Synopses & Reviews
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 Darwinandrsquo;s global appeal from the perspective of several generations of Arabic readers and shows how Darwinandrsquo;s writings helped alter the social and epistemological landscape of the Arab learned classes.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Providing a close textual, political, and institutional analysis of the tremendous interest in Darwinandrsquo;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 Darwinandrsquo;s waning influence on public and intellectual life in the Arab world after World War I.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Reading Darwin in Arabic is an engaging and powerfully argued reconceptualization of the intellectual and political history of the Middle East.
Review
andldquo;A novel and important contribution to our understanding of the globalization of science in the nineteenth century. Marwa Elshakryandrsquo;s study will appeal not only to scholars of the modern intellectual and political history of the Middle East but also to an audience in the history of science, especially those working on imperial and colonial histories of science.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A tour de force, this book moves on a spectacular trajectory from Darwinandrsquo;s original texts to their translation, interpretation, and contestation in zones that remain terra incognita to most scholars today. Elshakry shows for the first time how science-and-religion issues that still agitate Americans were first brought to Ottoman Syria and Egypt by Americans themselvesandmdash;and, tellingly, she points up multiple ironies in the creative and often unexpected ways in which evolutionary ideas were appropriated by Muslims and Christians alike. To an age obsessed by andlsquo;the clash of civilizations,andrsquo;
Reading Darwin in Arabic will be revelatory.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This pathbreaking book opens up a new world of understanding about the encounters of science in an era of imperial rivalries and nationalist ambitions. Following networks of travel, print, and translation across the Arabic-speaking world, Marwa Elshakry not only brings to life a vibrant intellectual culture too little known in the West but also illuminates contemporary global debates about tradition, faith, and evolutionary science.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;Thoroughly researched. . . . [A] densely argued and fascinating book [that] gives extensive coverage to such matters as missionary ambitions and strategies in the Middle East, Muhammad Abduhand#8217;s attempts to reform al-Azhar as a teaching institution, the rise of Pharaonism as a cultural movement, the growing sense of an Islamic civilization with a history, the eleventh-century Sufi al-Ghazaliand#8217;s overweening presence in philosophical debates, and Arab interest in Atatand#252;rkand#8217;s reforms.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Elshakryand#8217;s book is a remarkable feat of scholarship that builds on an impressive base of sources. . . . I believe Reading Darwin in Arabic will serve as a beacon of insight and inspiration for scholars of the Middle East and historians of modern science.and#8221;
Review
“The importance of new ideas about science in the development of new ideological currents in the late Ottoman Empire has been recognized for a while now, but no previous book has dealt with the topic in such detail and with such a focus as Yalçinkayas excellent Learned Patriots. Tracing the development and transformation of competing discourses on science in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century, Yalçinkaya argues that these discourses were closely tied to debates on morality, cultural orientations, and ideological preferences during a period of intensifying military, political, and economic pressures on the Ottoman lands. The book will be of interest to scholars of the late Ottoman Empire, the modern Middle East, and anyone interested in the interplay between the dissemination of scientific knowledge and ideas and social and intellectual changes in the 1800s.”
Review
“Alper Yalçinkayas Learned Patriots will be greeted with enthusiasm by everyone interested in science and society in the late Ottoman Empire. Yalçinkaya brings together critical issues that earlier approaches have usually separated: history of science, political thought, elite formation, the polemics over issues of cultural change. Offering fascinating insights into change over time in the interactions of these issues, he shows that what mattered was not just scientific expertise but the social engagement and moral character of its custodians and its positive contributions to the communalistic universe of Ottoman social values.”
Review
“Professional historians and sociologists of science have been writing about the Ottoman Empire since the early 1940s, yet no work to date matches the sophistication and fascination of Alper Yalçinkayas Learned Patriots. In this engaging study of how nineteenth-century Turks embraced the ‘new science of the West to replace the ‘old science of the medreses, he sets a very high standard for future scholarship on the subject.”
Review
andquot;A fresh perspective on the reception of Darwinism. While the title of her book suggests a focus on the impact of Darwinandrsquo;s Origins of Species on Arabic readers, it is, in fact, a work relevant to anyone interested in the reception of scientific ideas on a global scale. . . . A solid contribution to knowledge, and one that will remain a cornerstone of the intellectual history of the Arabic reading world.andquot;
Review
andquot;Elshakryandrsquo;s wonderfully rich book adds a great deal to our knowledge concerning the reception of modern science by Arab and Muslim intellectuals.andquot;
Review
andquot;Even as Christian apologists combed scripture for Biblical refutations of Darwin, Islamic scholars as high up the intellectual ladder as Egyptandrsquo;s grand mufti, Muhammad and#39;Abduh, and#39;had little difficulty reconciling modern principles of evolution with revelation,and#39; Elshakry observes in this thorough study of the question of the compatibility of Darwinandrsquo;s ideas with Islamic thinking.andquot;
Review
andquot;With the limited scholarship focusing on science translation between the Global North and the Global South, Elshakryandrsquo;s Reading Darwin in Arabic is a much welcome contribution to the existing literature on the globalization, translation and popularization of science, especially in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Reading Darwin is an invaluable resource for historians of science and intellectual historians of the Middle East. It is also a crucial contribution to science-and-religion studies.andquot;
Review
andquot;Rewarding. . . . Reading Darwin in Arabic is about more than its title suggests. It describes the intellectual ferment in Egypt as the country grappled both with Darwinism and colonial rule, and an Islamic liberalism shone briefly before being all but extinguished by the brutal ideologies of the twentieth century.andquot;
Review
andquot;Elshakryandrsquo;s Reading Darwin in Arabic is a tour-de-force. Without question, Elshakry has made an invaluable contribution to the global and cultural histories of decolonization.andquot;Maurice Jr. M. Labelle (University of Saskatchewan)
Review
"A fascinating book for anyone interested in the entangled histories of science and modernity, and the ways that particular forms of identity and subjectivity emerged from inscriptions of that entanglement. I especially recommend it to readers paying special attention to the histories of the press, language, and the state as they are bound up with nineteenth century science and technology."
Review
"A rewarding reexamination of 19th-century Ottoman conversations about science and civilization. Rather than revisiting well-traveled narratives of the Ottoman adoption (or lack thereof) of modern 'science and technology,' and rather than asking how Ottoman bureaucrats and intellectuals established what was or was not properly science, Yalçinkaya asks a more 'naïve' question: 'What were the Ottomans talking about when they talked about science?' His answer—'people,' and in particular the ideal, scientifically informed, yet ethical and upright 'patriot'—turns much received wisdom concerning late Ottoman scientific discourse on its head. . . . This book is a welcome addition to scholarship on the rhetoric of science and technology in the Ottoman Empire. . . . Recommended."
Synopsis
The nineteenth century was, for many societies, a period of coming to grips with the growing, and seemingly unstoppable, domination of the world by the Great Powers” of Europe. The Ottoman Empire was no exception: Ottomans from all walks of lifeelite and non-elite, Muslim and non-Muslimdebated the reasons for Ottoman decline” and European ascendance.” One of the most popular explanations was deceptively simple: science. If the Ottomans adopted the new sciences of the Europeans, it was frequently argued, the glory days of the Empire could be revived.
Learned Patriots offers, for the first time, a descriptive analysis of the nineteenth-century Muslim Ottoman debate about the nature, benefits, and potential dangers of science. M. Alper Yalçinkaya reveals that discussions centered on science were at the same time about the present and the ideal society, the relationship between the state and its subjects, and the very identity of the people.” In such a setting the Ottoman debate was less about the meaning of science than about the proper characteristics of a man of science. At base, he argues, it was a debate about morality. While there existed a variety of views on the relationship (or lack thereof) between science, morality, and the state, the phenomena were never discussed separately, and the complex interconnections the author tracesall centered around what kinds of people the Muslim Ottomans were, and were not, and what kinds of people they should, and should not, becomeare still felt today.
About the Author
Marwa Elshakry is associate professor in the Department of History at Columbia University, where she specializes in the history of science, technology, and medicine in the modern Middle East. She lives in New York.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
and#160;
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
ONE / The Gospel of Science
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
TWO / Evolution and the Eastern Question
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
THREE / Materialism and Its Critics
and#160;
FOUR / Theologies of Nature
and#160;
FIVE / Darwin and the Mufti
and#160;
SIX / Evolutionary Socialism
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
SEVEN / Darwin in Translation
and#160;
Afterword
and#160;
Notes
and#160;
Bibliography
and#160;
Index