Arabic Literary Renaissance
The Arabic Literary Renaissance, known as Naḥ in Arabic, was a significant cultural movement that emerged in the 19th century, marking a transition from traditional oral literary forms to modern literary expressions in the Arab world. This renaissance was part of a broader wave of political and intellectual reform across the Middle East, influenced by European colonialism and the introduction of Western ideas. The period saw a shift in themes from individual heroics to broader social issues, reflecting a growing awareness of Arab identity amid the pressures of modernization and Western influence.
Egypt played a pivotal role in this transformation, particularly under leaders like Muḥammad Alī Pasha and Khedive Ismāՙīl, who implemented educational reforms and introduced printing presses, facilitating access to European literature and knowledge. As a result, Arab writers began to adopt new literary forms such as novels and dramas while infusing them with themes of nationalism and cultural pride. However, this embrace of modernity was met with resistance from those who viewed it as a threat to Arab cultural identity, leading to a divide among intellectuals and writers.
Key figures of the renaissance, such as Kahlil Gibran and Butrus al-Bustani, sought to redefine the relationship between modernity and Arab culture, advocating for a synthesis of traditional values and contemporary ideas. The tensions and debates that arose during this period have continued to shape Arab literary and cultural discourse into the 21st century, reflecting the ongoing struggle to navigate identity in a modern world.
Arabic Literary Renaissance
Date 19th century
The Arabic Literary Renaissance began after the French occupation of Egypt ended and continued until Middle Eastern nationalist sentiments revived in the wake of World War I. During that long period, European modernization heavily influenced Middle Eastern literary figures and philosophers. As Arab intellectuals adjusted to these new influences, some adapted well while others repudiated modernity outright.
Also known as Arabic Literary Revival; Naḥ
Locale Egypt, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries
Key Figures
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), first consul of France, 1799-1804, and general who led French occupation of EgyptMuḥammad ՙAlī Pasha (1769-1849), Albanian-born viceroy of Egypt, 1805-1848Ismāՙīl Pasha (1830-1895), viceroy of Egypt, 1863-1879Rifā՚ah Rāfi՚ aṭ-Ṭahtawi (1801-1873), director of the Cairo School of Languages, 1836Butrus al-Bustani (1819-1883), Lebanese lexicographerNāṣīf Yāziji (1800-1871), Lebanese poetKahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese poet, philosopher, and artistShihāb al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Ālūsī (1802-1854), Iraqi writer
Summary of Event
The Arabic Literary Renaissance marked a segment of wider political, intellectual, and cultural reform affecting the Middle East. Known as Naḥ in Arabic, the regional literary renaissance ended preexisting Middle Eastern literary norms, which had been largely dependent upon oral traditions. The literary symbolism, forms, and figures, as well as technological innovations, made the renaissance a conduit through which Arab culture meshed with modernity amid political and cultural conflict. Rather than submit to Western ways completely, Arabic literature adapted new styles and techniques that preserved elements of Arabic culture.
Prior to the nineteenth century, the literary period known as the Age of Depression developed themes that the Arabic Literary Renaissance repeated in new ways. Both periods emphasized romantic ideals of Arab life and a sense of ethnic pride. Although literary subjects shifted from individual achievement and heroics to everyday life, Arab identity remained a constant. Emphasis on broader social themes served as a natural reaction to French general Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. Napoleon brought more than a military occupation of territory; he also brought scientists and scholars to study and survey Egyptian history, culture, and topography. European efforts to learn about and exploit “orientalism” helped introduce modern concepts to the Middle East.
Although France’s occupation of Egypt lasted only three years, it profoundly altered Egyptian attitudes after a new ruler, Muḥammad ՙAlī Pasha, consolidated power in 1805. Mimicking his Ottoman allies, Muḥammad Alī reformed Egypt’s military and education systems along Western lines. By 1816, the transition from Egypt’s religious Azhar system of education gave way to Westernized secular institutions. Muḥammad ՙAlī imported European technicians, scientists, and educators to create a modern Arab state.
Determined not to be outdone by the Lebanese, Muḥammad Alī ordered an Arabic printing press for disseminating Western knowledge as well as printing classical Arabic texts. In 1828, the Boulaq Press issued Egypt’s first official newspaper. In 1835, the Cairo School of Languages began teaching French, Italian, and English. Six years later, the Cairo school helped establish the Translation Bureau, further opening Egypt to the West. Printing presses, language schools, and the Translation Bureau introduced an Arab audience to European literature, history, and technical manuals.
Additionally, the West’s Christian missionaries and educational institutions infiltrated the region. Under Egyptian occupation, Syria and Lebanon became home to Western colleges. In 1847, the United States established the American College, later renamed the American University of Beirut. Missionary schools for women also began appearing in the Middle East. Later in the century, Egyptian ruler Khedive Ismāՙīl advanced modern educational reforms. Educated in France, Ismāՙīl increased educational opportunities for all, including women. He founded the Dar al-ՙUlum, a teachers’ training college seeking connections between Islamic traditions and Western learning. Ismāՙīl encouraged his countrymen to wear Western apparel, adopt Western legal codes, incorporate European financial standards, and fund construction of a Cairo opera house that opened in 1869, in time to celebrate the completion of the Suez Canal with the world premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. All of these reforms bound Egypt more closely to European influences.
