IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page i The Formation of Arab Reason IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page ii CONTEMPORARY ARAB SCHOLARSHIP IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES Series ISBN 978 84885 207 5 The Contemporary Arab Scholarship in the Social Sciences (produced by I.B.Tauris in cooperationwiththeCentreforArabUnityStudies)aimstointroduceanEnglishlanguage audience to the most cutting-edge writings from the Arab world in the fields of politics, sociology,philosophyandhistory.Hitherto,themajorityofsocialstudiesontheArabworld havebeenwrittenby,andfromtheperspectiveof,non-Arabs.Thisseriesaimstoremedythe situationbypresentingauthentic,indigenouspointsofviewfromkeyinfluentialthinkersand intellectuals.Thewritersassembledintheseries–allhighlydistinguishedexpertsintheir areasofstudy–tacklethemostcriticalissuesfacingtheArabworldtoday:Islam,modernity, development,thelegacyofimperialismandcolonialism,civilsociety,democracyandhuman rights. English-languagereadersareheregivenanunprecedentedwindowonthevitalityand distinctnessofcontemporaryArabintellectualdebateinhigh-quality,eminentlyreadable translationsoftheoriginalworks. Democracy,HumanRightsLawinIslamicThought MohammedAbedal-Jabri 9781845117498 BritainandArabUnity: ADocumentaryHistoryfromtheTreatyofVersaillestotheEndofWorldWarII YounanLabibRizk 9781848850590 TheStateinContemporaryIslamicThought: AHistoricalSurveyoftheMajorMuslimPoliticalThinkersoftheModernEra AbdelilahBelkeziz 9781848850620 TheFormationofArabReason: Text,TraditionandtheConstructionofModernityintheArabWorld MohammedAbedal-Jabri 9781848850613 IslamicLandTax–Al-KharÆj: FromtheIslamicConqueststothe≤AbbÆsidPeriod GhaidaKhaznaKatbi 9781848850637 EarlyIslamicInstitutions: AdministrationandTaxationfromtheCaliphatetotheUmayyadsand≤AbbÆsids Abdal-AzizDuri 9781848850606 IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 6/1/11 11:10 Page iii Contemporary Arab Scholarship in the Social Sciences, Vol 5 The Formation of Arab Reason Text, Tradition and the Construction of Modernity in the Arab World By Mohammed Abed al-Jabri Translated by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies I.B.Tauris Publishers In Association With The Centre for Arab Unity Studies IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page iv The translation and publication of this book was made possible by the generous financial support of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. The opinions and ideas expressed in this book are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of either the publisher, the Centre for Arab Unity Studies or the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. Published in 2011 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Published in association with the Centre for Arab Unity Studies Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan Centre for Arab Unity Studies ‘Beit Al-Nahda’ Bldg. – Basra Street – Hamra PO Box: 113-6001 Hamra Beirut 2034 2407 – LEBANON www.caus.org.lb Copyright © 2011 Centre for Arab Unity Studies The right of Mohammed Abed al-Jabri to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. This book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Contemporary Arab Scholarship in the Social Sciences, Vol. 5 ISBN: 978 1 84885 061 3 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Typeset by Ellipsis Books Limited, Glasgow Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page v Contents Foreword vii PART 1: Arab Reason ... In What Meaning? Preliminary Approaches Chapter 1: Reason and Culture 3 Chapter 2: Arab Cultural Time and the Problematic of Development 35 Chapter 3: The Era of Codification: The Authoritative Referential Framework of Arab Thought 59 PART 2: The Formation of Arab Reason: The Epistemological and Ideological in Arab Culture Chapter 4: The Bedouin, the Maker of the Arab World 83 Chapter 5: Legitimising the Legitimiser (al-tashri¯ʿli-l-musharriʿ) 1: The Codification of ‘Opinion’ and ‘Legitimisation’ of the Past 109 IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page vi vi THE FORMATION OF ARAB REASON Chapter 6: Legitimising the Legitimiser 2: Analogising According to ‘Precedent’ 133 Chapter 7: The Religious ‘Rational’ and the Irrational of ‘Reason’ 159 Chapter 8: Resigned Reason 1: Within the Ancient Legacy 195 Chapter 9: Resigned Reason 2: Within Arab-Islamic Culture 225 Chapter 10: The Introduction of Reason into Islam 269 Chapter 11: The Crisis of Fundamentals and the Fundamentals of the Crisis 311 Chapter 12: A New Beginning . . . However! 365 Conclusion: Knowledge, Science and Politics in Arab Culture 413 Bibliography 439 Index 449 IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page vii Foreword This book deals with a subject that should have been addressed a hundred years ago. The critique of reason is an essential and primary part of any initiative for renaissance. However, in the modern Arab Renaissance (al-Nahd.ah), matters have proceeded differently; and, perhaps, this is the most important factor in its continual faltering to date. Is it possible for us to engender a renaissance with other than a renaissance mind – a reason that does not engage in a comprehensive review of its instruments, concepts, conceptions and views? If so, then this book should have been only one link in a long chain of books and research spanning a whole century. In such a situation, it would have most certainly benefited from the works preceding it. It would have been informed by them, avoided repeating their errors and indeed endeavoured to contribute to the edifice they had begun to construct, even if it may have perceived that this edifice was in need of deconstruction and rebuilding. It would have been sufficient as an aspiration to inaugurate a new discourse in a subject, that is not ‘new’, but rather a renewed discourse. The reality of the situation, however, is the opposite of what it should be; and the result is that we – in this work – not only suffer from the absence of previous pioneering or other subsequent attempts but instead suffer to an even greater degree from the effects of this dearth and its reflection on the subject itself. During the past one-hundred years, there have been conceptions and opinions and ‘theories’ dedicated to Arab culture in its various branches, including those that have delineated particular readings of the history of this culture – Orientalist readings, salafist readings, nationalist or Leftist ones – oriented by previous models or IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page viii viii THE FORMATION OF ARAB REASON capricious and circumstantial ideological influences which led them to give attention only to what they desired to ‘discover’ or to ‘prove’. When Arab reason (al-ʿaql al-ʿarabi¯), in the sense which we intend here, is the reason which was formed and shaped within Arab culture, and which itself is – at the same time – that which endeavoured to produce and reproduce it, then the requisite critique – or at least as we wish it to be – demands liberation from the imprisonment of prevailing readings and considering the givens of Arab-Islamic culture in its various branches without being bound by the pervading points of view. From this standpoint, the dual task that inspires this initiative to inau- gurate work is: directing attention towards the history of Arab-Islamic culture, on the one hand, and an initial consideration of the entity of the Arab reason and its instruments, on the other. Thus, the initiative is divided into two separate yet complementary parts: one dealing with ‘the forma- tion of Arab reason’ and the other with the analysis of the structure of Arab reason. The first is dominated by formative analysis and the second entails structural analysis. Let us take a brief look at the first part of this book, while indicating the necessary clarifications. This part is comprised of two sections: the first consists of preliminary approaches and resembles an introduction and initial remarks. The second is an analysis of the components of Arab culture and, moreover, the forma- tion of Arab reason itself. It may have been necessary to begin with com - parisons by means of which and through which we define our general conception of the subject: What do we mean by ‘Arab reason’? What is its relation to Arab culture? What is the nature of the ‘movement’ in this culture and how is its time delimited (i.e., its relative cultural timeframe)? Subsequently, how we should posit – chronologically – the problem of the beginning: the beginning of the formation of Arab reason and the culture to which it belonged? And to what authoritative frame of reference should it be connected? The matter pertains, then, to defining the subject and tracing the features of the view upon which we depend, along with acknowl- edging the content of some operative concepts employed in the research. The discussion in these matters takes up the first three chapters. As for the second part of this book, we move the research into the components of Arab culture, the epistemological systems that underpin it and conflict within it. Our aim in this initial phase of the research is to summarise and excerpt these systems as being methods and visions and not to study them for their own sake – that which will constitute the subject of the second part of this book. In this process of ‘excerpting’, IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page ix Foreword ix we have charted a formative course and followed the ‘development’ of Arab culture as a whole – from the beginning we have carefully selected the branches of this culture – nah.w (syntax), fiqh (jurisprudence), kalaˉm (theology), balaˉghah(rhetoric), Sufism and philosophy – as interconnecting and conjoined rooms of a single palace, where some lead to others through doorways and windows – and not as separate tents in remove, erected on a plain