Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution : The Egyptian and Syrian Debates / Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kassab, Elizabeth Suzanne, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil society--Egypt.

Civil society.

Civil society--Syria.

Enlightenment--Egypt.

Enlightenment.

Enlightenment--Syria.

Islam and secularism--Egypt.

Islam and secularism.

Islam and secularism--Syria.

Islam and state--Egypt.

Islam and state.

Islam and state--Syria.

Egypt--Intellectual life--20th century.

Egypt.

Egypt--Intellectual life--21st century.

Syria--Intellectual life--20th century.

Syria.

Syria--Intellectual life--21st century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

During the two decades that preceded the 2011 revolutions in Egypt and Syria, animated debates took place in Cairo and Damascus on political and social goals for the future. Egyptian and Syrian intellectuals argued over the meaning of tanwir, Arabic for "enlightenment," and its significance for contemporary politics. They took up questions of human dignity, liberty, reason, tolerance, civil society, democracy, and violence. In Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution, Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab offers a groundbreaking analysis of the tanwir debates and their import for the 2011 uprisings.Kassab locates these debates in their local context as well as in broader contemporary political and intellectual Arab history. She argues that the enlightenment they advocated was a form of political humanism that demanded the right of free and public use of reason. By calling for the restoration of human dignity and seeking a moral compass in the wake of the destruction wrought by brutal regimes, they understood tanwir as a humanist ideal. Kassab connects their debates to the Arab uprisings, arguing that their demands bear a striking resemblance to what was voiced on the streets of Egypt and Syria in 2011. Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution is the first book to document these debates for the Anglophone audience and to analyze their importance for contemporary Egyptian and Syrian intellectual life and politics.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

ONE. Secularist, Governmental, and Islamist Tanwir Debates in Egypt in the 1990s

TWO. The Deconstruction of the 1990s Egyptian Tanwir Debates by Egyptian Critics at the Turn of the Millennium

THREE. Tanwir Debates in Syria in the 1990s: The Sisyphean Moment

FOUR. Tanwir and the Damascus Spring at the Turn of the Millennium: The Promethean Moment

Conclusion: Tanwir as Political Humanism

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780231549677

0231549679

OCLC:

1105855531