Utopia and Civilisation in the Arab Nahda

This study explores the Arab Nahda, a cultural renaissance in the Arab world responding to social change, and its interaction with global capitalist modernity, reshaping the Middle East over the long nineteenth century. Arab intellectuals approached the world with confidence and optimism, imagining utopian futures for their civilizing projects. By analyzing the works of key writers, Hill places these visions within the context of local class- and state-building projects in Ottoman Syria and Egypt, forming part of a global age of capital.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 318 pages
Publication date: 24 March 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

The Nahda, a cultural renaissance that emerged in the Arab world in response to significant social transformations, is explored in this study. It sheds light on a crucial and often overlooked aspect of the Arab world's encounter with global capitalist modernity, a relationship that profoundly shaped the Middle East over the course of the long nineteenth century. Arab intellectuals, viewing themselves as part of an expanding capitalist civilization, approached the changing world of the mid-nineteenth century with confidence and optimism, envisioning utopian futures for their own civilizing projects. By examining the works of key writers of the period, such as Butrus al-Bustani and Rifa a al-Tahtawi, alongside lesser-known figures like the prolific journalist Khalil al-Khuri and the utopian visionary Fransis Marrash of Aleppo, Peter Hill contextualizes these visions within the local class- and state-building projects in Ottoman Syria and Egypt, which themselves were integral components of a global age of capital. By illuminating this relatively understudied early phase of the Arab Nahda movement, Hill places the transformation of the Arab region within the broader context of world history, encouraging us to transcend the familiar dichotomy of traditional versus modern.

The Nahda, a cultural renaissance that emerged in the Arab world in response to significant social transformations, is explored in this study. It sheds light on a crucial and often overlooked aspect of the Arab world's encounter with global capitalist modernity, a relationship that profoundly shaped the Middle East over the course of the long nineteenth century. Arab intellectuals, viewing themselves as part of an expanding capitalist civilization, approached the changing world of the mid-nineteenth century with confidence and optimism, envisioning utopian futures for their own civilizing projects. By examining the works of key writers of the period, such as Butrus al-Bustani and Rifa a al-Tahtawi, alongside lesser-known figures like the prolific journalist Khalil al-Khuri and the utopian visionary Fransis Marrash of Aleppo, Peter Hill contextualizes these visions within the local class- and state-building projects in Ottoman Syria and Egypt, which themselves were integral components of a global age of capital. By illuminating this relatively understudied early phase of the Arab Nahda movement, Hill places the transformation of the Arab region within the broader context of world history, encouraging us to transcend the familiar dichotomy of traditional versus modern.

Weight: 431g
ISBN-13: 9781108740562
Edition number: New ed