Western science and educational reform in the thought of Shaykh Rifa⊂a al-Tahtawi

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 28, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 543-564

  Livingston, John W ^a  

^a WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040794313     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743800063820     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. ⊂Attar's career, see Peter Gran, The Roots of Islamic Capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1840 (Austin, Tex., 1979).
2. ⊃l-akhbār) [Cairo (Bulaq), 1879], iii, 2. Shaykh Khalil al-Bakri, a leading shaykh who worked closely with the French during the three-year occupation, also dismissed the science and technology he saw at the institute with contempt: J. J. Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to The History of Education in Modern Egypt (London: Luzac, 1938; repr. London: Cass, 1968), 97, citing Bourrienne, Private Memoires of Napoleon Bonaparte (London, 1830), i, 279.
3. ⊃l-akhbār) [Cairo (Bulaq), 1879], iii, 2. Shaykh Khalil al-Bakri, a leading shaykh who worked closely with the French during the three-year occupation, also dismissed the science and technology he saw at the institute with contempt: J. J. Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to The History of Education in Modern Egypt (London: Luzac, 1938; repr. London: Cass, 1968), 97, citing Bourrienne, Private Memoires of Napoleon Bonaparte (London, 1830), i, 279.
4. ⊃l-akhbār) [Cairo (Bulaq), 1879], iii, 2. Shaykh Khalil al-Bakri, a leading shaykh who worked closely with the French during the three-year occupation, also dismissed the science and technology he saw at the institute with contempt: J. J. Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to The History of Education in Modern Egypt (London: Luzac, 1938; repr. London: Cass, 1968), 97, citing Bourrienne, Private Memoires of Napoleon Bonaparte (London, 1830), i, 279.
5. ⊂Attar before setting off for France in 1826, and that Egyptian intellectual history up to 1840 can be understood and interpreted without reference to the West. This conforms to Gran's intention to write the history of Egypt from 1760 to 1840 as though the West did not exist and Bonaparte never came. His object is to avoid the plague of "Orientalism," in which the Egyptian is the subject of the orientalist's "other." The result is as historically perverse as Orientalism itself: Gran, Roots of Capitalism, 197-208.
6. ⊂Attar before setting off for France in 1826, and that Egyptian intellectual history up to 1840 can be understood and interpreted without reference to the West. This conforms to Gran's intention to write the history of Egypt from 1760 to 1840 as though the West did not exist and Bonaparte never came. His object is to avoid the plague of "Orientalism," in which the Egyptian is the subject of the orientalist's "other." The result is as historically perverse as Orientalism itself: Gran, Roots of Capitalism, 197-208.
7. ⊂Attar before setting off for France in 1826, and that Egyptian intellectual history up to 1840 can be understood and interpreted without reference to the West. This conforms to Gran's intention to write the history of Egypt from 1760 to 1840 as though the West did not exist and Bonaparte never came. His object is to avoid the plague of "Orientalism," in which the Egyptian is the subject of the orientalist's "other." The result is as historically perverse as Orientalism itself: Gran, Roots of Capitalism, 197-208.
8. ⊂Attar before setting off for France in 1826, and that Egyptian intellectual history up to 1840 can be understood and interpreted without reference to the West. This conforms to Gran's intention to write the history of Egypt from 1760 to 1840 as though the West did not exist and Bonaparte never came. His object is to avoid the plague of "Orientalism," in which the Egyptian is the subject of the orientalist's "other." The result is as historically perverse as Orientalism itself: Gran, Roots of Capitalism, 197-208.
9. ⊂Attar before setting off for France in 1826, and that Egyptian intellectual history up to 1840 can be understood and interpreted without reference to the West. This conforms to Gran's intention to write the history of Egypt from 1760 to 1840 as though the West did not exist and Bonaparte never came. His object is to avoid the plague of "Orientalism," in which the Egyptian is the subject of the orientalist's "other." The result is as historically perverse as Orientalism itself: Gran, Roots of Capitalism, 197-208.
10. ⊂Alī Mubārak's Alamuddin," ed. Marwan Buheiry (Beirut: AUB Press, 1981).
11. ⊂Alī Mubārak's Alamuddin," ed. Marwan Buheiry (Beirut: AUB Press, 1981).
12. Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in The Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 82.
13. ⊂Ali Mubarak, "engaged in a major synthesis of traditional and Western knowledge." Also Gamal al-Din al-Shayyal, A History of Egyptian Historiography in the Nineteenth Century (Alexandria University Press, 1962), 23-46.
14. ⊂Ali Mubarak, "engaged in a major synthesis of traditional and Western knowledge." Also Gamal al-Din al-Shayyal, A History of Egyptian Historiography in the Nineteenth Century (Alexandria University Press, 1962), 23-46.
15. ⊃rīkh alfikr al-Mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī al-h + (Combining dot below sign)adīth (Cairo: Kitāb Hilāl, 1969), ii. 90-91.
16. ⊃rīkh alfikr al-Mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī al-h + (Combining dot below sign)adīth (Cairo: Kitāb Hilāl, 1969), ii. 90-91.
17. Youssef Choueiri, Arab History and The Nation State (London: Routledge, 1989), 15.
18. ⊂ al-Tahtawi, A Nineteenth Century Egyptian Reformer" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1976). A brief and more recent published account is Juan Cole's Colonialism and Revolution in The Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 38-52. In both works Tahtawi is seen as having rejected the ultimate underlying assumptions of the Enlightenment's political philosophy. This would parallel the pattern of his thinking when arguing for the legitimacy of Western science in Islamic education. He may have perhaps gone slightly further in his arguments reconciling Enlightenment philosophy and Islamic political tradition. In the tradition of any good philosopher or political theorist, he interprets his subject in accordance with his purpose. For example, to be in keeping with the absolutist tradition of Islamic government, he turns Montesquieu upside down when arguing that a limited absolutism is the true form of Islamic government, and claims that the three powers of government - legislative, judicial, and executive - emanate from the central power of the ruler: Cole, Colonialism and Revolution, 39. The venerable standby for Tahtawi's political thought and its place in Egyptian reformism remains Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Also informative on this subject is Leon Zolondek's "Al-Tahtawi and Political Freedom," The Muslim World 54 (1964): 90-97.
19. ⊂ al-Tahtawi, A Nineteenth Century Egyptian Reformer" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1976). A brief and more recent published account is Juan Cole's Colonialism and Revolution in The Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 38-52. In both works Tahtawi is seen as having rejected the ultimate underlying assumptions of the Enlightenment's political philosophy. This would parallel the pattern of his thinking when arguing for the legitimacy of Western science in Islamic education. He may have perhaps gone slightly further in his arguments reconciling Enlightenment philosophy and Islamic political tradition. In the tradition of any good philosopher or political theorist, he interprets his subject in accordance with his purpose. For example, to be in keeping with the absolutist tradition of Islamic government, he turns Montesquieu upside down when arguing that a limited absolutism is the true form of Islamic government, and claims that the three powers of government - legislative, judicial, and executive - emanate from the central power of the ruler: Cole, Colonialism and Revolution, 39. The venerable standby for Tahtawi's political thought and its place in Egyptian reformism remains Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Also informative on this subject is Leon Zolondek's "Al-Tahtawi and Political Freedom," The Muslim World 54 (1964): 90-97.
20. ⊂ al-Tahtawi, A Nineteenth Century Egyptian Reformer" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1976). A brief and more recent published account is Juan Cole's Colonialism and Revolution in The Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 38-52. In both works Tahtawi is seen as having rejected the ultimate underlying assumptions of the Enlightenment's political philosophy. This would parallel the pattern of his thinking when arguing for the legitimacy of Western science in Islamic education. He may have perhaps gone slightly further in his arguments reconciling Enlightenment philosophy and Islamic political tradition. In the tradition of any good philosopher or political theorist, he interprets his subject in accordance with his purpose. For example, to be in keeping with the absolutist tradition of Islamic government, he turns Montesquieu upside down when arguing that a limited absolutism is the true form of Islamic government, and claims that the three powers of government - legislative, judicial, and executive - emanate from the central power of the ruler: Cole, Colonialism and Revolution, 39. The venerable standby for Tahtawi's political thought and its place in Egyptian reformism remains Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Also informative on this subject is Leon Zolondek's "Al-Tahtawi and Political Freedom," The Muslim World 54 (1964): 90-97.
21. ⊂ al-Tahtawi, A Nineteenth Century Egyptian Reformer" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1976). A brief and more recent published account is Juan Cole's Colonialism and Revolution in The Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 38-52. In both works Tahtawi is seen as having rejected the ultimate underlying assumptions of the Enlightenment's political philosophy. This would parallel the pattern of his thinking when arguing for the legitimacy of Western science in Islamic education. He may have perhaps gone slightly further in his arguments reconciling Enlightenment philosophy and Islamic political tradition. In the tradition of any good philosopher or political theorist, he interprets his subject in accordance with his purpose. For example, to be in keeping with the absolutist tradition of Islamic government, he turns Montesquieu upside down when arguing that a limited absolutism is the true form of Islamic government, and claims that the three powers of government - legislative, judicial, and executive - emanate from the central power of the ruler: Cole, Colonialism and Revolution, 39. The venerable standby for Tahtawi's political thought and its place in Egyptian reformism remains Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Also informative on this subject is Leon Zolondek's "Al-Tahtawi and Political Freedom," The Muslim World 54 (1964): 90-97.
22. ⊃l-banīn (Cairo, 1873), 124; Altman, 172-73.
23. ⊃l-bih + (Combining dot below sign)ār (Cairo: Maktab al-Tubjiyya 1835). The book briefly describes heliocentricity, Cartesian vortices, and Newtonian gravity directly, forthrightly, and in a nonreligious tone.
24. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 172, 211, 302-3, 307.
25. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 124. Chapter 3 of Altman's dissertation provides a lengthy explication of Tahtawi's ideal of liberalism as it was woven into the actual of absolutism.
