Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950

by Marwa Elshakry

In Reading Darwin in Arabic , Marwa Elshakry questions current ideas about Islam, science, and secularism by exploring the ways in which Darwin was read in Arabic from the late 1860s to the mid-twentieth century. Borrowing from translation and reading studies and weaving together the history of science with intellectual history, she explores Darwin’s global appeal from the perspective of several generations of Arabic readers and shows how Darwin’s writings helped alter the social and epistemological landscape of the Arab learned classes.

           

Providing a close textual, political, and institutional analysis of the tremendous interest in Darwin’s ideas and other works on evolution, Elshakry shows how, in an age of massive regional and international political upheaval, these readings were suffused with the anxieties of empire and civilizational decline. The politics of evolution infiltrated Arabic discussions of pedagogy, progress, and the very sense of history. They also led to a literary and conceptual transformation of notions of science and religion themselves. Darwin thus became a vehicle for discussing scriptural exegesis, the conditions of belief, and cosmological views more broadly. The book also acquaints readers with Muslim and Christian intellectuals, bureaucrats, and theologians, and concludes by exploring Darwin’s waning influence on public and intellectual life in the Arab world after World War I.

           

Reading Darwin in Arabic is an engaging and powerfully argued reconceptualization of the intellectual and political history of the Middle East.

Genres: History, Science, Middle East, Islam, Religion, Nonfiction, History Of Science

448 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2013

Reviews

[Justin Michael James Dell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have ever read on the Nahda. Elshakry uses Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection, and its reception in the Ottoman Levant in the late nineteenth century, as a case study in how the Ottomans grappled with the problem of how to modernize their 'civilization' along Western lines while remaining true to their Eastern religious and cultural heritage. In many respects, "Darwin" was the watchword of the late nineteenth century, and the theories associated with that name stood in the popular imagination as paragons of the inexorable advance of "scientific" knowledge and the "truths" that this knowledge unlocked, allegedly for the first time in history.

The twinned Darwinian ideas of natural selection and evolution provided Ottomans with both the diagnostic tools to make sense of their empire's dire plight at the end of the nineteenth century, as well as the prescription for its regeneration and renewal. The dominance of the Western European nations over Eastern ones appeared to confirm the Darwinian notion that the strong overpower the weak. However, the notion of evolution - gradual adaptation through reform, not revolution - appeared to suggest to the Ottomans that their empire, given the proper institutions, could "evolve" to the point where it could stay and even repulse the intrusion of European power and influence into Ottoman lands.

Elshakry provides a fascinating window into how Darwin was received by both Christians and Muslims just as his theories were gaining momentum in the popular imagination and in the scientific community around the world. Although today, Darwin's name is often evoked as a 'blow' to religion and theism, especially by atheist activists like Richard Dawkins, Elshakry probes rich primary source evidence to indicate that many, perhaps even most, Christian and Muslim thinkers in the Ottoman Empire, including those associated with institutions of higher learning like Syrian Protestant College, initially had a sanguine view of Darwin's theories, viewing them as articulations of scientific laws established by a Creator, much like the law of gravity. Of course, over time, the ramifications of Darwin's theories were fleshed out and taken to (one might say) their logical conclusion, and the use of Darwin by radical materialists for this purpose would eventually antagonize some Christians and Muslims and diminish their enthusiasm for Darwin.

Elshakry runs the gamut of Nahda reformers - men like Jamal a-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad 'Abduh - and elucidates how each reformer wrestled with, modulated and appropriated Darwin's theories in calling for the saving of the Ottoman Empire (or Islamic civilization, depending on the perspective) from annihilation. What comes to light in Elshakry's text is that Darwin's theories were ambiguous enough that they could be claimed by almost anyone of any political or religious persuasion at the turn of the twentieth century. Not only were the tenets of Darwinism debated, but the epistemology that led to their "discovery" was the subject of heated disagreement as well. Certain Islamic scholars, most notably Muhammad 'Abduh, made the whimsical case that evolution and natural selection had been discovered by Europeans because they had unwittingly applied an essentially 'Islamic' inquisitiveness to scientific discovery that Christianity, he alleged, stultified. What all Nahda reformers appear to have agreed on was that society would have to be reformed and restructured according to a new worldview shaped by the axioms of Darwin's theory.

Elshakry's text is valuable, in my opinion, for three primary reasons: (1) First, it is very well written in perspicuous prose. I was able to read it in one day. (2) It is delightfully comprehensive and thorough, covering a broad span of time in sufficient detail to give the reader a sense of the 'big picture' and the general contours of the history of Darwin's reception in the Near East. (3) Finally, with about one hundred pages of footnotes, this is an impeccably researched monograph.

[عبـد الرَّحْمَٰن فَتْحــي · Rating 3 out of 5]

الحمد لله.
قرأت ثلثيه ثم قررت التوقف على أمل العودة في المستقبل، وليس ذا من عيبٍ في الكتاب ذاته، بل الكتاب ثري وبه مجهود طيّب، لكنه لا يلامس اهتماماتي في الوقت الحالي، وقد وجدتني بدأت أتجاوز الصفحات بصبرٍ نفد على أمل أن أجد شيئا فيه يحفزني على الاستمرار.

ينصح به للباحثين والمهتمين بالكيفية التي تلقى بها القراء العرب والمسلمون أفكار داروين وسبنسر، وأثرها على عدد من الأعلام، مثل الافغاني ومحمد عبده وحسين الجسر ورشيد رضا.

كما به تأريخ ممتع لظهور الجرائد العلمية "البوب ساينس العربي" كالمقتطف مع لمحات عديدة عن محرريها يعقوب صروف وفارس نمر وأفكارهما عن العلم الحديث وضرورة نقله وتبسيطه للقراء العرب وشرارة التعريف بالعلم التجريبي ودارون بالأخص.

[Tariq Almubarak · Rating 5 out of 5]

  إضافة مروة الشاكري الأساسية في هذا الكتاب هي ملاحظة كيف كانت تتم قراءة الأفكار الحديثة-النشوء والارتقاء كنموذج- الواردة على العالم العربي في القرن التاسع عشر ومطلع القرن العشرين: من حيث السياقات والنقاشات السابقة والموازية التي تفهم هذه الأفكار في ضوءها
وشبكة المعاني التي تحيط بها.
الإحالات كثيفة ومثرية للقارئ يسندها إطلاع واسع من المؤلفة على منابع الموضوع.
هناك توسع واستطراد ليس ضروريا لسياقات بعض الأشخاص والأحداث، وأيضا مركزية مبالغ فيها لمجلة المقتطف، كلاهما ربما نتاج لنمط السرد القصصي الذي لم ينج منه كتابها.
أخيرا: الطبعة العربية حذفت الهوامش والببليوغرافيا من آخر الكتاب، وهذا عيب في نشر الكتاب مستغرب من دار تجشمت عناء ترجمة الكتاب

[أسامة بوجبارة · Rating 5 out of 5]

الكتاب ليس عن نظرية داروين كما قد يتوهم القاريء من العنوان ..

بل هو بحث شامل وماتع يوثق تطور مشهد الثقافي في العالم العربي منذ أن انفتح القارئ العربي على العلوم الحديثة, وتزامن ذلك مع التغيرات الاجتماعية والسياسية في نهاية الدولة العثمانية .

ثم تسلط المؤلفة الضوء على كيفية تفاعل العالم العربي (المسيحي بالبداية ثم الإسلامي) مع نظرية داروين.

الكتاب مكتوب بعناية وكان للكاتبة نفس أكاديمي طويل لتجمع مادته النادرة.

[Baher Soliman · Rating 4 out of 5]

يطرح هذا الكتاب قضية مهمة وهي تجليّات نظرية داروين في الفكر العربي، بمعنى كيف ظهرت أفكار داروين في البيئة الثقافية العربية، بل وما هي نقاط الاختلاف والاتفاق بين داروين والأعمال التي تصدّرت حلقات القراءة بجانبه.

ربما عليك وأنت تقرأ هذا البحث الدقيق لمروة شاكري أن تضع الهزيمة الفكرية والنفسية للنخبة العربية أمام التطور العلمي الغربي، وكذا الأوضاع السياسية المتدهورة للدولة العثمانية منذ ثمانينات القرن التاسع عشر كخلفية لكل ما ستقرأه من نزاعات فكرية مادية، وأفكار تستلهم نظرية داروين إما بشكل كامل وإما بشكل مجتزأ، فقراءة داروين - كما يؤكد الكتاب- تزامنت مع اشتداد التنافس الإمبريالي وتراجع النفوذ العثماني .

في ظل هذه الأوضاع كان مقدرًا لمجلة من أشهر المجلات المؤيدة لوجود الإحتلال البريطاني في مصر أن تلعب دورًا مهمًا وحيويًا في نشر أفكار داروين، وهي مجلة " المقتطف" التي أدخلت أفكار داروين إلى الشارع العربي قبل ترجمة كتاب " أصل الأنواع" فعليًا إلى العربية.

سيكون لمجلة المقتطف وما دار على صفحاتها من معارك، وما نُشر على صفحاتها من مقالات تروّج للتطور الحضور الدائم من أول صفحة في الكتاب إلى آخر صفحة، ومنشآ المقتطف هما " يعقوب صروف" و " فارس نمر" وهما من معلمي الكلية السورية الإنجيلية، وهنا ملاحظة يؤكدها الكتاب أن قراءة داروين في البداية اقترنت خلال سنواتها الأولى بجهود الإرساليات في الدعوة إلى المسيحية، فمما يذكره الكتاب أن المبشرين في الكليات الإنجيلية كانوا يتخذون العلم وسيلة لنشر المسيحية لبيان سمو العقيدة البروتستانتية، ومع ذلك لم يكن البروتستانتي " يعقوب صروف" مؤمنًا بكل ما في نظرية داروين لاسيما ما هو متعلق بأصل الإنسان.

على كل حال كان فارس نمر ويعقوب صروف يهدفان إلى تشكيل مجتمع جديد ورجال جدد من خلال مجلة المقتطف التي كان يكتب فيها شبلي شميل وسلامة موسى و جورجي زيدان، وسينقل الكتاب - بجهد مشكور حقيقة- طبيعة تلك المقالات وموضوعتها التي كانت تُنشر على صفحات المقتطف آنذاك، وسيحاول الكتاب الربط بين السياسة والمقتطف من خلال علاقة نمر وصروف المتينة مع الإنجليز، أو فكريًا من خلال التأثر بالفيلسوف الإنجليزي " هربرت سبنسر" وهو من مريدي نظرية التطور، فكان ينظر للمجتمع باعتباره كائن حي ينمو وفق نواميس النشوء والارتقاء ، فلم يكن أمام قراء العربية سوى المقتطف للتعرف على أفكار داروين وسبنسر، وسيظهر أثر سبنسر فيما بعد - كما يرصد الكتاب - في أفكار الشيخ محمد عبده.

كان محمد عبده من معجبي سبنسر ووصفه بأنه " أعظم فلاسفة العصر الحديث" ، ورغم أن مروة شاكري تقول أن محمد عبده لم يقل رأيه المفصل في نظرية التطور، إلا أنها تشير أنه تكلم عن التطور وداروين كلامًا إيجابيًا في المطلق، على كل حال يرصد الكتاب حالة السجال من قبل الشيخ عبده حول نظرية التطور، فيبدو أن الكلية السورية الإنجيلية استشعرت خطورة نظرية داروين فيما بعد، فكتب أحد أعلامها وهو " إبراهيم الحوراني" في نقد مادية شبلي شميل، وهذا الأخير من النشوئيين العرب المدافعين عن داروين وكذا عن نظرية التولد الذاتي.

على الجانب الإسلامي كان هناك " حسين الجسر" الذي أظهر رسالة في إبطال مذهب الدهريين، وهناك ملاحظة مهمة يقدمها الكتاب أن الجسر استفاد من ردود علماء اللاهوت، فقد طالع مقالات الحوراني كما تردد على مكتبة الكلية السورية الإنجيلية، بل يزعم الكتاب أيضًا أن الجسر تأثر في نقده بأحد الكتاب الكاثوليك السوريين وهو " فرنسيس فتح الله مرّاش" لكن بدون دليل حقيقي يقدمه الكتاب.

يستمر الكتاب في فصول ممتعة في رصد دور إسماعيل مظهر بترجمته لكتاب "أصل الأنواع" في الترويج للتطور ، ويوضح رد محمد فريد وجدي عليه من خلال مجلة الأزهر ، وكذا دور سلامة موسى في الترويج للاشتراكية النشوئية، ورغم أن الكتاب تحاشى وصف بعض هذه النخب بالإلحاد رغم إلحادها الظاهر، إلا أن قيمة الكتاب الحقيقية في تصورى في رصده لبدايات الفكر التطوري في الكتابات العربية، سواء عند الماديين العرب أو الحداثيين منهم.

[Ibrahim Eid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Darwin in Arabic is an essential book for anyone interested in the Nahda. Besides being very well-written, it leverages primary and secondary sources across three languages (French, Arabic, and English) to draw conclusions of the milieu of Arab thought between 1860 to 1950. It reads very well, and also allows people to see the key actors whose ideas underpinned revolutionary events in the Middle East before World War I.

One of the striking revelations that Marwa El-Shakry pushes forward is the ability for Darwin’s theories on evolution to transcend their original biological context, and shift towards other meanings that adapt to its time. It is tempting to restrict Darwin’s ideas as subversive only to religion and whether it disproves God’s existence—it is a question that Darwin himself was ambiguous about. And whereas the United States is remembered to teach Creationism in schools, and going so far as publicizing the Scopes Trial to emphasize disdain over teaching evolution in schools, the Arab world was more receptive to his ideas of evolution, comparing them to previous ideas pushed by medieval Muslim scholars in response to theories like Greek Atomism or arguments pushed by the Mu’tazilites.

When seen in this narrative of events, Darwin’s ideas of the origin of mankind were not as groundbreaking; instead, they reinvigorated long-standing arguments that have been pushed for a long time. As El-Shakry demonstrates, scholars from all sides of the ontological debate leveraged Darwin’s ideas to fit within their already pre-established frameworks of religion. Religious reactionaries like Muhammad Abdou and Shaykh Hussayn Al-Jisr tied evolution to the impossibility of Creatio ex nihilo (in other words, the need for a first mover) and the Teleological argument. More secular or material proponents like, Farah Antun and Shibli Shumayyil, used them to emphasize alternative explanations for the world’s complexities. El-Shakry dedicates a few chapters to this discussion, leaving the reader amazed in the elaborate depths of all sides of the arguments to answering the intricate question of “Does God exist in light of these new findings?”. El-Shakry does a great job highlighting the contours of these arguments in chapters three, four, and five.

Yet the full depths of Darwin’s ideas can be realized when they transcend from thinking of how “organisms” evolve, to how “social organisms” like institutions or ideas evolve. El-Shakry dedicates a great deal of the book to discussing how Darwin’s ideas were enmeshed in a series of reforms that aimed to resolve the crisis plaguing the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, Darwin’s ideas were conducive to providing explanations for the West’s newfound hegemony and decline of the East, alongside equipping Arab intellectuals with questions of modernity, reform, and identity in light of these new circumstances. In a sense, Darwin’s ideas contributed to the evolution of other Arabic ideas that aimed to bridge the religious, social, and political gaps needed to improve the Middle East, namely by defining a chronology of time that can only proceed if the Arab World adapted to its circumstances and won its competitive struggle.

In the first chapter, the book highlights the seeds that were planted before these discussions could be harvested. The book takes the time to discuss the Arabic journal Al-Muqtataf (“The Extract”), whose goal was to translate key scientific findings in the West into commensurable terms and ideas in the Arab East. Moreover, it highlights the indispensable role of Christian missionary schools in Lebanon and Syria towards equipping the upcoming generations with the needed skills to read, write, and think critically on scientific ideas. These schools were closer to Jerusalem and gained traction in Ottoman Syria, increasing enrollment from a few hundreds in the 1830s to a few thousands in the 1880s.

Though there were many underlying goals that went towards these schools’ mission, not all of them were secular. El-Shakry cites that the main motivation stemmed from tying faith in God’s intelligent design when displaying the deep complexities of the universe. In other words, in demonstrating the Teleological argument. Moreover, the rise of industry in the Middle East meant that the future leaders of the Middle East were going to be people who were equipped with a deep sense of Western science and education. And who better to lead than Christians. These factors, in turn, encouraged these missionary schools to invest a lot of resources towards educating future generations of the Middle East—and also help explain why Arab Christians were oftentimes more likely to be literate and educated.

Simultaneously, another force is taking place with a rapid establishment of an Arabic intelligentsia of civil servants, teachers, scholars, and technocrats, pushing ideas beyond the traditional ‘ulama'; where they would build their ideas by reading magazines like Al-Muqtataf to bridge any gaps between the two worlds. Al-Muqtataf serves as a conduit for this intelligentsia to become more familiar with Darwin’s ideas and other supporters of evolution like Herbert Spencer. Indeed, Darwin’s ideas were originally published in 1859 but The Origin of Species was not translated in Arabic, in its entirety, until 1928 by Ismail Mazhar. That 69 year gap does not indicate that Darwinism first appeared long after, however. Instead, Arab scholars understood that the terminology used throughout the book will run into issues with translation, and therefore resorted to reading the work in English or French, or used translated excerpts, summaries, and arguments to further develop their ideas. El-Shakry devotes chapter five to this subject as she exposes the inherent, yet strange, paradoxes with trying to translate a dense, scientific work into a distant language.

The second and fifth chapter contextualize Darwin with big political ideas like “The Eastern Question,” which asks what is to be done with a declining Ottoman Empire, and the rise of socialism in the Middle East. For context, Karl Marx’s Capital was not translated until 1947, yet like the Origin of Species, his ideas were integrated into broader discussions of how a social organism ought to evolve from its current plight of economic troubles under imperialism into a utopia, which some writers like Salama Musa or Antun borrowed from socialism, communism, and nationalism. The melange of ideas were even more significant when reflecting how they were manifested in the sweeping movements in the Middle East after World War I.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow I read the whole thing and lots of amazing points- I certainly feel like I have a better understanding of some other countries' science programs; military; current interaction with US. Wish there were more photos and direct translations - those were amusing and added a visual context that made all arguments stronger.

[Kristine Gift · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting topic; got a little dull for me in the middle, but Elshakry on the whole does a wonderful job of showing us the key players in translating and popularizing Darwin and evolutionary theory in the Middle East (predominately Egypt, but also Lebanon and elsewhere) as well as demonstrating the difficulty in translating not only literally but conceptually into Arabic. Fascinating read.

[Mohammad Aboomar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elshakry's book is great scholarship on a topic that is getting much less attention than it deserves. It excels in providing an elaborate and detailed context for the topic she is discussing. She obviously covered a lot of ground in various directions.

What I personally found wanting can be summarized in two points: first, that she didn't have clear boundaries between the biology of evolution and the use of evolutionary ideas to handle social issues; and second, that she was quite heavy handed in using biographies of notable players as a vehicle to push her narrative forwards.

The result of these two shortcomings is a book that is very interesting to read but very difficult to follow, as it lacks a clear and organized hierarchy. Many of the ideas discussed are sprinkled throughout different parts of the book (a clear example of this is the discussion of Tafsir Ilmi).

[Mustafa Hamdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pioneering metatextual treatise by Marwa Elshakry although superfluous in some parts of the book. It follows 19th century contemporary discussions about Nahda and Colonialism in late Ottoman era by examining the echoes of modern materialism, effect of Angelical missionaries in Syria, response of Sharia men and the big dreams of Islamic theological reformers. The discussion is at first centered upon Darwin theory and Darwinism, but this starting point eventually expands to involve the whole knowledge , pedagogy and truth in the nineteenth century.

[Osama K Mahmood · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a required reading for one of my freshman year classes at NYU. Thoroughly uninteresting and dry.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and eye-opening. Highly recommend for anyone interested in religion and science.