Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
.
Ahmad Amin: creating an Islamic identity
Veronica H. Dyck
Institute of Islamic Studies
McGill University, Montreal
S Veronica H. Dyck
1988
ABSTRACT
parliament, and the 1930s and 40s when alternative groups ex-
which shaped his world view and surveys sorne themes and topic~
-
,
RESUME
for my parents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(.
Preface i
Table of Transliteration iv
Introduction 1
Chapter One 6
Chapter Two 34
Chapter Three 56
Conclusion 87
( Blbliography 91
(
i
PREFACE
by scholars.
sans who read this study in its original seminal' paper form.
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1
Introduction
.
Ahmad Amin, as a social critic, advocate of reform and
Amin was born four years after the British occupation and died
two years after the Free Officers' coup of 1952. During that
that the needed social and economic reforms were not being
views. His own life and writings reflects the effort to bring
of both sides. His essays cite the image of "pruning and grnft-
ing"; he calls for scholars who will create the "missing link"
first ha1f of this century. Creating the " m issing link" irl
at least equal to the West and provide the needed moral leader-
ship of the world. He did not care if his simple clear style
letters.
his courage to speak out for what he felt was right even at
the risk of his own position. Scholars in the West have not
baum are among the few well-known Western scholars who devote
Islamic identity.
has led me to also rely on those items whieh have b~en trans-
century and continues into the present. For the Middle East
for change in this region came from "outside" or from the West
consolidate his rule over the country and initiate his reforms.
missions to Europe.
the famous development of the Suez Canal. There was the curious
old kuttAb system and al-Azhar. The new sehool was an important
was soon evident that the material changes eould not be divorced
the cri tics maintained: God had abandoned the Muslims becaUS0
Zaghll. 3
was sent into exile for his political activity, he spent time
ing to the past, but by "linking that change with the principles
were not only permitted by Islam, but were indeed its necessary
cAbduh, and among them stood key figures who were to initiate
men lik~ A~mad Lutfi al-Sayyid or Sacd Zagh1l. 9 These men were
lOThis was true for Ahmad Amin. He relates that the Din-
1
scene after . .
Independence was Lutfi al-Sayyid's hizb al-ummah
-
l of the generation). He eventually withdrew from active polities
group stood Qsim Amin, Sacd Zaghll, and Al;tmad Amin. The'l
decade of the 20th century. The first was the Hadras.:lt dl-
from al-Azhar and D4r al-cUIOm as well as from the ahl! (native)
court judges who wanted to bridge the gap between lslamic and
of control. .
It is at the Hadrasah that Ahmad Amin spent fif-
reform.
( The other institution, estab1ished in 1908 under the pa-
ground for those who could lead Egypt back to the path of as-
a vital role, ie. until the early 1930s, Since Fu'Ad was an
also taught at the school, and during the interwar period German
17 Ahmed, p. 57.
came to Egypt from Syria in the Iate 19th eentury, was the
19 Ahme d, p. 47.
gesting that Mu~ammad shaped the divine message for his own pur-
fined and she found herself formally at war with the Ottomdn
the bul k 0 f the i r plans for Egyp t and de clare d her i ndependence
in February 1922. 29
26Vatikiotis, p. 261.
raonic national ist themes and promoted mode rniz i ng pan - Arab
forming coalitions like the April 1926 united front with the
34 I bid., p. 27l.
perceived cooperation with the British; yet aIl the parties re-
among the king, the politicians and the Azharites, who percelved
38Terry, p. 103.
22
( prisoned. Women agitated for th reform of personal status
laws and for the further education of women. When women began
were active in the feminist cause were not from the underpri-
was the supreme muJtahid who with the help of the culamA' would
45 Sa fran, p. 142.
( ture which was important for interpreting the Qur'n and ~adith.
He argued that most of the j~hili poetry was forged after the
the cause of Islam. 48 The book was revised, but in 1932 the
directions and then claim that the institutions have failed. "49
47 Ahme d, p. 119.
49al-Sayyid-Marsot, p. 6.
25
- Beginning
the inability
in the
of
1930s
the
and
leaders
through
to
until
deal wieh
the
the
coup of
pressure
1952,
of
This trend was underlined by the fact that, with the increasing
youth movement, the Green Shirts; the Wafd's youth league, the
for i ts future deve lopme nt. ,,51 The most serious competition
for the loyalty of the people came from the Muslim Brotherhood
54 Ibid ., p. 41.-
The turbulent year5 of the 1930s and 19405 have been the
extremist factions ... all seeking a way out of the moral and
the works on the life of the Prophet and Muslim early herop~
56Terry, p. 285.
, 40s can only be termed a fai 1ure. 61 Smi th counters this thesis
60Safran. p. 179.
ideology.
with the outbreak of World War Il, i t became clear that Britain
Wafd gogernment because she felt this party wauld best serve
her interests at the time. The Wafd had shawn little reluctance
67Terry, p. 237.
68Vatikiotis, p. 291.
31
raison d'tre had been even more compromised, and Many Egyptians
were more alienated from the Wafd. 69
1949, s hort1y afte r the Mus 1 im B ro the rhood was suppressed, !;Iasun
ously emulated.
69Terry, p. 253.
but he did not have to undergo the investigation his cri tics
ary 26, 1952, when order broke down and Cairo witnessed mobs
declared that they had taken over the government. "The forces
7 4Haddad, p. 25.
34
Chapter Two
for his family's simple needs. His mother's family was from
35
home Amin calls "the most important school in which were formed
ever changed ... they did in nonessential matters that did not
touch the core ... "3; "religious feeling pervaded our home."4
strict while not being very competent, and he saw many a boy
was more modern, teaching Qur'n and Arabie but also geography,
history, arithmetic and even French. His father did not di~-
continue his "private education" but had him read the Qur' ,in,
memorize texts from Azhar! books and poetry. Amin loved thif:.
school where he was able to put on western dress and play with
children from the Middle and upper classes, but after fIIuch
3 I bid., p. 20.
4 Ibid ., p. 18.
36
and be i nfluenced by men who had enj oye d more sus ta i ned c ontac t
with cAbduh. His father a1so helped him with his lessons by
AlJmad Amin was much happier here. He enj oyed teaching and
37
sians test. On1y five passed the entrance exam and becduue
5Ibid., p. 56.
6 I bid., p. 60.
38
perhaps old material but using the new princip1es and methods
which the Shaykh had advocated. The third group were 1eading
men of the judiciary who taught law, court systems and other
that each of them took his share according to his natural dis-
cipal."S
7 I bid., p. 64.
( 8 Ibid ., p. 87.
39
J ;
~. the ethics course at the school using as sources English books
subjects.
saw here a new kind of education which 1 had not known: thu-
9 Ibid ., p. 87.
40
that."lO
tions of life there reinforeed his view that "people will not
contact with the men associated with the al-Jardah paper, the
with "two eyes" instead of only the "one eye" of Arabie. Miss
10 Ibid ., p. 73.
( llIbid., p. 94.
41
took its direction from English culture and the other which
ing once more from the club a dignified "venerable shaykh" .13
12 I bid., p. 106.
13 I bid., p. llO.
42
son every year until he died. They published, edited and trans-
lated books, expanding until they had their own press and had
its business details but with the regu1ar meetings of its mem-
al-Azhar, and who was the brother of cAli cAbd a1-Rziq, the
- liberty,
spoke about
English moderation, and Azharite
and we compared
we
demie temperament and pit Y for his parents should they suffer
l6 I bid., p. 133.
44
wherever possible.
