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by Nissim Rejwan
This book of extraordinary breadth condenses and presents the works of the major Arab thinkers of the period. It surveys the ways in which Muslim Arabs have responded to challenges from the West since the first Muslim reformists made their appearance in Egypt in the 1870s up to the most recent pleas for Islam’s regeneration at the end of the 20th century. The book begins with reactions to the West in the works of such religious leaders as Afghani, ‘Abduh, Al-Kawakibi, Rashid Rida, Qasim Amin, and Taha Husain; the rise of Islamic militancy; and the spread of the nationalist movement. It describes events surrounding the Six-Day War of 1967 and the October War of 1973 and the rise of a new and more violent type of religious fundamentalism. And it summarizes issues that continue to preoccupy Muslim Arabs into the late 1990s--prospects for democracy, the position of women, changing attitudes toward Israel, and the plight of intellectuals in the face of rising militancy. Rejwan, a Baghdad-born Iraeli, brings to this study an intimate knowledge of modern Arabic culture on a popular level, producing a synthesis of history, politics, theology, and feminist currents from the standpoint of an insider/outsider. Nissim Rejwan is a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Nasserist Ideology: Its Exponents and Critics; The Jews of Iraq: 3000 Years of History and Culture; and Israel’s Place in the Middle East: A Pluralist Perspective (UPF, 1998), Israel in Search of Identity: Reading the Formative Years (UPF, 1999), and The Many Faces of Islam: Perspectives on a Resurgent Civilization. (UPF, 2000). 1998. 256 pp. 6 X 9. Index. ISBN 0-8130-1559-6 Cloth, $55.00
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"Rejwan's writing simplifies, but it is not for the simpleton. It is a tour d'horizon which is also a tour de force, moving between a local constitutionalist like Sa'ad Zaghlul to pan-Arab ideologues of the Ba'ath Party. . . . An outstanding addition to the library of anyone seriously interested in assaying Arab thoughts and actions." -- Jerusalem Post "Masterly. . . . A rare synthesis of the interaction between ideas and the responses they elicit; of the relationship of Arab intellectuals to the realm of politics; and of how key ideas and movements had different effects . . . absorbing and edifying."--Alvin Z. Rubinstein, University of Pennsylvania
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