Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Dec. 2000 - 3 Jan. 2001 Issue No.514
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Plain Talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
Charles P Issawi, one of the few Arab intellectuals who were able to establish for themselves an academic status in the West died on 8 December and not a single obituary was published in the Arabic press. This confirms the saying that no prophet is honoured in his country.
Issawi was one of the first Arab intellectuals to be published by British publishers. His book Egypt: An Economic and Social Analysis, published in 1947, was in a field almost monopolised by English writers. Born in Cairo to Syrian parents, it was not surprising that he chose Egypt as a subject for his book.
Issawi received a rather special education having studied at Victoria College in Alexandria, the institution where personalities as diverse as King Hussein of Jordan and actor Omar El-Sherif were educated. He continued his higher education at Oxford where he studied economics. From 1937 he worked for the Egyptian government in posts of finance and banking; one of his major contributions, an official report on the socio-economic conditions of the country, became the nucleus of his Egypt: An Economic and Social Analysis. A defender of free enterprise without embracing any kind of ideology, Issawi published a number of other books including Egypt in Mid-Century (1954) and Egypt in Revolution: An Economic Analysis (1963).
Issawi held many distinguished posts, teaching at the American University of Beirut, Columbia University, Princeton and New York. Prior to his teaching career (1948 to 1955) he worked as a United Nations economic affairs officer in New York .
Of Issawi, Roger Owen, Professor at Harvard had this to say: "He was the father of the study of modern economic history in the Middle East. He was applying contemporary theories of economic development which were very much in the air in the 50's and 60's, to a much longer look at the economic history of the Middle East countries... He was the first person to write about most of these problems."
Charles Issawi was not the only Arab intellectual to make a distinguished academic career in the West. I can think of at least two Lebanese intellectuals who have left their indelible marks on British academia: Albert Hourani and Cecil Hourani. Professor Albert Hourani, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few times, was educated at Magdalene College, Oxford and like Issawi started his career teaching at the American University of Beirut. After posts that took him to Cairo, Jerusalem and London he became Fellow of Magdalene College, then Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and finally Lecturer in the Modern History of the Near East at Oxford.
Albert Hourani is the author of a number of books, including Syria and Lebanon: Minorities in the Arab World and A Vision of History. The latter is a brave analysis of Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History, expressing some doubts about the concepts on which Toynbee's theory is based. Hourani's book contains a number of essays on rather sensitive subjects, including "The Concept of Race Relations" which examines certain ideas of modern sociology and asks whether the conflicts and tensions between groups inside a complex society can be explained in terms of racial differences.
Cecil Hourani has contributed many articles to the Western media and press about Arab issues. One essay, "The Moment of Truth: Towards a Middle East Dialogue" which was published in a 1967 issue of Encounter, reveals Cecil Hourani's matter-of-fact outlook regarding the situation after the 1967 War, reflecting a wisdom that was rare at those times.
Among other Arab intellectuals who have distinguished themselves in the West one can mention Dr Mustafa Badawi at St Antony's, Oxford, Farouk Abdel-Wahab in the USA, Mahmoud El-Manzalawy in Canada, Mona Mikhail in New York and, of course, Edward Said. All these have held university chairs and have been able to stand up to their Western colleagues. Such representatives of the Arab World should be introduced to our own people.

© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg