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The Origins of Arab Nationalism
The Origins of Arab Nationalism contains the most recent revisionist scholarship on the rise of Arab nationalsim that began with the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The various contributors, including C. Ernest Down, Mahmoud Haddad, Reeva Simon, and Beth Baron, provide an unusually broad survey of the Arab world at the turn on the century, permitting a comparison of developments in a variety of settings from Syria and Egypt to the Hijaz, Libya, and Iraq.
The various contributors, including C. Ernest Down, Mahmoud Haddad, Reeva Simon, and Beth Baron, provide an unusually broad survey of the Arab world at the turn on the century, permitting a comparison of developments in a variety of settings from Syria and Egypt to the Hijaz, Libya, and Iraq.
325 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1991
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About the author
Rashid Khalidi
26 books934 followersRashid Ismail Khalidi (Arabic: رشيد إسماعيل خالدي; born 18 November 1948) is a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East and the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He served as editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies from 2002 until 2020, when he became co-editor with Sherene Seikaly.
He has authored a number of books, including The Hundred Years' War on Palestine and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness; has served as president of the Middle East Studies Association; and has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, Georgetown University, and the University of Chicago.
For his work on the Middle East, Professor Khalidi has received fellowships and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.
In October 2010, Khalidi delivered the annual Edward Said memorial lecture at the Palestine Center in Washington. He is the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Colombia University. On October 8, 2024, Khalidi retired from Columbia University citing the university's crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protests, which he had vocally supported, and the transformation of the university into a "hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education" as reasons for his retirement.
He has authored a number of books, including The Hundred Years' War on Palestine and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness; has served as president of the Middle East Studies Association; and has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, Georgetown University, and the University of Chicago.
For his work on the Middle East, Professor Khalidi has received fellowships and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.
In October 2010, Khalidi delivered the annual Edward Said memorial lecture at the Palestine Center in Washington. He is the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Colombia University. On October 8, 2024, Khalidi retired from Columbia University citing the university's crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protests, which he had vocally supported, and the transformation of the university into a "hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education" as reasons for his retirement.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 9, 2013
The Origins of Arab Nationalism focuses on the pre-World War I development of nationalism in the Arab world with a goal of addressing some of the controversies and issues that have developed in recent scholarship. As editor Rashid Khalidi’s essay suggests, the study of early Arab nationalism has gone through three phases: the writings of the participants and their contemporaries, a building upon or contradicting of these original ideas, and the current era of revisionist critique. This collection contains essays from not only a handful of the emerging scholars in this third phase, but also from distinguished scholars of earlier periods such as Khalidi and C. Ernest Dawn, who provide contributions that revise or expand upon some of their earlier views.
Without assessing each article on an individual basis, some general comments can be made. The contributions span a wide variety of topics and nations, with perhaps the most interesting being Lisa Anderson’s work on Libya, a rarely examined nation in broader collections such as this. Perhaps because her area of focus is lesser known, Anderson’s essay is more involved and engaging than most, although nearly all have a different perspective or esoteric topic that helps keep the reader’s attention from beginning to end. It is also interesting that some of the articles in the first half of the book contradict, or at least dispute the points of, other authors that are included in the volume. Dawn, for example, takes issue with some of the conclusions in Khalidi’s earlier works. There is even disagreement between the two within the volume: Dawn argues that Arabism was the product of intra-Arab elite conflict and a response to a pre-Young Turk system, while Khalidi and a companion article by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu see it as a reaction to a long-standing CUP plan to impose Turkism. A later work by Mahmoud Haddad attributes it in large part to European encroachment. An overarching theme, and something that all the scholars agree upon, however, is that the existence of Arab nationalism in the prewar period was downplayed too much in the writings of the second generation, and that part of the problem is that they drew lines that were too distinct between Ottomanism and Arabism. This also leads to the issue of the word “Arabism” itself: the way in which one defines this word (as referring to only a purely separatist phenomenon, for example) affects how one sees its existence prior to World War I.
In terms of weaknesses, perhaps the most glaring one is that the collection comes off as having had a lack of rigorous editorial oversight. Aside from typos and a few small factual errors (like the lifespan of one of the intellectuals mentioned), a significant problem in a few of the articles is the lack of a clear organizational structure. In one article I could not discern what the thesis was, let alone find any introduction or conclusion. Also, while it may be unfair to compare this volume to one that I read earlier (Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East), I did find these articles to be less engaging on the whole and ultimately less able to encourage a shift in perspective. Part of the blame lies in the lack of structure mentioned earlier, which sometimes led to prose-lists of fact after fact and name after name that were not clearly centered around a main idea. This makes it more difficult to retain information or to have one’s thoughts coalesce around a fresh theory. Overall, this volume is a decent introduction to the thinking of third generation scholars on pre-World War I Arab nationalism, but these academics and their ideas have, for the most part, been better expressed elsewhere. Any scholar of the subject can certainly glean important information from this text, but they are unlikely to discover anything revolutionary.
