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Studies in Contemporary Arabic Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

For some time past the writer has been endeavouring to collect material for the writing of an Economic History of Persia from the earliest times to the present. He has found himself greatly handicapped by the lack of accurate information respecting the earlier epochs of Persian history, and his researches in this direction are by no means complete.

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Articles
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1928

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References

page 745 note 1 Young, George, Egypt (London, 1927), p. x.Google Scholar

page 745 note 2 Ibidem., p. 284.

page 745 note 3 Except for a few scattered articles, the only European sources of reference are a number of studies in various Russian journals by Professor I. Kratchkowsky (whose personal encouragement I would here gratefully acknowledge), and the review pages of recent numbers of the Mittheilungen of the Berlin Oriental Seminary (MSOS.), due to Professor G. Kampffmeyer. See also MSOS., xxviii (1925), 249–52.

page 746 note 1 For this see Zaydan iv, 152–7; Muḥammad Bey Taymār (Cairo, 1922), esp. 22–6, 47–112; al-'Aqqad 259–62; BSOS., ii, 255–6.

page 747 note 1 The most complete account of Arabic literature in the nineteenth, century is Père Louis Cheikho's al-Ādab al-'arahīya fi'l-qarn at-tāsi'-'ashar (2 vols., second edition, Beyrouth, 1924–6—a supplementary volume including writers who died between 1901 and 1926 is in course of republication from al-Machriq, 1925–7). This work is quoted below as Cheikho. The fourth volume of ǵurǴi Zaydān's Ta'rīkh ādāb allughah al-'arabiya (Cairo, 1914) devotes the greater part of its space to the literary organizations of the nineteenth century, schools, libraries, societies, etc. Neither of these works offers a general study and analysis of the various movements. More detailed accounts of the principal writers are given in Ǵurǵi Zaydan's collection of biographies (mainly reprinted from the journal al-Hilāl) entitled Mashahir ash-Sharq (second ed., Cairo, 1911), quoted below as M.Sh. Similar biographies are scattered through various Arabic periodical publications, complete sets of any of which are scarcely to be found in London.

There are no European studies of comparable scope. The sections devoted to nineteenth century literature in Huart's, C.Littéralure Arabe (pp. 404–35)Google Scholar and Brockelmann's, C.Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (vol. ii, 469-96; pp. 241-50Google Scholar of his handbook) are little more than random catalogues of names and books, meaningless when divorced from the movements that alone give them significance. English works on Arabic literature treat exclusively of classical literature. A series of articles from the pen of my honoured teacher, Shaykh M. H. 'Abd ar-Rāziq, in this Bulletin (Vol. II, pp. 249–65, 755–62) has unfortunately remained uncompleted. An excellent general analysis by Professor Rratchkowsky appeared in Vostok. vol. i (Peterburg, 1922), pp. 6773.Google Scholar

page 748 note 1 M.Sh., ii, 1924Google Scholar; Cheikho ii2, 8. An excellent study of him from the pen of Muḥ. aṣ-Sādiq Ḥusayn Bey appeared in as-Siassa, weekly edition, 28th May, 1927.

page 748 note 2 Cheikho, ii2, 100–2; Zaydān, iv, 245; BSOS., ii, 256–7; Brockelmann, ii, 476–7; esp. Vollers, ZDMG., xlv (1891), 36 ft.

page 748 note 3 As a figure typical of many we may take Fransīs Marrāsh of Aleppo (1836–73) (Cheikho, ii2, 45–8; M.Sh., ii, 285–8).Google Scholar His works, which are chiefly on social and philosophical subjects, but include one novel, were inspired by his studies, not in Arabic, but in French literature. Cf. Qusṭākī al-Ḥimṣī, Udabā' Ḥalab (Aleppo, 1925), pp. 20–30.