(. wife, l was like one who opens a fortune cooky [sic] or like
4S
long hours spent with his books, but once their chi1dren began
out of his wife'~ fear t~at he might take a second wife. Amin
and that his strong affection for his family even spoi1ed his
pecially with the first ones, but not nearly as severe as his
own father had been. He read English and Arabie books on child
had experienced in his own life. They are able to enj oy the
made possible, and yet he is also keenly aware that the changes
versity through the 1930s and 1940s. Amin is known for his
17 I bid., p. 125.
18 I bid., p. 129-30.
46
wives and visited publicly with them, but he does not say if
assumed, however, that his wife enjoyed more freedorn than Amin's
mother, who never left the confines of her home without permis-
sion from her husband; and his daughters were free to pursue
convinced him finally to lay aside his turban and gown and adopt
dress, and he now fe1t that he could better blend into the
Dr. al- c AbbAd1; the former would study lslamic life from the
tr ibu tion to the proj ec t, but afte r two year 5 Amin c omp 1 e ted
serve how the Turks had used their language and 1iterature la
He a1so met those who feared for the direction of society and
an issue that only God could decide Ue. the merits of the
was academica11y true and in no way imp 1 ied tha t the Sunni
( mony where, when the speaker noted Amin's presence, he then pro-
ve ry uncomfo r tab le lec tur ing in Eng 1 1sh. When he was aga i n
tries of the Middle East and between the East and the West.
his travels as giving him two eyes and two perspectives Instead
of only one. 2l
one day fast at the beginning of the month. After the rigorou!">
21 Ibid ., p. 178.
by his "second father" who was a sufi disciple. Amln does tend
He writes:
offered to Amin when denying him this status. When someone (::l~,(!
for ten years (1936-46), and even became Dean of the College
in 1939, but served only two of the three years of his term
the board of DAr al-cUlm (1949-52), and was the first director
ordinary people. One could add ta this already long list his
visiting Egypt.
years later he experienced trouble with his vision and was to1d
that the retina of his left eye had become detached. The op-
his sons or someone e1se to help him with his reading and wri-
33 Ibid ., p. 197.
( 34 Ibid ., p. 219.
55
he did not
th~tr
w:'tness
revolution, he was
much of what
fore, Al)mad Amin died quietly on May 30, 1954. The funeral
and a modern outlook, are the subject of the chapter which fol-
lows.
35Crose, p. 208.
56
Cbapter Three
expe r i enced by Egyp t and the va r ious issue s which he and other s
published as Fayd . al- khA .e ir. The title cornes from the word
3 I bid., p. 29.
58
and even though the reader 1s not given the answer to every
among the related events Amin a1so discusses some of his views
of the I}ij ra. These are set against a backdrop of the changes
( A. R
SEncyclopaedia of Islam, New Ed., s.v.
Gibb.
"Ahmad Amin," by H.
S9
-
, the intellectual life: pre-lslamie. Persian,
and finally giving the Arabie mixture which resulted from the
Jewish, Greek,
state.,,7
A~mad Amin was for the gre3ter part of his life a supporter
cerned, he favored Zaghll and the Wafd unti1 around 1918 when
9 Ibid .
60
His writings did not explore the neo-Pharaonic themes and the
you th he was ac qua in ted wi th the tradi t iona 1 wor ld- view of
makes the nation, not humanity, its unit y, is the root of a11
evil. The world will only be safe and happy in the advent of
ty. "12
to the larger Arab world, the Islamic world and then the East
the West do, for each society "in the East and the West has
its merits and lts faults, and the most obvious of our faults
"we" feelings and the strength of the "1" feelings. ,,14 Amin
West and the reasons for the lack of parallel progress in th0
of Western ideas and technology, the East can take its turn
account this wor1d and the one beyond in deciding its actions. l9
and contempt for the West, but the hope that the East and the
difficule, but in the end they can cooperate for the good of
aIl mankind. 20
more the life of the ordinary people chan that of the lite
will desire the right things because they have received ail
ting others, and he was not ashamed of his own roots in the
said to consist not in the size of his role but in the quality
for action by a common idea of the public good. 24 Amin and his
27 Ibid., p. 75.
counter those who would argue that true' democracy does not
Amin writes about those figures who have been great leaders,
- for his people. 32 The idea of moral and social reform is also
form.
that will help bring about a stronger East. "What the Orient
needs Most urgently are lead~rs who will encourage their coun-
trymen to initiate, but who will accept things only after care-
was needed because public opinion had not yet received enough
of men of letters who do not write except for the lite and
do not produce any art except for them. The dut Y of writers
-
,\
"
including those in the realm of language and literature.
that the two may become one. Only then will there be true
thinking and a language that derlves lts soul from real 1lfe."38
guage easier.
