Arab History and the Nation-State

Youssef M. Choueiri

Part 1. Pioneers and Amateurs 1820-1920 1. Patriotic Intellectuals and Enlightened Patrons: al-Tahtawi and the Egyptian Identity 1.1. The Concept and Use of History 1.2. Egypt Resurrected 1.3. Religion and Science 1.4. Another Azharite 2. Two Histories of Syria 2.1. The Burden of the Past 2.2. Matar’s Syria 2.3. Yanni’s History 3. New Identities and Imperial Vistas 3.1. Carthage, Rome and Arabia Part 2. The Professional Historians: Managers of Legitimation 1920-80 4. Muhammad ‘Ali and the Sphinx: Shafiq Ghurbal’s Histories of Egypt 4.1. Views of History 4.2. The Villains, the Ignorant, and the Unlucky 4.3. Two Rivals 4.4. Muhammad ‘Ali Revisited 4.5. The Pharaohs or the Arabs? 5. Kamal Salibi and the History of Lebanon: The Making of a Nation? 5.1. A New History 5.2. In the Beginning 5.3. An Enlightened Prince? 5.4. A Christian Nation and a Greek Ethos 5.5. The Politics of History 6. The Panacea of Historicism: Abdallah Laroui and Morocco’s Cultural Retardation 6.1. An Ideological Leap 6.2. History as Culture 6.3. A Hobbesian Sultan