26. ⊂as + (Combining dot below sign)riyya (Cairo, 1912), 19-21; idem, Murshid, 80, 125; see also H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 113-18.
27. ⊂as + (Combining dot below sign)riyya (Cairo, 1912), 19-21; idem, Murshid, 80, 125; see also H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 113-18.
28. ⊂as + (Combining dot below sign)riyya (Cairo, 1912), 19-21; idem, Murshid, 80, 125; see also H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 113-18.
29. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 211, 328-29.
30. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwīāwī, Manāhij, 23.
31. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Murshid, 80, 125; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūt al-fikr, 117-18.
32. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Murshid, 80, 125; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūt al-fikr, 117-18.
33. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 334.
34. Ibid., 206-7.
35. Ibid., 328-29.
36. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Anwār tawfīq al-jalīl (Cairo: Bulaq, 1869), 117-18.
37. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 15-19, 185-97.
38. Ibid., 246.
39. Ibid., 201-5.
40. Ibid., 248-49.
41. Ibid., 205, 248-49; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 126-27. This idea was first broadcast in Egypt by Bonaparte and enjoyed popularity among the French Orientalists Tahtawi studied under in Paris.
42. Ibid., 205, 248-49; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 126-27. This idea was first broadcast in Egypt by Bonaparte and enjoyed popularity among the French Orientalists Tahtawi studied under in Paris.
43. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 306; idem, Manãhij, 118, 247.
44. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 306; idem, Manãhij, 118, 247.
45. ⊂Alī (Cairo, 1938), and P. N. Hamont, L'Égypte sous Mehemet Ali, 2 vols. (Paris, 1845) (vol. II for the military organization and discipline of the schools and important and vital role of the shaykhs). Also Heyworth-Dunne's Education in Modern Egypt.
46. ⊂Alī (Cairo, 1938), and P. N. Hamont, L'Égypte sous Mehemet Ali, 2 vols. (Paris, 1845) (vol. II for the military organization and discipline of the schools and important and vital role of the shaykhs). Also Heyworth-Dunne's Education in Modern Egypt.
47. ⊂Alī (Cairo, 1938), and P. N. Hamont, L'Égypte sous Mehemet Ali, 2 vols. (Paris, 1845) (vol. II for the military organization and discipline of the schools and important and vital role of the shaykhs). Also Heyworth-Dunne's Education in Modern Egypt.
48. ⊂Arabi, 1959), 140.
49. ⊂Arabi, 1959), 140.
50. ⊂Arabi, 1959), 140.
51. ⊂Arabi, 1959), 140.
52. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 247-48. Altman's dissertation analyzes Tahtawi's position between the Azhar shaykhs and the political rulers (p. 33ff.).
53. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 15.
54. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 124; idem, Manāhij, 19-24, 34.
55. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 124; idem, Manāhij, 19-24, 34.
56. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 209-11; idem, Murshid, 63; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 113.
57. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 209-11; idem, Murshid, 63; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 113.
58. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 209-11; idem, Murshid, 63; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 113.
59. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 306; idem, Manāhij, 118.
60. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 306; idem, Manāhij, 118.
61. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 248-49; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 126-27.
62. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 248-49; H + (Combining dot below sign)ijāzī, Us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-fikr, 126-27.
63. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 7-18, 201-5.
64. ⊂Ali, however, did in fact buy ships from France.
65. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Manāhij, 10.
66. Ibid., 20-21.
67. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 339.
68. Ibid., 124.
69. Ibid., 97-98, 250. Professor Gran writes in Roots of Islamic Capitalism (p. 63) that Tahtawi's break with Ptolemaic astronomy is first evident in his Kanz al-Mukhtār (see n. 11, earlier). This book indeed makes it clear Tahtawi had come around to Copernicus and Newton, especially on pp. 129-43. What Gran fails to mention is that Tahtawi rejects the modern view for the ancient toward the latter part of his life, as is evident in his Anwār tawfiq al-jalil.
70. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 112.
71. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
72. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
73. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
74. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
75. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
76. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
77. ⊂Aziz ihn Bāz, condemned Copernicanism as heresy, asserting that the true Muslim believes that the sun orbits the motionless Earth: See Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (New York: Random House, 1982), 182.
78. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 392, n. 29.
79. Ibid., 36 ff.
80. Ibid., 206.
81. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Kanz al-mukhtār.
82. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Takhlīs + (Combining dot below sign), 319.
83. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Kanz al-mukhtār, 129-30
84. T + (Combining dot below sign)aht + (Combining dot below sign)āwī, Anwar tawfīq al-jalīl, 225 ff.
85. Ibid., 231. See also Choueiri, Arab History, 15-16.
86. Ibid., 231. See also Choueiri, Arab History, 15-16.
87. The letter was from Gabriel Jabbara, a Beiruti who was Archimandrite of Antakya, and was published in the newly founded scientific monthly al-Muqtat + (Combining dot below sign)af, vol. 1, pt. 9 (April 1876): 171-74. The answering article appeared in
88. ⊂ al-Awwal, 1293/1876): 2-23.