Classics and Islam From Homer

Classics and Islam: From Homer to al-Qā'ida
Author(s): Peter E. Pormann

Source: International Journal of the Classical Tradition , Jun., 2009, Vol. 16, No. 2
(Jun., 2009), pp. 197-233
Published by: Springer
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DOI 10.1007/sl2138-009-0120-8
Classics and Islam: From Homer to

al-Qäcida*
PETER E. PORMANN
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Not only Greek and Latin literature, but also Classical Studies had a profound imp
on the development of Arabic and Islamic cultures and societies in the twentieth c
tury. In the mid-1920s, Tãhã Husain, a prominent Egyptian intellectual (1889-197
caused great scandal, when he applied the principles of historical criticism to Pre-
lamic poetry and thus challenged Islamic orthodoxy. In doing so, he was partly i
spired by debates in Homeric scholarship about the authenticity of the Iliad an
Odyssey. Some forty years later, Louis ' Awad (1915-1990), a pupil of ijusain's a
great literary critic, caused a similar controversy when he suggested that the work
an extremely celebrated Arab author, al-Ma'arrî (973-1058), relied heavily on work
Greek literature such as the Odyssey and Aristophanes' Frogs. In reaction to their id
some critics accused them of 'tagrîb (Westernisation)', i.e., that Husain and cAw
blindly followed European ideas and sold their own heritage short. Moreover, Mus
clerics and theologians dragged Tãhã Husain through the courts, accusing him of a
tasy (kufr), and c Awaçl found himself labelled 'the last consul of the Christian world
Egypt since the Crusades'. These debates, inspired by classical scholarship, strong
resonated during the 1990s, when fundamentalist ideas gained much ground; and
cussions continue today in the Arab and Muslim world whether Islam and the West a
fundamentally different or share in the same classical heritage.
* This is a revised and extended version of a paper entitled 'Anti-Colonial Class

or Manumission through Reception: The Case of Twentieth-Century Egypt', giv
at the conference 'Subversive Classics: Politically Subversive Appropriations
Mediterranean Antiquity'. I am extremely grateful to the organiser, Grant Par
(Stanford), for having invited me to participate in this meeting, and for his a
the delegates' feedback. I owe the inspiration for writing this article to a pap
given at Cairo University by Mâhir Safîq Farïd in March 2008, entitled 'The Inf
ence of Classics on Our Contemporary Arabic Culture: The Example of Louis
c Awad ('Air al-KlasTkïyût ft taqãfatinã al-' ArabTya al-mu'asira: Louis 'Awad matalan)
Peter E. Pormann, Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Warw

Coventry CV4 7AL, UNITED KINGDOM
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Vol. 16, No. 2, June 2009, pp. 197-233.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
198 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / June 2009
Guide us on the right path

The path (sirãt) of those on whom you bestowed favours
not those against whom one is angry
nor those who go astray
The Opening sura (Sürat al-Fãtiha), vv. 6-7
jtqòç ôé oe xai xóô' ávcoya, xà 'ix' jiaxéouaiv ä|naâi
xà axeißeiv, éxéQcov i/via |xf) xa0' ó(xá
6íct)QOv è^ãv jLtr|ô' oípov ávà jrXaruv, ak'à keÍ.evQovç
áxQLJTXouç, ei xai oxeivoxéQr|v è^áoeiç.
This too I command you: go where no hackneys

plod; do not drive your carriage along the ruts
carved in the boulevard, but drive along untrodden
paths, even if narrower.
Callimachus, Aitia 1 fr. 1, 25-9 ed. Pfeiffer1
November 14, 1914, a young man stood longingly on Alexandria's