page 749 note 1 M.Sh. ii, 8192Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 86–8Google Scholar; Huart, , Litérature arabe, 408–9.Google Scholar

page 750 note 1 M.Sh., ii, 918Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 2735.Google Scholar See also Chenery, , The Assemblies of al-Ḥariri (London, 1867), 98101Google Scholar; Kratchkowsky, , Vostok, ii, 91.Google Scholar

page 750 note 2 M.Sh., ii, 119–36Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 3843. To the works there enumerated there is now to be added the selection from his letters, etc., published in Cairo in 1920 under the title of .Google Scholar

page 750 note 3 Of the many institutions which contributed to the spread of Western studies in Bayrūt, the Syrian Protestant College (now the American University), founded in 1866, stood in the closest relation with the leaders of the literary movement and exercised the most far-reaching influence. In its early years it was directed by a group of notable scholars, the most remarkable of whom was Dr. Cornelius van Dyck (1818–95; see M.Sh., ii, 4054Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 4Google Scholar), a close friend of Butrus al-Bustānī, and author of a number of educational works in Arabic, chiefly in the physical sciences. For the American Press (1834), the Catholic Press (1848), and other printing presses in Syria prior to 1870 see Cheikho, i2, 48, 76–8.

page 750 note 4 M.Sh., ii, 2532Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 126–7.Google Scholar

page 751 note 1 See on this Dozy, , Supplément aux Dictionnaires arabes, p. xi.Google Scholar

page 751 note 2 Cheikho, , ii2, 127–8Google Scholar; Zaydan, , iv, 274.Google Scholar

page 751 note 3 Kratchkowsky in the Bagaly-Festschrift of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (Kiev, 1927); al-Machriq, xxiii (1925), 778 ff.

page 751 note 4 The social and intellectual effervescence of the Lebanon between the sixties and nineties, which is one of the most remarkable phenomena in modern Arabic history, still awaits a historian.

page 751 note 5 On this see Kratchkowsky in article cited above (note 3), and review by Prof. Margoliouth in JRAS., 1905, 417–23.

page 751 note 6 Zaydān, , iv, 64-5.Google Scholar For a list of works dealing with Arabic journalism see BS0S., ii, 257–8.

page 752 note 1 (Manār xvi (1331), 875). See also the chapter La Presse by Achille Sékaly Bey in the volume entitled L'Egypte (Cairo, 1926), especially pp. 431–2: “II est généralement admis que l'élément syrien a joué un rôle prépondérant dans la création et le développement de la presse périodique aussi bien que dans la renaissance des Lettres arabes en Egypte. Jusqu'à ces dernieres années, ses journeaux ont montré le plus de vitalité, d'initiative, d'esprit d'organisation et de progrès. Mais, après la guerre surtout, ces qualites ont commencé a se manifester parmi l'élément purement égyptien.”

page 752 note 2 The fact may be accepted without prejudice to the ultimate results of ethnographical research into the population of the Lebanon.

page 753 note 1 See al-Wasīṭ by Shaykh Ahmad al-Iskandari, pp. 339–42.Google Scholar

page 753 note 2 On his qaṣīda see Goldziher's, remarks in Abh. Arab. Phil., i, 173.Google Scholar

page 753 note 3 M.Sh., ii, 305–10Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 95–6Google Scholar; al-Wasīf, , 333–5.Google Scholar

page 753 note 4

page 753 note 5 M.Sh., ii, 33–9Google Scholar; al-Wasīt, , 335–7Google Scholar; Cheikho, , ii2, 97Google Scholar; BSOS., ii, 755–6; ZDMG., xlvii (1893), 720–2Google Scholar; and review by Goldziher in WZKM., iv, 347–52.

page 753 note 6 See on this subject the pungent criticisms of Dr. Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (Cairo, 1927) pp. 2–13.

page 754 note 1 The Arabic writers themselves have not been slow to recognize the debt which the classical movement in the East owes to European Orientalists during the nineteenth century, by their editions of classical Arabic texts and their researches into the history and literature of the Middle Ages. It is not too much to say that, but for the facilities they placed within the reach of all (aided by the piratical activities of Egyptian publishers) a great part of classical Arabic literature would still be a closed book to the majority of modern Arabic intellectuals. See also Cheikho, , iia, 72Google Scholar; and especially Kurd, M.Alī in Mijallah al-majma' al-'ilmī al-'arabī (Damascus), vol. viii (1927), 433–56.Google Scholar

page 754 note 2 Rissalat al Tawhid (see note 3), pp. xviii-xix.

