Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival: The Politics of Ideas in the Middle East

by Martin Kramer

Overview

Over the past decade, the political ground beneath the Middle East has shifted. Arab nationalism the political orthodoxy for most of this century has lost its grip on the imagination and allegiance of a new generation. At the same time, Islam as an ideology has spread across the region, and "Islamists" bid to capture the center of politics. Most Western scholars and experts once hailed the redemptive power of Arabism. Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival is a critical assessment of the contradictions of Arab nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism, and the misrepresentation of both in the West.

The first part of the book argues that Arab nationalism—the so-called Arab awakening—bore within it the seeds of its own failure. Arabism as an idea drew upon foreign sources and resources. Even as it claimed to liberate the Arabs from imperialism it deepened intellectual dependence upon the West's own romanticism and radicalism. Ultimately, Arab nationalism became a force of oppression rather than liberation, and a mirror image of the imperialism it defied. Kramer's essays together form the only chronological telling and the at fully documented postmortem of Arabism. The second part of the book examines the similar failings of Islamism, whose ideas are Islamic reworkings of Western ideological radicalism. Its effect has been to give new life to old rationales for oppression, authoritarianism, and sectarian division.

Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival provides an alternative view of a century of Middle Eastern history. As the region moves fitfully past ideology, Kramer's perspective is more compelling than at any time in the past-in Western academe no less than among many in the Middle. This book will be of interest to sociologists, political scientists, economists, and Middle East specialists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412807678
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	02/29/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Martin Kramer is the founding president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, where he also chairs the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. He is the author and editor of several books, including Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Arabism and Friends1. Arab Nationalism: Mistaken Identity2. Arab Pen, English Purse: John Sabunji and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt3. Arabistik and Arabism: The Passions of Martin Hartmann4. The Sharifian Propaganda of Eugene Jung5. The Arab Nation of Shakib Arslan6. Ambition, Arabism, and George Antonius7. Prisoner of Love: Jean Genet and Palestine8. America's ArabistsPart II : Islamism and the West9. Islam is the Power of the Future10. Khomeini's Messengers in Mecca11. Syria's Alawis and Shi'ism12. Hizbullah: The Calculus of Jihad13. Sacrifice and Self-Martyrdom in Shi'ite Lebanon14. France Held Hostage15. Islam and the West (including Manhattan)16. Islam vs. DemocracyConclusionIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Martin Kramer deftly situations major contemporary issues in hteir hsitorical context. His challenges to conventional wisdom on Middle Eastern societies and politics are consistently thought-provoking and often persuasive." —Dale F. Eickelman, Dartmouth College "Martin Kramer is a major interpreter of Middle East history and politics. This collection, which brings together some of his most stimulating and provocative pieces, demonstrates the remarkable breadth of his knowledge. It is sure to occaision a spirited debate among academics and policymakers." —John L. Esposito, Georgetown University

From the Publisher