Affiliation:
1. Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Leipzig, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
Abstract
This paper critically discusses the pioneering formulation of secularity and secularism in the Arab-Islamicate world(s) found in Butrus al-Bustani’s The Clarion of Syria (1860–1861). This discussion is conceptually based on the distinction between ‘secularity’ as an analytical concept, and ‘secularism’ as a normative and ideological concept. Here, secularity is understood to refer to (structural) distinctions, whether practical or theoretical or cognitive, between the religious and the non-religious. Secularism refers to the ideological promotion of such a differentiation and distinction between religion and, in particular, politics or the state. This paper provides a conceptual analysis of secularity, secularism, and secularization, highlighting the differences between them, as well as the epistemological and methodological requirements for drawing a distinction between them in modern and contemporary Arab thought. It also reflects on the linguistic and historical context, looking at the concepts of secularity and secularism in Arab thought prior to al-Bustani’s The Clarion of Syria.
Reference68 articles.
1. Did Premodern Muslims Distinguish the Religious and Secular? The Dīn—Dunyā Binary in Medieval Islamic Thought;Abbasi;Journal of Islamic Studies,2020
2. Abdo, Ibrahim (1948). ʾAʿlam al-Sahafa al-ʿArabiyya, Maktaba al-ʾAdab. [2nd ed.].
3. The Christians between Ottomanism and Syrian Nationalism: The Ideas of Butrus al-Bustani;International Journal of Middle East Studies,1980
4. Ahrari, Mohammed E. (1996). Change and Continuity in the Middle East: Conflict Resolution and Prospects for Peace, Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Keddie, Nikki R., and Algar, Hamid (1968). Nikki R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings by Jamal al-Din “al-Afghani”, University of California Press.