Without assessing each article on an individual basis, some general comments can be made. The contributions span a wide variety of topics and nations, with perhaps the most interesting being Lisa Anderson’s work on Libya, a rarely examined nation in broader collections such as this. Perhaps because her area of focus is lesser known, Anderson’s essay is more involved and engaging than most, although nearly all have a different perspective or esoteric topic that helps keep the reader’s attention from beginning to end. It is also interesting that some of the articles in the first half of the book contradict, or at least dispute the points of, other authors that are included in the volume. Dawn, for example, takes issue with some of the conclusions in Khalidi’s earlier works. There is even disagreement between the two within the volume: Dawn argues that Arabism was the product of intra-Arab elite conflict and a response to a pre-Young Turk system, while Khalidi and a companion article by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu see it as a reaction to a long-standing CUP plan to impose Turkism. A later work by Mahmoud Haddad attributes it in large part to European encroachment. An overarching theme, and something that all the scholars agree upon, however, is that the existence of Arab nationalism in the prewar period was downplayed too much in the writings of the second generation, and that part of the problem is that they drew lines that were too distinct between Ottomanism and Arabism. This also leads to the issue of the word “Arabism” itself: the way in which one defines this word (as referring to only a purely separatist phenomenon, for example) affects how one sees its existence prior to World War I.
In terms of weaknesses, perhaps the most glaring one is that the collection comes off as having had a lack of rigorous editorial oversight. Aside from typos and a few small factual errors (like the lifespan of one of the intellectuals mentioned), a significant problem in a few of the articles is the lack of a clear organizational structure. In one article I could not discern what the thesis was, let alone find any introduction or conclusion. Also, while it may be unfair to compare this volume to one that I read earlier (Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East), I did find these articles to be less engaging on the whole and ultimately less able to encourage a shift in perspective. Part of the blame lies in the lack of structure mentioned earlier, which sometimes led to prose-lists of fact after fact and name after name that were not clearly centered around a main idea. This makes it more difficult to retain information or to have one’s thoughts coalesce around a fresh theory. Overall, this volume is a decent introduction to the thinking of third generation scholars on pre-World War I Arab nationalism, but these academics and their ideas have, for the most part, been better expressed elsewhere. Any scholar of the subject can certainly glean important information from this text, but they are unlikely to discover anything revolutionary.
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October 10, 2025Abdul Hamid’s Turkification was in pursuit of political centralization (administrative and military), so Arabism then was not nationalistic.
Arabism grew nationalistic after the Young Turk revolution, as the Turkification became nationalistic, coupled with fears of growing European influence. Thus developed the outsized demand for decentralization, as well as occasional calls for the creation of an Arab kingdom within the Empire.
Arabism grew nationalistic after the Young Turk revolution, as the Turkification became nationalistic, coupled with fears of growing European influence. Thus developed the outsized demand for decentralization, as well as occasional calls for the creation of an Arab kingdom within the Empire.
February 9, 2024
Great collection of essays. Gives a good insight into Modern Arab thought. Good broad coverage of the Arab World.
April 19, 2021
Idk my brain glazes over the word “Ottomanism” and all that is Turk as a matter of genetic virtue so half this shit was static to me but it’s a good textbook I guess
June 21, 2023
Arap milliyetçiliğine dair oldukça önemli akademisyenlerin yazılarını derleyen bir kitap. Özellikle C. Ernest Dawn ve M. Şükri Hanioğlu'nun makalelerine bakılmalı. Bunun yanında kitabın Introduction bölümü de başlı başına bir ders bölümü olabilecek nitelikte.
June 1, 2014
This collection of essays are an important addition to the research pertaining previous Arab-Ottoman provinces and the relationship between arabs and the ottomans.It rather dispels the wide-held notion that most arabs called for a separation from the empire. Most arab nationalists took a reformative approach regarding politics and called for more political, cultural and linguistic autonomy in the empire.
Arab nationalism itself was most active in Syria amongst the newly rising class and totally absent from Egypt politics bar the two examples of Abbas Hilmi II and Azis ali al misri. The departure of loyalty to Ottomans in Libya came from the latter's failure to defend the the country against the Italian colonialism rather any existent arab nationalists beliefs. The little opposition to the Ottomans in Egypt was defined by Egyptian nationalistic feelings.The unlikeliest bearer of arab nationalism came from the Hijaz. That too, was more of pursuit of power by Sharif Husayn who lost his political prestige in arabia to the rising Al Saud. Arab nationalism here was a tool to consolidate power as an alternative to Ottomans....because the shared religion could not have been the decisive factor here.
I could go and on ....its a beneficial read.
Arab nationalism itself was most active in Syria amongst the newly rising class and totally absent from Egypt politics bar the two examples of Abbas Hilmi II and Azis ali al misri. The departure of loyalty to Ottomans in Libya came from the latter's failure to defend the the country against the Italian colonialism rather any existent arab nationalists beliefs. The little opposition to the Ottomans in Egypt was defined by Egyptian nationalistic feelings.The unlikeliest bearer of arab nationalism came from the Hijaz. That too, was more of pursuit of power by Sharif Husayn who lost his political prestige in arabia to the rising Al Saud. Arab nationalism here was a tool to consolidate power as an alternative to Ottomans....because the shared religion could not have been the decisive factor here.
I could go and on ....its a beneficial read.
December 17, 2016
Incredible selection of essays. Clearly a formative text for studying Arab nationalism.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews