CC License

Showing posts with label European Civilization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European Civilization. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The Arabs and the European Civilization (1975) by Mohamed Mofid Alshobashi

I have found another title exploring the relationship between the Arabs and the European Civilization. It is "The Arabs and the European Civilization (1975)" by Mohamed Mofid Alshobashi. It has no content as it just an introduction to the topic to be read during a bus journey or so. This is evident from the book description in from of the title "Ketab Geb" i.e. a small book that fits in ones' pocket and one could finish reading it in a bus journey. The current book is only 124 small pages long and was appeared in Cairo and Baghdad in the same time in 1975.


The Myth of European Civilization by Atia Amer 1990

Searching the print culture of modern and contemporary Egypt for "The European Civilization", I found a book titled "The Myth of  The European Civilization" by Atia Amer. The book is published in 1990 by the still operating The Anglo-Egyptian Publishing House (https://www.anglo-egyptian.com/en/). Unfortunately, the title is not to be found in their online catalog neither I can find a digital copy of it online. This book is wanted. I hope someday I will catch it.


The Influence of the Arabs on the European Civilizaton by Abbās Mahmūd al-Aqqād (1889 –1964)

The Influence of the Arabs on the European Civilization is one of the latest books of  Abbās Mahmūd al-Aqqād (1889 –1964), the famous Egyptian intellectual and author. The book was first published by Dar el-Maarif in 1960 with many subsequent unaltered editions, which may indicate the wide popularity of this title. The last of these editions is published in 2013 by Hindawi charity foundation. You can download a free version (kindle, pdf or ePub) of it from here:http://www.hindawi.org/books/57380918/ . Here is the book cover and the content.




Thursday, April 9, 2015

Taha Hussein and the [Ancient] European Civilization

I do know now what is the meaning of my department's name in Ain Shams University : The Ancient European Civilization. It's basically a Greek and Latin (Philology) department, but I've always wondered why it is so called and who coined this name. Taha Hussein, the one who revived Greek and Latin in Egypt, is the one who coined it. Below is p. 386 of the Arabic translation of Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939 (Cambridge University Press 1983), which states that Taha Hussein was one of the Arabic intellectuals of the so-called "liberal age", who saw the European civilization as "the superior civilization of the human history". To name "Greek and Latin" (philology) departments in Egypt as the department of "Ancient European Civilization", would have been, back then, very prestigious both for scholars and students alike.

In 2015, I don't think though that this remains the case. Simply because "πάντα ῥεῖ"  and πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει" καὶ "δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης (Plato, Cratylus ,402a). The middle east now, as we all know and see, in a state of radical change; not only (geo)politically, but also socially and mentally too.





Thursday, December 18, 2014

Eurocentrism,European Civilization, and European exceptionalism

From Wikipedia; Eurocentrism is:

Eurocentrism is a political term coined in the 1980s, referring to the notion of European exceptionalism, a worldview centered on Western civilization, as it had developed during the height of the European colonial empires since the Early Modern period.

The term Eurocentrism itself dates to the late 1980s and became prevalent in the discourse of political correctness and cultural relativism during the 1990s, especially in the context decolonization and development aid and humanitarian aid offered by industrialised countries ("First World") to developing countries ("Third World").

More about it is to be found in Wikipedia through this link

There is no Arabic translation of this article in Wikipedia, so I translate this passage as follows:

المركزية الأوروبية هو مصطلح سياسي يشير الى فكرة الاستثنائية الأوروبية ؛ وهى نظرة إستعلائيه عن العالم تنطلق من و تتمحور حول فكرة "تفوق الحضارة الأوربية-الغربية كما أُسس لها أثناء أوج إذهار وتوسع دول الإستعمار الأوربية منذ "أوائل العصر الحديث".
ويعود هذا المصطلح  "المركزية الأوروبية" تحديداً إلى أواخر العقد الثامن من القرن التاسع عشر الميلادى( 1970-1979) حيث ساد بعد ذلك في خطاب الباقة السياسية و النسبية الثقافية  بعدها بعقد من الزمن(1980-1989)، وخاصة في سياق محاولة إنهاء تبعية الدولة المستعمرة سابقا لدول الإستعمار وذلك في إطار "مساعدات التنمية" و "المساعدات الإنسانية" التي تقدمها البلدان الصناعية ( "العالم الأول") إلى البلدان النامية ( " العالم الثالث ").