A preoccupation with the subject of freedom became a core issue in the construction of all modern political ideologies. Here, Wael Abu-'Uksa examines the development of the concept of freedom (hurriyya) in nineteenth-century Arab political thought, its ideological offshoots, their modes, and their substance as they developed the dynamics of the Arabic language. Abu-'Uksa traces the transition of the idea of freedom from a term used in a predominantly non-political way, through to its popularity and near ubiquity at the dawn of the twentieth century. Through this, he also analyses the importance of associated concepts such as liberalism, socialism, progress, rationalism, secularism, and citizenship. He employs a close analysis of the development of the language, whilst at the same time examining the wider historical context within which these semantic shifts occurred: the rise of nationalism, the power of the Ottoman court, and the state of relations with Europe.
From the 1820s onwards, “progress” and “civilisation” gained extensive use in Arabic and evolved as comprehensive concepts. “Progress” conveyed the power of development and “civilisation” referred to the aspired-to future. The key use of “civilisation” was to establish a new form of legitimacy used to justify new institutional practices, values, and customs. Using Rifāʿa al-Ṭahṭāwī’s early theorisation of “civilisation” in the late 1820s as its starting point, this article tracks how medieval Arabic conceptions of the term influenced his theory, while also elaborating on the course and transformation of “civilisation” over time. The article traces the prehistory of the modern concept by mapping the semantics of words such as tamaddun, ʿumrān, taḥaḍḍur, and tamaṣṣur, all of which characterise different aspects of civilisation. It examines the sources al-Ṭahṭāwī drew on in constructing his conception of civilisation and problematises the idea that it is a notion wholly imported from France. The article’s diachronic analysis of “civilisation” uncovers its antecedents as represented in al-Ṭahṭāwī’s works, which intertwine the classical Greek, Hellenist, Arab, and modern European traditions.
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