quayside, waiting to board a boat bound for France. It was his twenty-
fifth birthday. Despite being blind and having fallen foul of his teach-
ers at the most famous Islamic university, al-'Azhar in Cairo, he had just
received a doctorate from the newly founded secular University of Cairo. His
brilliant thesis on the iconoclastic Arab poet Abu 'Ala* al-Macarrïhad earned
him a scholarship to study in France. Despite the vagaries of the war, he man-
aged to travel to Montpellier, where he not only learned French and Latin, but
also met the love of his life. From 1915 to '19, he spent the most formative
years of his life in Paris, studying in the hallowed halls of the Nouvelle Sor-
bonne under such luminaries as Gustave Bloch, Afred Croiset, and Emile
Durkheim.
The young Egyptian intellectual is, of course, Tãhã Husain, the most
prominent Arab thinker of the twentieth century.2 His passage from Egypt to
and published in Âwrãq Klãslklya (Classical Papers) 8, ed. O. Fayez Riyadh (Cairo,
2008), 49-58. There is, however, little overlap between Safïq's paper and mine, as
the former has a much narrower scope. He notably explores the reaction of Egypt-
ian classicists to Louis c Awad's work, a topic with which I do not deal here. Finally,
I would also like to record my debt and gratitude to those who read an earlier
draft and made many invaluable comments; they are Wolfgang Haase, Jeremy
Kurzyniec, Zakia Pormann, Simon Swain, and Phiroze Vasunia. All translations,
unless otherwise stated, are my own; I have often given longer quotations than
otherwise necessary where the sources are only available in Arabic.
1. The translation is inspired by that of Frank Nisetich, The Poems of Callimachus (Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 63.
2. On Tãhã Husain in general, see his autobiography Taha Hussein, The Days: His
Autobiography in Three Parts, tr. E. H. Paxton, Hilary Way ment, Kenneth Cragg

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 199
France symb
the Mediter
tendencies i
in Egypt in
through an
(kuttäb) to
tion of Islam
servative ele
newly found
The late ni
many Arab
Arabs them
sance'.3 It w
tried to brea
ceived as so
ad-Din al- A
A common
commodate
hadäta).
Tãhã Husain found himself in the middle of an Oriental 'querelle des An-
ciens et des Modernes' in which classical scholarship and the Graeco-Roman
legacy were to play an important part. This controversy, which erupted in the
mid-1920s around the nature of pre-Islamic poetry, was to have a profound
and lasting impact on debates about national liberation, cultural autonomy,
and religious identity in Egypt and the Arab world more generally. Therefore,
it is not surprising that in the next generation we find another quarrel, this
time about a great medieval Arab author called al-MacarrI, which has many
similarities with the earlier one about pre-Islamic poetry. It broke out in the
1960s and involved a pupil of Tãhã Husain, the great literary critic Louis
<Awad (1915-1990).
In the present paper, I propose to investigate how Classical Studies in
Egypt significantly contributed to these debates about cultural and religious
identity. In doing so, I shall focus on classical scholarship as opposed to a more
(Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1997); the scene of his leaving Egypt
is described on pp. 317-19. His doctoral dissertation was first published in 1915 as
Tãhã Husain, Dikrä Abi l-'AW (Remembering Abu 'Ala' [al-Ma'arrJ]) (Cairo:
Matba(at al-Wãci?, 1915), and expanded and reprinted many times; see id., TagdTd
dikraAbll-'AW {Remembering Abu 'AW [al-Ma'arrt] Anew) (5th ed., Cairo: Dãr al-
Ma{arifbi-Misr, 1958).
3. See Peter E. Pormann, 'The Arab "Cultural Awakening (Nahda)", 1870-1950, and
the Classical Tradition', International Journal of the Classical Tradition 13 (2006/2007),
3-20.
4. See Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1983) and Charles Kurzman, Modernist Islam, 1840-1940:
a Sourcebook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); more specifically, see also
Nikki Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of
Sayyid Jamal ad-Din 'al- Afghani', California Library Reprint Series (Berkeley: Uni-
versity of California Press, 1983); and Muhammad c Abduh, The Theology of Unity
(Risãlat at-tauhïd), tr. Ishaq Masa'ad and Kenneth Cragg (London: Allen & Unwin,
1966).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
general engagement with the Greek and Latin authors, although some in-
stances of the latter will also briefly be recalled.5 In two preliminary sections,
I shall first sketch the historical and political background against which our
story unfolds (below, pp. 200-201), and then discuss how European intellec-
tuals used the classical past to create their own identity and how Egyptians re-
acted to, and rejected, these cultural constructs, proposing a very different
version (below, pp. 201-207). As these two preliminary sections cover familiar
(albeit necessary) ground, those acquainted with Egyptian history and recep-
tion studies, respectively, will want to skip them. The main argument will deal
with Tãhã Husain (part I) and Louis cAwad (part II), both highly controver-
sial figures, each of whom in his own way put debates about classics on the
map in the Arab world. The third part deals with their critics and the ways in
which more conservative intellectuals from different backgrounds rejected the
idea of comparing Greek and Arabic history and literature. In the conclusions,
I shall explore the continuity of certain themes, such as historical criticism ver-
sus traditionalism, which still pervade current debates about Islamic theol-
ogy and Muslim identity. Especially since the early 1990s, which saw a
resurgence of fundamentalism in the Middle East, these disputes have inten-
sified and become more heated. The present discussion centres on Egypt, the
homeland of both Husain and c Awad. Yet, as Egypt occupied and still occu-
pies a pivotal position in the Arabic and Islamic worlds, the intellectual trends
and debates detailed here reached far beyond its confines.
Preliminaries
1. Egypt Under the French, Ottoman and the English Yokes
The traditional narrative of Egypt's modern history generally begins with