page 754 note 3 A considerable literature has already arisen round Muhammad ‘Abduh, both in Arabic and in European languages. The principal biography in Arabic is in vol. viii (1333) of al-Manār. An excellent biographical sketch from the pen of Shaykh Muṣṭafā ‘Abd ar-Rāziq will be found in the preface to the French translation of his Risālat at-Tawhīd (Paris, 1925), together with analyses of his works and other biographical references.

page 754 note 4 M.Sh., ii, 5566Google Scholar; 'Abduh, M. in al-Jāmi'ah, vol. v, 122–9Google Scholar; I. Goldziher, art. “Djamāl ad-Dīn” in Encyc. of Islam, with citations of authorities. See also an article by Shaykh Muṣṭafī 'Abd ar-Rāziq in as-Siassa, weekly edition, 4th June, 1927.

page 755 note 1 Cromer, , Modern Egypt, ii, 180 note (one-vol. ed., p. 600, n. 1).Google Scholar

page 755 note 2 Hilāl, , xxii (1914), 148151Google Scholar; Manār, , xvi (1331), 873–8, 947–56Google Scholar; Machriq, , 1926, 225–6Google Scholar; al-'Aqqīd, al-Fuṣūl, 207–13.

page 755 note 3 There is an interesting passage in the long decree of judgment given by Shaykh Aḥmad Abu'l-Khatwah (a leading modernist, d. 1906; see Manār, , ix, 880)Google Scholar against Shaykh 'AH Yūsuf, in a suit brought against him by Shaykh 'Abd al-Khāliq Sādāt (on whom see Cromer, 178, one-vol. ed., 598). The passage deserves to be cited in its entirety, not for its severe castigation of Shaykh 'Alī, but as an ex cathedra statement of the attitude of the Shar' to the Press. (Quoted from al-Liwā, 1904, No. 3, .

page 756 note 1 Few would subscribe to Cromer'a dictum: “I suspect that my friend Ahdu … was in reality an Agnostic” (op. cit., ii, 180Google Scholar; one-vol. ed., 599). He was rather a Mu'tazilite; cf. Rissalal al-Tawhid, xlviii, Ixii, Ixiv, lxviii, Ixxxiv; and Goldziher, , Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranaaslegung (Leiden, 1920), 322 ff.Google Scholar

page 757 note 1 DrHaykal, Ḥusayn Bey, Fī awqāt al-farāgh, p. 116.Google Scholar

page 757 note 2 M.Sh., i, 335347Google Scholar; Haykal, , op. cit., 96148Google Scholar; Machriq, , 1926, 224–5Google Scholar; Kratch-kovsky, Kasim Amin. Novaya zhenschina, suppl. to Mir Islama, i (St. Pet., 1912).

page 757 note 3 M.Sh., i, 310325Google Scholar; Haykal in as-Siassa, weekly ed., 18th June, 1927.

page 757 note 4 The phrase is Becker's, C. H. (Der Islam, ii, 408).Google Scholar

page 758 note 1 Hilāl, , xxii (1914), 628–32.Google ScholarMSOS., xxix (1926), 249–51.Google Scholar A collection of his articles, mostly of the class called (“Reflections”), on aspects of social life, was issued under the title of .

page 758 note 2 It was founded at Bayrūt in 1876 and transferred to Cairo in 1885, on account of the Turkish censorship. On Ṣarrūf see now Prof. Margohouth in JRAS. 1927, 937–8

page 758 note 3 Zaydān, IV, 323–6 (appended by his son); R.M.M., iv, 837–45.Google Scholar

page 758 note 4 Two have been translated into French, one into German, and several into other oriental languages (see pp. 1–2). A detailed account of these and other contemporary Egyptian novels is given by Kratchkowsky, , Istoricheskii roman, etc., in Journal of Russian Ministry of Education, 06, 1911, 260–88.Google Scholar