The Arabic Language and National Identity A Study in Ideology YASIR SULEIMAN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS Suleiman_00_Prelims 11/10/02, 1:22 pm3 © Yasir Suleiman, 2003 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Goudy by Koinonia, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wilts MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall A CIP Record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 1707 8 (paperback) The right of Yasir Suleiman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. For Tamir and Sinan Suleiman_00_Prelims 11/10/02, 1:22 pm4 Acknowledgements viii 1 The Arabic Language and National Identity: Aims and Scope 1 Aims of the Study: The Disciplinary Context 1 2 What is National Identity? 4 3 Theoretical and Empirical Scope 9 4 Organization of this Book 12 2 Setting the Scene 1 Definition: The Achilles Heel 16 2 Two Modes of Defining the Nation 20 3 Two Types of Nation, Two Types of Nationalism 23 4 Language and National Identity 27 5 Conclusion 33 3 The Past Lives On 1 Introduction 38 2 In Praise of Arabic 42 3 Óikmat al-ÆArab: Wisdom of the Arabs 47 4 La˙n: Solecism 49 5 ÆAjam and ÆArab 55 6 The Arabs as a Nation (umma): Further Evidence 64 7 Conclusion 66 4 The Arabic Language Unites Us 1 Introduction 69 2 From Ottomanism to Turkism: The Turkification of the Ottoman Turks 70 3 From Ottomanism to Arabism: Preliminary Remarks 79 3.1 The Placards 82 3.2 Resisting Linguistic Turkification 85 3.3 The Intellectuals Speak 89 Contents Suleiman_00_Prelims 11/10/02, 1:22 pm5 4 Ibrahim al-Yaziji: From Immediate Aims to Underlying Motives 96 5 Conclusion 109 5 Arabic, First and Foremost 1 Introduction 113 2 Under the Banner of Arabic 117 3 SatiÆ al-Husri: Arabic, First and Foremost 126 3.1 Populism: A Question of Style 126 3.2 Nation, Language and Education 128 3.3 Defining the Arab Nation 131 3.4 Arab Nationalism and the Ideologization of Language 134 3.5 Nation, Language and Religion 140 3.6 Between the Standard and the Dialects: The Case for Linguistic Reforms 142 4 Zaki al-Arsuzi: The Genius of the Arab Nation Inheres in its Language 146 5 Conclusion 158 6 The Arabic Language and Territorial Nationalism 1 Introduction 162 2 The Arabic Language and Territorial Nationalism: Antun SaÆada and Regional Syrian Nationalism 164 3 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Early Beginnings 169 4 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Full Elaboration 174 4.1 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Salama Musa 180 4.2 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Taha Husayn 190 4.3 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Luwis ÆAwad 197 5 The Arabic Language and Lebanese Nationalism: A General Introduction 204 5.1 The Arabic Language and Lebanese Nationalism: ÆAbdalla Lahhud 207 5.2 The Arabic Language and Lebanese Nationalism: Kamal Yusuf al-Hajj 210 6 Conclusion 219 contents Suleiman_00_Prelims 11/10/02, 1:22 pm6 7 Conclusion: Looking Back, Looking Forward 1 The Arabic Language and National Identity: Looking Back 224 2 The Arabic Language and National Identity: Looking Forward 228 Notes 232 Bibliography Works in Arabic Cited in the Text 249 Works in Other Languages Cited in the Text 260 Index 270 contents Suleiman_00_Prelims 11/10/02, 1:22 pm7 This book builds on research I have carried out over the past decade. Many people have helped me during this period, not all of whom I can acknowledge here. I would however like to express my thanks to Ramzi Baalbaki, Youssef Choueiri, Rachid El-Enany, Ronak Husni, Emad Saleh, Muhammad Shaheen and Iman Soliman for their help in securing some of the works upon which this book is based. Ramzi Baalbaki’s help in securing some of Kamal Yusuf al-Hajj’s publications was crucial in expanding my discussion of Lebanese nationalism. I am particularly grateful to him. I am also grateful to Bill Donaldson, Carole Hillenbrand, Ibrahim Muhawi and Bill Roff for reading the entire manuscript and making many valuable comments. Their perceptive remarks have improved the manuscript on all fronts. I am also indebted to Ivor Normand, my copy-editor, for his meticulous reading of the text. Needless to say, the responsibility for any remaining errors is entirely mine. In carrying out the research for this book, I have benefited from a number of small grants from the British Academy, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I am grateful for this financial assistance, which enabled me to visit a number of libraries in the Middle East and elsewhere. I cannot fully acknowledge the contribution of my family to this project. As usual, Shahla has been a tower of strength. She pursued references for me on her trips to the Middle East. She has also ensured that our two sons, Tamir and Sinan, were kept busy. Her computing expertise got me out of trouble on several occasions. For all this, I want to thank her. Finally, Tamir and Sinan were the real power behind this book. Their interest in it was enormous. They asked the real questions: What is nationalism? What has language got to do with nationalism? And why is nationalism so important as to make a father devote so much time away from his family to studying it? To them, I owe a debt of gratitude for showing understanding and patience. Acknowledgements — viii — Suleiman_00_Prelims 11/10/02, 1:22 pm8 — 1 — The Arabic Language and National Identity: Aims and Scope 1 1. aims of the study: the disciplinary context Nationalism is a thriving field of study in which a variety of disciplines partici- pate. Historians, political scientists, sociologists, social anthropologists, social psychologists, political geographers and others have all delved into different aspects of this field. This reflects the complexity and the elasticity of the pheno- mena of nationalism and of the durability of the interests they generate across disciplinary boundaries. It must, however, be said that this multiplicity of theor- etical perspectives has generated a corresponding multiplicity of discourses, none of which can claim the prerequisite universality necessary to allow us to talk about a theory of nationalism with any confidence. Broadly speaking, what we have so far are two types of study. First, there are those that seek to generalize out of a limited evidential base by proposing a set of explanatory ideas which can then be tested against further data outside the base in question. These studies are then refined, extended or restricted both empirically and theoretically, but they can never completely escape the limitations inherent in their empirical sources or the theoretical perspectives which inform them. And there is no reason why they should. What we have here, therefore, are restricted approaches to the study of nationalism, not a theory of nationalism or theories of national- ism, although the term “theory” is used in this sense from time to time. A paradigm example of this is Gellner’s modernist or functionalist approach, which is best suited to the study of the rise and development of nationalism in industrialized societies, or, it may be argued, just to a sub-set of these societies. The present study of the Arabic language and national identity does not belong to this genre in the study of nationalism. The second type of approach is restricted to a particular nationalism, dealing with it in isolation or in relation to other interacting or comparable nationalisms. The study of Arab, Turkish, Greek or other named nationalisms exemplifies this approach. The interest of the researcher here is to describe and explain the observed phenomena by utilizing the insights of studies of the first type. Additionally, studies of this second type may serve as test cases for the insights generated by general approaches. They define the empirical limits of Suleiman_01_Ch1 2/10/02, 2:39 pm1 the arabic language and national identity — 2 — these general studies or circumscribe their excessive explanatory claims. Progress in the study of nationalism requires the two types of study. It is impossible to imagine that general approaches to the study of nationalism can be conducted in an empirical vacuum, or that studies of specific nationalisms can proceed without any recourse to theoretical insights. The present study belongs to the second type of approach. It aims to provide a reading of a limited site of nationalist discourse – that pertaining to the Arabic language and national identity – as a contribution towards a general understanding of the pheno- menon of nationalism in the Arab Middle East. This study will also contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of nationalism in its language-related dimension. A prime example of this kind of study is Joshua Fishman’s pioneer- ing monograph Language and Nationalism (1972) which, unfortunately, hardly figures in standard works on nationalism even when language is directly invoked. The study of nationalism in the Arab Middle East has made great strides in the last few decades. First, advocacy in favour of a particular nationalism or the apologetic defence of it gave way to a more objective outlook. This danger of confusing the subjective with the objective is particularly present when the nationalist turns into a student of nationalism, thus producing a discourse which aims to (1) valorize the status quo, (2) sanction and instigate a particular brand of nationalist behaviour, or (3) convert the decision-makers in a centre of political power to a particular nationalist cause. Second, description in the study of the topic under investigation has increasingly given way to a more analytical and explanatory orientation. This has in turn led to an increased sophistication in the standard of argumentation and counter-argumentation. It has also led to the development of a sharper interest in cross-cultural compari- sons, at least in the regional context. Third, the study of nationalism in the Arab Middle East has sought to extend its disciplinary scope beyond its traditional domain of history and politics, although it continues to be domin- ated by historians and political scientists. Anthropologists and sociologists have participated from the edges in a way which has enhanced our understanding of the social processes involved in the internalization, negotiation and contes- tation of national identities. Fourth, some students of nationalism in the Middle East have sought to widen the kinds of data which can be subjected to study and analysis. The call to use newspaper articles and other kinds of non-orthodox materials, for example graffiti, in the study of nationalism represents a bold attempt at trying to reshape the scope within which this enterprise has hitherto been conducted. But there are also glaring weaknesses, the most prominent of which is the reluctance to take the study of nationalism in the Arab Middle East into the wider cultural arena of literary production, the arts, film, music, sports, tourism, festivals, school