Napoleon's occupation of Egypt (1798-1801 ).6 After a crushing and crippling
conquest, the Egyptians allegedly woke up to the reality of their own inferi-
ority, and hence forward strove to engage with the West, to learn from it, and
to imitate it. The French, however, were to suffer quite a poignant defeat in
Egypt and did not remain for long. The charismatic figure of Muhammad c Alï
(r. 1805-48) took the reins of power and did, indeed, embark on a massive
process of modernisation. Although in theory subject to the Ottoman Sublime
Porte, he enjoyed a great deal of autonomy. In 1826 Muhammad ( AlT sent a
delegation of students to Paris, among them Rifãca Bey al-TahtãwT (1801-73),
who learned French and immersed himself in Parisian culture. His account,
published under the untranslatable title TahlTs al-ibrïz ilã talhïs BãrTz - Vor de
Paris and An Imam in Paris in the French and English translations respec-
tively7 - offered Egyptians a first direct appreciation of the lifestyle in the fash-
5. See the earlier articles Pormann, 'The Arab "Cultural Awakening (Nahda)"' (as in
n. 3); and id., The Arabic Homer: An Untold Story', Classical and Modern Literature
27 (2008), 27-44.
6. For the general historical context, see James L. Gel vin, The Modern Middle East: a
History (2nd ed., New York, NY; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); and, more
specifically, Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt (Berkeley; London: University of
California Press, 1991).
7. Rifa'a Rãfi( al-TahtãwI, L'or de Paris: relation de voyage, 1826-1831 (Paris: Sindbad,
1988); An Imam in Paris: Al-Tahtawi's Visit to France (1826-31) (London: Saqi, 2004).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 201
ionable Euro
of Language
translator. T
Egypt.
Muhammad cAlfs successors as rulers of Egypt (c Abbas 1 1848-54; SacTd
1854-63; 5Ismãcll 1863-79; Tawfîq 1879-92) continued this policy of moderni-
sation and achieved some stunning successes, especially in the area of infra-
structure and public works (Suez Canal; railways). Their reigns, however,
were marred by foreign debts spiralling out of control. Those moneys, owed
largely to Western financiers, plunged Egypt into ever increasing dependence,
financial and otherwise. Britain formalised its influence by occupying Egypt
in 1882 and ruling the country indirectly. In this way, Egypt became a British
protectorate in all but name, until the beginning of the First World War, when
Britain formally declared Egypt a protectorate and put a puppet regime in
place. The Egyptians themselves, however, under the leadership of Sa c d Za-
glûl (1857-1927), formed the Wafd ('delegation') party and demanded inde-
pendence.
The British occupation partly met their demands and granted Egypt for-
mal independence in 1922, although the areas excepted from Egyptian sover-
eignty were so crucial that British tutelage remained largely unchanged. The
imposed political regime was one of a parliamentary monarchy. Both king
Fu 'ad (r. 1922-36) and king Farüq (r. 1936-52) often clashed with parliament
(and the Wafd party in particular), whilst also trying to accommodate their
British overlords. They dissolved parliament on more than one occasion, no-
tably during the economic depression of the 1930s. The Second World War
brought greater direct involvement of the colonizing countries, as the axis
powers vied for influence in the region.8 The Free Officers, a group of high-
ranking military personnel with an anti-royalist and anti-colonial agenda who
swept away the old regime in a revolution in 1952, instituted an Egyptian re-
public. In the ensuing reforms, ugper echelons of society lost significant
amounts of their property. By 1954, Gamãl c Abd al-Nãsir was firmly in power,
supported by a loyal group of Army officers; as president of the Republic, he
pushed through many policies which were inspired by socialism, and moved
Egypt closer to the Soviet Union, especially after the Suez Crisis in 1956. After
his death in 1970, he was succeeded by Anwar as-Sadãt (1918-1981).
2. Graeco-Roman Legacy and National Struggle for Independence

