Sacred Language, Ordinary People : Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt

The cultures and politics of nations around the world may be understood (or misunderstood) in any number of ways. For the Arab world, language is the crucial link for a better understanding of both. Classical Arabic is the official language of all Arab states although it is not spoken as a mother tongue by any group of Arabs. As the language of the Qur'an, it is also considered to be sacred. For more than a century and a half, writers and institutions have been engaged in struggles to modernize Classical Arabic in order to render it into a language of contemporary life. What have been the achievements and failures of such attempts? Can Classical Arabic be sacred and contemporary at one and the same time? This book attempts to answer such questions through an interpretation of the role that language plays in shaping the relations between culture, politics, and religion in Egypt. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Introduction....Pages 1-24 Humble Custodians of the Divine Word....Pages 25-51 Text Regulation and Sites of Ideology....Pages 53-72 Creating Contemporaneity....Pages 73-111 Persistent Dilemmas....Pages 113-141 Conclusion....Pages 143-157 Back Matter....Pages 159-184 This book speaks to contemporary interest in anthropology of the development of multiple modes of modernity and the new interest in the work and cultural of intellectuals Most world religions have produced exegetic traditions centrally preoccupied with the language of their holy texts.