textbooks, architectural styles, naming practices, maps, stamps Suleiman_01_Ch1 2/10/02, 2:39 pm2 aims and scope — 3 — and other media of symbolic expression. There is perhaps a feeling among historians and political scientists that data from these domains are fickle and subject to deliberate manipulation. Moreover, scholarly tradition considers the above media of symbolic expression to fall at the margin of the scope of history and politics, which thus far have dominated the study of nationalism in the Arab Middle East. This problem, however, is not entirely the making of the historians or the political scientists. It is also partly the responsibility of specialists in the above domains of inquiry, who have done very little to show how their disciplines can inform the study of nationalism. Considerations of academic worth are central here. For example, it is unlikely that any serious literary critic would consider the study of the interaction between nationalism and literature to be the kind of material from which scholarly reputations are made. A study of this kind would be considered more relevant to an under- standing of social and political history than to the study of literature in its creative mode. The same ethos may also apply in art history, architecture, music and film studies. Falling between disciplines with different intellectual agendas, some nationalist phenomena in the Arab Middle East have been left out of consideration, thus curtailing our understanding of nationalism in this impor- tant part of the world. Another glaring gap in the study of nationalism in the Arab Middle East is the absence of a serious study of the most important of all systems of functional and symbolic expression: language. It is indeed remarkable that, to the best of my knowledge, a study of this kind has not been produced, not even in Arabic, although limited studies touching on aspects of language and nationalism do exist (see Bengio 1998, Chejne 1969, Holes 1993, Mazraani 1997 and Suleiman 1993, 1994, 1996b, 1997, 1999b, 1999d). I say this because of the centrality of language in articulations of nationalism in the Arab Middle East. This is true of Arab nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is also true of Egyptian and Lebanese nationalism in the first half of the twentieth century and beyond (see below). This lacuna is all the more glaring because, when set in a comparative regional context, the study of language and nationalism in the Arab Middle East deserves greater attention. Witness the enormous interest in this subject in Turkish nationalism and Hebrew nationalism, which have succeeded in promoting themselves as paradigm cases against which other nationalisms may be judged. The responsibility for this lacuna does not belong to the historians or political scientists alone, although so far they are the ones who have dominated the study of nationalism in the Arab Middle East. A historian or political scientist is aware of the functional and symbolic roles of language, but does not usually study language per se or in any of its hyphenated modes. In a world of disciplinary specialization, this is regarded as the task of the linguist. But Suleiman_01_Ch1 2/10/02, 2:39 pm3 the arabic language and national identity — 4 — linguists are hemmed in by the imperatives of their discipline. They tend to be interested in the theoretical foundations of linguistics or the generation of descriptive studies for individual languages or portions of languages. Hyphenated approaches such as psycho-linguistics or socio-linguistics (henceforth “sociolinguistics”) answer to two masters, which tend to pull them in different directions and, more often than not, assign those who profess expertise in them to the margins of the parent disciplines. The closest approach to a linguistics-related field of study which can investigate the question of language and national identity is sociolinguistics, provided we conceive of this discipline as being “essentially about identity, its formation, presentation and maintenance” (Edwards 1988: 3). But this discipline is handicapped in a number of ways in its treatment of Arabic. First, Arabic sociolinguistics tends to be interested in the functional capacity of the language rather than in its symbolic connotations. By treating the language as a means of communication first and foremost, Arabic sociolinguistics misses the opportun- ity to tap into a layer of meanings and symbolic values that may otherwise be available to the researcher. Second, the interest in quantitatively based analyses in Arabic sociolinguistics (and in sociolinguistics generally; see Cameron 1997) creates a bias, driven by logico-positivist impulses, against studies which do not rely on this mode of investigation. Studies of this kind can therefore be easily dismissed as “unscientific” or “pseudo-scientific”. Third, Arabic sociolinguistics in its quantitative mode is handicapped by the invisibility of national identity as a prominent factor in the theoretical impulses which historically informed this discipline (Labov 1966, 1972). Arabic sociolinguistics of the 1970s and 1980s in particular created aspects of the Arabic language situation – particularly dialectal and sociolectal variation – in the image of the urban-based, North American model on which it relied for its inspiration (see Walters 2002). This was under- standable at the time when the thrust of this research was to test the applicability of the Labovian model outside its original context. The primary aim of the present research is therefore to fill the above gap, thus contributing to the study of nationalism in the Middle East from a cross- disciplinary perspective. Another aim of this study is to encourage Arabic sociolinguists to delve into other aspects of language and national identity from a qualitative perspective. Finally, it is hoped that this work will highlight the importance of symbolic meaning in the study of nationalism. 2. what is national identity? There is nothing novel in saying that identities are complex, variable, elastic and subject to manipulation (cf. Maalouf 2000). This is the position in all the disciplines which deal with identity, whether as a collective or personal unit of Suleiman_01_Ch1 2/10/02, 2:39 pm4 [...]... —9— the arabic language and national identity Arabic can serve as a source of neologisms and other terminologies which the standard language lacks They therefore argue that colloquial Arabic should be exploited for this purpose Territorial nationalists divide between those who support the colloquial and those who favour the standard form of the language, although the upper hand in the debate between them... of nationalism are also complicated by the complexity of the relationship between nationality and ethnicity3 on the one hand, and the —17 — the arabic language and national identity nation and the state on the other Thus, it is not always easy to tell when ethnicity ends and nationality begins, or whether or not the existence of the sovereign state is a necessary criterion for the existence of the. .. 7, the Conclusion to this study, provides a general statement of the main themes raised in earlier chapters It also points to other dimensions of the — 13 — the arabic language and national identity interplay between language and national identity in the Arabic- speaking world which would benefit from further studies of the kind presented in this book Being about language and national identity, rather... assert their own identity through an increased emphasis on their language, thus curtailing the resort to Arabic as a marker of an interethnic national identity in these countries (see Tilmatin and Suleiman 1996) The fact that no other significant indigenous language existed in the Arab Middle East to challenge — 11 — the arabic language and national identity the commanding position of Arabic – with the. .. a golden age; the realisation of fraternity through symbols, rites and ceremonies, which bind the living to the dead and fallen of the community: these are the underlying functions of national identity and nationalism in the modern world, and the basic reasons why the latter have proved so durable, protean and resilient through all vicissitudes —19 — the arabic language and national identity 2 two... and the nationalist consciousness, and last the state” The 23 — the arabic language and national identity fact that these two types of nation are analytically distinct does not preclude their occurrence as components of the same nationalism, although the way in which the civic and the ethnic are mixed will vary from case to case (see Chapter 4, sections 2 and 3).5 This constant typological mixing and. .. (see Blau and Suleiman 1996) – meant that the emphasis placed on the language in the construction of national identity could proceed in Egypt and the Levant unfettered by interethnic rivalries in this area Another factor characterizes the difference between the Middle East and North Africa In the Arab Middle East, the emphasis on Arabic in the construction of national identity allows the nationalists... between the functional and symbolic dimensions of language and how these may be exploited in articulating a particular nationalism — 12 — aims and scope Chapter 3 deals with aspects of the past which satisfy the condition of resonance in dealing with the issue of Arabic and national identity in the modern world Statements in praise of Arabic as a unique language in the doctrinal sense, and as a language. .. although the German nation is the best-known example of this model in the literature The difference between the political (or “old nation”) and the cultural nation (or “newer nation”) is said by Seton-Watson (1981: 4) to reside in the fact that while, in the former, the state came first, then national consciousness, and then the nation”, for the latter national consciousness came first, “then the nation and. .. moves the discussion to the modern period It looks at the development of the Arab national identity and how this relates to language within the Ottoman Empire In historical terms, the focus is mainly on the second half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century The discussion shows how the development of Arab nationalism responded to the development of Turkish nationalism, . SaÆada and Regional Syrian Nationalism 164 3 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Early Beginnings 169 4 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Full Elaboration 174 4.1 The Arabic Language. Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Salama Musa 180 4.2 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Taha Husayn 190 4.3 The Arabic Language and Egyptian Nationalism: Luwis ÆAwad 197 5 The Arabic Language. Forward 1 The Arabic Language and National Identity: Looking Back 224 2 The Arabic Language and National Identity: Looking Forward 228 Notes 232 Bibliography Works in Arabic Cited in the Text