( those of the modern period. There were too Many words relating
to bedouin life and too few relating to urban life. The remedy
pit y for the illiterate and semi-1iterate who had limited access
to intellectual nourishment. 42
classical styles and elaborate prose had left behind that strata
this older 1iterature did not ref1ect the current social back-
ground, and the modern literature had not achieved the sarne
abandoning all the old styles, but literature must point out
" ... literature fulfills its mission to the nation when it suc-
food that gives the people what they need of consolation and
letters who value their mission know that th~y are above poli-
ticians . . . . ,,45
45 lb id., p. 97.
72
task.
ance. He writes about the conflict between the sufis and the
went to extremes but that society has need of both the emotional
46 Ibid ., p. 93.
When the king of Iraq wanted to punish the Drator who had in-
so.50
the idea that all people ought to bec orne Muslim, but he fre-
quent1y "makes the point that Islam is a religion for all time'J
52 Ibid ., p. 83.
( 57 Ibid ., p. 89 n. 31.
75
th~
this book and the articles written in this time period .(1949-
paraI leI dec1ine in the social rea1m. Amin sees the apparent
58Safran, pp. 226-27. See 8 l soS hep 8 rd, "A 11 0 der Il l 'i t:
View," pp. 89-90.
59 Ibid ., p. 90.
.
khAtir. ,,62
Reform" he states: "If you are not pleased with the fruit of
good and sweet as long dS you preserve as they are its roots
remove the causes to that the disease will go away .... The old
way in reform use ta say, 'Feed the hungry,' but the new way
reform from the West, but here he makes explicit the Islamic
ground work upon which they were based when borrowed, dnd in
flict between faith and science and takes his stand upon tilt
66 Ibid ., p. 126.
78
taCqil al-din.,,69
69 Ibid ., p. 39.
meet modern needs, together with the Qur'n and with the SUIIIl:Jh
Islam and the ethical norms stated in the Qur'n which are to
and the modern sciences were brought together, was probably in-
81
'-
\ strumental in his concern for finding the "missing link" between
saw the need to create a bridge linking Islam with the rapid
old and for restoring with the new in such a way that the new
that Islam and its principles are to be the guiding moral fram~-
tone than later ones, assuming, for instance, rather than ar-
chat his society will move towards the moral values which Ill'
83 Ibid ., p. 155.
84
that time and health would not permit him to finish his series
( the fact that liberal ideals did not prevent Europe from plung-
ing into social and economie crisis and the Second World War,
and that after the war the European powers seemed to want to
pointment that the West seems determined not to treat the East
- as an equal partner. 86
religious and Islamic symbols back into the centre of the pat-
ence which had been partly lost or ignored, and ta relate th('1II
1ife.,,90
86 Ibid ., p. 48.
government concern'J.
(~ Conclusion
first two decades of the twentieth, and which had reached its
1939. ,,1 They had grown up '~hile MulJ.ammad cAbduh was active ly
working for reform, and the y had benefitted from schoo1s es-
1ife of Egypt.
minds see them. ,,2 He goes on to say this can be done in terms
,
of Muhammad cAbduh, but he also utilized the methods and ideas
His friends and acquaintances included men who were very in-
of the 1930s and '40s which have been called a crisis of iden-
while at the same time Awin took upon himself the role of 3
social cri tic and advocate of reform who called for the diagno-
sis and the cure of social ll1s. Throughout his life, as Amin
--
91
BIBLIOGRAPHY
II. Monographs
III. Articles
Eliraz, Giora. "Tradi tion and Change: Egypt ian Intellec tual.
and Llngulstlc R.eforll. 1919-1939." Aslan and Afrlean Stud-
le., XX ( J u 1 y, 1 9 8 6), 2 3 3 - 2 6 2 .
(-
94
(). al-Ma.uai, K. Saghi r Ha.an. "Pro fe or Al]lIad Aaln." The Islamic
LLterature, VII (April. 1955), 253-258.