As this brief historical sketch illustrates, the struggle to throw off the colonial
yoke and reach true independence - cultural, political, and economic - very
much dominated the political scene in the first half of the twentieth century.
On the cultural side of this fight for freedom, the Greeks and, to a lesser ex-
tent, the Romans were to play a major role. This can partly be explained by the
fact that the colonial powers construed their own cultural identity through a
8. See the highly readable study by Jennifer M. Dueck, The Claims of Culture at Em-
pire's End: Syria and Lebanon under French Rule, ser. British Academy Postdoctoral
Fellowship Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press /British Academy, 2009
[in press]).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
recourse to Greek and Latin language, literature, and history.9 In Europe,

Greek and Roman literature proved to be a constant source of literary renewal,
for instance, during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.10 And even the
most modern of English poets, T. S. Eliot, began his Wasteland of 1922 with a
quotation from Petronius' Satyrica.11 On the political level, the Greek and
Roman past played a powerful role in the ideologies of the great empires of
the time, such as the French, the British, and the American.12 In this way the
West construed a European identity with reference to a Greek past, from Tlato
to NATO', so to speak.13
A cornerstone of this ideology is constituted by the fact that the Euro-
peans are the sole legitimate heirs to the classical past. Voltaire (1694-1778), for
instance, links the superiority of the 'Europeans' to their Greek ancestral past,
saying14:
La difference la plus réelle est celle qui existe entre les Europeans [sic] et le
reste du globe; et cette différence est l'ouvrage des Grecs. Ce sont les
philosophes d'Athènes, de Milet, de Syracuse, d'Alexandrie, qui ont rendu
les habitants de l'Europe actuelle supérieurs aux autres hommes. Si Xerxès
eût vaincu à Salamine, nous serions peut-être encore des barbares.
9. See Seth L. Schein, "'Our Debt to Greece and Rome": Canon, Class, and Ideology',
in Lorna Hardwick, Christopher Stray, A Companion to Classical Receptions, ser.
Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Literature and Culture (Maiden,
Mass. /Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 75-85.
10. See Craig W. Kallendorf, 'Renaissance', and Ingrid D. Rowland, 'Baroque', both in
A Companion to the Classical Tradition, ed. Craig W. Kallendorf, ser. Blackwell Com-
panions to the Ancient World. Literature and Culture (Maiden, Mass. /Oxford:
Blackwell, 2007), 30-43 and 44-56 respectively.
11. Petronius, Satyrica, §48.8 (p. 43, lines 16-19), ed. Konrad Müller, Satyricon reliquiae
(Munich; Leipzig: Saur, 2003): 'Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis uidi
in ampulla pendere, et cum Uli pueri dicerent: HißvXka, tí OéXeiç; respondebat illa:
<xjTO0aveiv 9étao. (For I myself saw the Sibylle in Cumae with my own eyes hang-
ing in a jar; when those boys asked her, 'Sibylle, que veux-tu?", she answered, "je
veux mourir" Y For the whole subject of Latin and Greek quotations in English lit-
erature, see Kenneth Haynes, English Literature and Ancient Languages (Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press, 2003), esp. pp. 26-31 on Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot.
12. V.T. Larson, 'Classics and the Acquisition and Validation of power in Britain's "Im-
perial Century" (1815-1914)/ International Journal of the Classical Tradition 6
(1999/2000), pp. 185-225, and E. Adler, 'Late Victorian and Edwardian Views of
Rome and the Nature of "Defensive Imperialism,' International Journal of the Clas-
sical Tradition 15 (2008), pp. 187-216, and Christopher Hagerman, "In the footsteps
of the 'Macedonian Conqueror': Alexander the Great and British India," Interna-
tional Journal of the Classical Tradition 16 (2009) (forthcoming in this same volume).
13. David Gress, From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents (New York:
Free Press, 1998).
14. Voltaire, Commentaires sur quelques principales maximes de l'Esprit des Lois, in Œuvres
Complètes de Voltaire, 52 vols (Paris: Garnier frères, 1877-1885), vol. xxx, p. 445, n.
1; quoted in G. Strohmaier, 'Die Griechen waren keine Europäer', in: Politica Lit-
teraria: Festschrift für Horst Heintze zum 75. Gerburtstag, ed. E. Höfner, F. P. Weber
(Glienicke/ Cambridge, Mass.: Galda + Wilch Verlag, 1998), 198-206; repr. in G.
Strohmaier, Hellas im Islam, Diskurse der Arabistik 6 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Verlag, 2003), 1-6, on p. 1/198.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 203
The real dif