These rapid changes split Arab society and intellectuals into two factions: those repudiating modernity and those embracing it. By the mid-nineteenth century, many Arabs were taking steps to preserve their cultural identity, including their rich literary heritage. For example, the Egyptian poet Sayyid Alī al-Darwish and the Lebanese poet Nāṣīf Yāziji imitated older poetic forms dating back to the twelfth century.
Nevertheless, scholars such as Rifā՚ah Rāfi՚ aṭ-Ṭahtawi, who was one of many students Muḥammad ՙAlī sent to Europe to study, followed Western ways; aṭ-Ṭahtawi became director of the Cairo School of Languages in 1836. The school’s students assisted in translating more than two thousand books into Arabic. Others open to modernity included the Iraqi writer Shihāb al-Dīn al-Ālūsī, whose ode commemorating British queen Victoria’s reign won popular acclaim. Interestingly, Arab literary figures developed a paradoxical relationship concerning modernity as the century progressed. While Egyptian poets born after 1850, such as Aḥmad Shawqī, Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm, and Khalīl Maṭrān, all adopted modern literary forms, they applied them to express strong Arab nationalist sentiments.
By the late nineteenth century, another ethnic group was contesting nationalist autonomy in the Middle East and threatening Arabic notions of identity. The Viennese playwright and journalistTheodor Herzl was calling for a Jewish homeland. Herzl’s 1896 book Der Judenstaat (the Jewish state) argued for Jewish self-determination as an alternative to persistent European anti-Semitism. The following year, Herzl joined others in galvanizing support for the Zionist movement, which specified Palestine—the future center of the modern state of Israel —as the location for this new Jewish state. Like Napoleon’s invasion, Zionism invigorated Arab nationalism, combining it with reactionary expressions of political Islam.
Interpreting modernity as a threat placed Egyptians and neighboring Arabs on the defensive by forcing them to protect and further define their culture. Literary forms new to Arab culture—such as novels, short stories, essays, biographies, autobiographies, histories, literary criticism, and, most significant, dramas—conveyed a growing awareness of self-identity. Arab writers and philosophers saw modernity as a vehicle imperative for reinvigorating Arab honor and winning respect for it among the world’s civilizations.
By the end of the renaissance era, a few literary figures sought compromise among competing views. For example, Butrus al-Bustani’s work on an Arabic encyclopedia and dictionary defined the substantive contributions to world culture that Arabs could claim. Through art and philosophical teachings, the Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran spread mystical concepts of human existence that challenged scientific notions of modernity. Writers such as these interpreted Arab culture and history as a vital component of the modern world. Using humanity as the constant link between antiquity and modernity, Gibran’s writings defused tensions among the competing schools of thought.
Significance
Throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, the Arabic Literary Renaissance revealed two diverging viewpoints regarding modernity. Many Arabs accommodated change and strove to elevate the Arab role in the modern era. MuḥammadՙAlī and his successor, Khedive Ismāՙīl, bound the Middle East more closely to Europe’s modern practices by reforming Egyptian military tactics and armaments, as well as social customs and laws. Although many Arab writers and thinkers applauded these events, a substantial portion considered modernization a threat to Arab identity. Scholars such as Kahlil Gibran and Butrus al-Bustani disseminated Arab thought and accomplishments to others by redefining modernity as a reciprocal relationship wherein exchanges of knowledge and philosophy replaced assimilation and resentment. However, conflict between modernization’s proponents and opponents marginalized the true significance of Gibran’s and al-Bustani’s work.
By the late nineteenth century, the two feuding groups and their philosophical platforms had solidified. Politically, the polarized factions continued into the twentieth century with promodernist leaders such as Egyptian prime minister and president Gamal Abdel Nasser and antimodernist groups such as the Society of the Muslim Brotherhood. Novels such as Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy reflected the rifts pervading Arab society, and Mahfouz won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. These tensions have persisted into the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
Badawi, M. M. A Short History of Modern Arabic Literature. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1993. This book offers an excellent introduction to period and its long-term implications.
Bakalla, M. H. Arabic Culture Through Its Language and Literature. Boston: Kegan Paul International, 1984. Bakalla offers a concise summary of the Arabic Literary Renaissance.
Boullata, Issa J., and Terri DeYoung, eds. Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Literature. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997. Although it focuses on a late period in the Arabic Literary Renaissance, this edited volume offers lengthy examinations of philosophers such as Kahlil Gibran.
Daly, M. W., ed. Modern Egypt from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2 in The Cambridge History of Egypt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Chapter 6, written by Khaled Fahmy, chronicles the events and significance of Muḥammad’s governorate.
Fahmy, Khaled. All the Pasha’s Men: Mehmed Ali, His Army, and the Making of Modern Egypt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Examines Muḥammad’s military reforms and recruitment policies in the context of his modernization of Egypt’s government.
Gibb, H. A. R. Arabic Literature: An Introduction. London: Oxford University Press, 1926. Although in many ways dated, this classic study of Arabic literature remains highly respected in the field.
Haywood, John A. Modern Arabic Literature, 1800-1970. London: Lund Humphries, 1971. Haywood’s text serves as one the cornerstones in the field of the Arabic Literary Renaissance.
Moss, Joyce, ed. Middle Eastern Literatures and Their Times. Vol. 6 in World Literature and Its Times. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2004. Collection of authoritative essays on individual writers and works, including many from the nineteenth century.