Enlightenment on the eve of the revolution : the Egyptian and Syrian debates

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. Review In Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution , Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab does what we always needed but lacked in our understanding of the transnational uprisings the world has known as 'the Arab Spring.' She gives eloquent and precise voice to the revolutionary reasons behind the dramatic euphoria of those massive revolts. In doing so she does more than just being a responsible and deeply informed historian of ideas. She critically pushes those ideas towards the distant boundaries of their next epistemic breakthroughs. This is a work of profound intellectual integrity by a leading Arab thinker of her generation. (Hamid Dabashi, author of The Arab Spring: The End of Postcoloniality ) Kassab uncovers a rich and varied debate taking place in Arabic starting in the 1990s and centered on notions of tanwir (Enlightenment) that provides important context for understanding the Arab uprisings, particularly in Egypt and Syria, as well as for gauging their inherent possibilities, even as their full outcome yet remains unknown. (Michaelle Browers, author of Political Ideology in the Arab World: Accommodation and Transformation ) Leading expert on contemporary Arab thought Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab invites us to yet another extraordinary journey into the inner intellectual life of a generation on the eve of revolution. Lucid, powerful and essential. (Yoav Di-Capua, author of No Exit: Arab Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Decolonization ) Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution is an indispensable addition to the literature about the Arab Spring. Tackling immensely important, previously unanswered questions regarding the modern Arab world, Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab gives intellectual and cultural context to new Arab movements. (Orit Bashkin, author of The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq ) About the Author Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab is associate professor of philosophy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She is the author of Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective (Columbia, 2009), recipient of the prestigious Sheikh Zayed Book Award for its Arabic edition. "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. Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab is associate professor of philosophy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She is the author of Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective (Columbia, 2009), recipient of the prestigious Sheikh Zayed Book Award for its Arabic edition."-- Provided by publisher The two decades that preceded the 2011 revolutions in Egypt and Syria, especially the 1990s, witnessed animated debates on "tanwir," the Arabic version of Enlightenment ideas that date to the nahda, or Arab cultural renaissance, movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the turn of the millennium Egyptian and Syrian societies suffered the worsening impact of corrupt and autocratic regimes in almost every aspect of life. All efforts at protest and change had failed, leaving people with a deep sense of helplessness. State violence, repression, censorship, the absence of the rule of law, and pauperization, as well as the collapse of health and education, had traumatized these countries and exhausted their people. Various sectors of society, including workers, students, women, peasants and intellectuals had tried to oppose, resist, and reform but to no avail. The ominous sociopolitical, economic, and cultural consequences and the frustration and anxiety that they engendered resulted in the tanwir debates on the eve of the sweeping revolts of 2011. In both countries, Egypt and Syria, they addressed issues of human dignity, liberty, tolerance, reason, education, human rights, and democracy. What were the concerns, ideas, and values articulated in the debates? To what extent did they relate to what was expressed a few years later in the popular uprisings that took place in the cities and provinces of Syria and Egypt? Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution provides answers to these questions Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Cairo 1. Secularist, Governmental, and Islamist Tanwir Debates in Egypt in the 1990s 2. The Deconstruction of the 1990s Egyptian Tanwir Debates by Egyptian Critics at the Turn of the Millennium Part II. Damascus 3. Tanwir Debates in Syria in the 1990s: The Sisyphean Moment 4. Tanwir and the Damascus Spring at the Turn of the Millennium: The Promethean Moment Conclusion: Tanwir as Political Humanism Notes Bibliography Index