary world and (s) because
it is with the living Arabs and not those of ages long past
that the rest of the world has to deal. Needless to say, the
thought and the beliefe of the contemporary Arabs are
substantially at variance with those of their predecessors in
ages past, notwithstanding that the past has thrust its char
acteristics upon the present in varying degrees and in mani
fold ways. Such being the case, the tendency—so persistent
in modem Arabic scholarship—to portray the Arabs in
terms of static pictures and stereotype images is unfor
tunate if not decidedly misleading. Is it any wonder, then/
that modem Arab nationalism is misunderstood, vilified,
and opposed by many people throughout the Western
world?
Furthermore, nationalism per se is presently in a state
of disrepute among widespread sections of opinion on ac
count of the excesses to which it has led and the miseries
which it has wrought upon millions of people throughout
the world during the past few decades. It is difficult, there
fore, not to be apologetic in presenting a case of national
ism, however commendable. Let me say at the outset that
nationalism, like all other phenomena pertaining to hu
man relationships, is a mixture of good and evil. It is a
force for integration and co-operation as well as for dis
sipation and conflict. It has to its credit such praiseworthy
qualities as patriotism, loyalty, and self-denial, while at the
same time it must answer to certain inexcusable traits of
viii PREFACE
moral corruption and decivilizing instincts which it has
evoked and nourished.
It is in recognition o£ the serious divergencies of opinion
concerning the fundamental postulates of nationalism that
I have deemed it necessary to review critically the various
approaches which have been used in its study and evalua
tion. This study has been placed in an appendix to the
book, and it will be seen that a balanced combination of
the empirical and the universal approaches, referred to as
the comparative approach, is recommended as the most
promising procedure. Although this book is addressed to
one specific nationalism and not to a systematic comparison
of different ones, an attempt has been made to work out the
implications of the comparative method and to heed its
standards, criteria, and prerequisites.
Chapters I, II, and III are a quest for the historical
genesis of Arab nationalism. Specific chronologies of events
have been avoided in favor of important milestones and
general trends. These, it is submitted, correspond more
accurately to the actual state of affairs than does the speci
fication of dates or of events. Contemporary Arab national
ism stems from three sources corresponding to three main
periods: the pre-Islamic, the Islamic, and the modern.
The division is primarily ideological rather than chrono
logical and is not intended to be mutually exclusive or
amenable to watertight differentiation.
Chapters IV and V are devoted to an exploration of the
factors constituting contemporary Arab nationalism as
they are expounded in the literature on the subject. The
study highlights the controversial and tentative nature of
the formulations, which reflect the confusions of a move
ment still in its embryonic stage. In the formulation of the
postulates of Arab nationalism two principal sources have
been used. The first is the legacy of the past as exemplified
in the community of language, of tradition, and of his-
PREFACE ix
torical experiences. The second is the cultural impact of
the West. The deep impress of Western concepts is evident
in the treatment of such vital issues as the relationship of
the temporal and the spiritual and the concepts of national
interest, race, national character, and special mission.
In Chapters VI, VII, and VIII an attempt is made to
canvass the political theories, attitudes, and tendencies dis
cernible alike in theoretical expositions and in existing
patterns of government. Because of the dearth of political
theory in the cultural legacy of the Arabs, the discontinuity
in their political life and traditions, and the diversification
of their existing political systems, considerable attention
is devoted to the question of political antecedents, with a
view to ascertaining their relative influence in the con
sciousness of the present. This survey covers over a century
of political theorizing and constitutional developments
and is presented against a background of the historical-
social milieu of which these theories are the outcome and
a register.
The last two chapters deal with the ideas of contem
porary Arab thought regarding the all-important problem
of social change. Three attitudes are identified and dis
cussed: (1) zealotry, which is averse to change in all its
forms, (2) a selective approach, which draws a distinction
between civilization and culture, between the material and
the nonmaterial aspects of change, and (3) a comprehen
sive approach, which sees a direct link between the spirit
of a culture and its outward achievements and which advo
cates Westernization in all its aspects.
Jerusalem
H azem Zaki N useibeh
March, 1956