without fences or corrals, as in the case of the prevailing view. We have engaged in a foray within the passageways of Arab culture, a critical tour, directing our attention during it towards the foundations of these passageways and their supporting columns, and not towards their exhibition. However, there was no doubt, when traversing formative horizons, about the necessity of dealing in some sort of way with the material substrate of knowledge and its hidden ideological content. Research into the ‘forma- tion of Arab reason’ is the subject of this part of the book, and it demands attention, as we have stated, towards the history of Arab culture, towards its origins and divisions, towards its bases as well as its paths. If culture, any culture, is in its essence a political process, then Arab culture – in particular – has never been, at any time, independent or above political and social conflicts; but, rather, it was continuously the primary field in which these struggles transpired. Cultural hegemony was the first point, and at times, the single one, recorded on the schedule of works of every political or religious movement. In fact, every social force aspired to political control or desired to preserve control. It was from this standpoint that an organic relation developed between the ideological struggle and the epis- temological clash in Arab culture; and, it is a relation that we could not ignore or minimise its significance or its effect, as in doing so the analysis would lose its formative dimension – that which confers upon the subject its historicity. If we take into complete consideration that this organic relationship came about between ideology and epistemology in Arab culture in regard to formation, this obliges us to be aware at every moment of the sides of the struggle – the thing which enables us, or so we imagine, to be liber- ated from the ‘official’ history of Arab culture, which involves the culture supervised by the state or that rotating in its orbit and which ignores or is oblivious to the ‘counter-culture’ – the culture of opposition. And, in the best of conditions, it exhibits it – disconnected and removed – on the margins of ‘history’ – this is, at a time when one of the two cultures was delimited, at every moment, by and through its relation with the other. There was no doubt, then, about taking them into consideration together IBT034 - Arab Reason_part 1 9/12/10 16:08 Page x x THE FORMATION OF ARAB REASON from the perspective of action and reaction. Here we would hope that the committed, engaged reader will understand in one way or another – either consciously or unconsciously – the struggles and conflicts of the past. We have spoken here without any complexes and without preconceptions. It was not our goal and never our intention to secure victory for one side over the other – as we consider the past to belong to all, and we see that its struggles should be put behind all, neither should they remain with them nor before them. Just as it is not possible to separate culture from politics in the ex - perience of Arab culture – otherwise its history would have come to exhibit scattered disparate things without a spirit or a life of their own – so it would have been impossible while we were searching for the formation of Arab reason to ignore the unreasonable and irrational in order to pay attention to the rational alone. Rather, we have followed both of them together in their growth and their mutual influence; and, more than that and more importantly – in our view – we did not attempt to grasp reason- ableness in any form for this or that piece of the unreasonable in Arab culture. Instead, we have respected the nature of each piece and have connected it to the structure – the primordial origin from which it branches and to which it belongs. Finally, it must be indicated that we have consciously chosen to deal with ‘scholastic’ culture alone; we have left aside the popular culture of parables, stories, superstitions, myths and so on because our initiative is a critical one, because our subject is reason and because the issue with which we side is rationality. We do not, here, assume the stance of an anthropo- logical researcher whose subject remains before him perpetually as a subject; but instead, we assume towards our subject the position of the aware, self- conscious, subjective self. Our subject is not a subject for us except to the extent that the self is a subject for itself in a process of self-criticism. Our project is a goal, then; and, we do not practise criticism for the sake of criticism but rather for the sake of liberation from what is dead and petri- fied in the entity of our reason and our cultural heritage. The goal is to open the way for life so that its cycles can continue within us and so that it can re-cultivate its seeds within us . . . and perhaps it may do this soon. Casa Blanca, February 1983 Mohammed Abed al-Jabri College of Literature, Rabat