rest of the w
philosophe
made the in
Xerxes had
In a similar v
Orientalist
after the pub
gave a public
Science)', in
different fr
entific enqui
Nous autres
Grecs par la
We French,
tion, and Je
In a series o
Cette science
la langue. [...
L'islamisme a
taire? Oh! en
What is rea
guage, nothi
lim? Has Isl
support? Oh
In this way,
lim civilisat
dispositions
which only
the famous
himself in Pa
his argument
Furthermor
many intelle
('Seelenverw
15. Joseph Ern

ed., Paris 18
tions, e.g., Li
Ltd, 1893).
16. Ernest Renan, L'Islamisme et la science (Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1883), 2.
17. ibid., pp. 14-16.
18. Both Renan's lecture and al-Afgãnrs refutation have been conveniently reprinted
recently as Ernest Renan, L'islam et la science: avec la réponse d'Afghani, Vers l'orient
3 (Montpellier: Archange minotaure, 2003).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Humboldt, Hegel, Hölderlin and Heidegger.19 Likewise, long before Samuel

Huntingtons Clash of Civilisations, the German historian Ernst Troeltsch ar-
gued that Europe and the Islamic world belong to two different cultural cir-
cles (Kulturkreise)}0 Importantly, these scholars saw the emergence of Greek
civilisation as a 'miracle', a creation ex nihilo, so to speak, due solely to the ge-
nius of the Greeks. Finally, Françoise Waquet has persuasively argued that
Latin was used in many contexts to preserve the prevailing order and exclude
the other (foreigners, the lower classes) from political power.21
In a colonial context, the proposition that the Europeans derive their su-
periority from the pure and unadulterated classical past can easily be chal-
lenged on three fronts. First, the idea that the 'Greek miracle' occurred in a
vacuum can hardly be maintained in the face of the historical evidence.22 Sec-
ond, one can deny that Europe is the sole heir to the Greek past, and claim an
affiliation for other cultures as well. And third, one can simply reassess the
importance of the Greek legacy and attribute much greater value to the sub-
altern civilisations.
The first two points deserve further consideration. Greece as we know it
was not born out of nothing: the cultures of the Ancient Near East and Egypt
surrounded it, interacted with it, and influenced it at various moments
through history, be it in the archaic, classical, Hellenistic, Roman Imperial, or
late antique periods.23 The Greeks themselves, for instance, voiced their own
19. See, for instance, Volker Riedel, 'Zwischen Klassizimus und Geschichtlichkeit.
Goethes Buch Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert/ International Journal of the Classi-
cal Tradition 13 (2006/2007), pp. 217-42; Michael Steinmann, Heidegger und die
Griechen, Martin-Heidegger-Gesellschaft Schriftenreihe 8 (Frankfurt am Main:
Viotorio Klostermann, 2007).
20. Ernst Troeltsch, 'Der Aufbau der europäischen Kulturgeschichte', Schmollers
Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft im Deutschen Reiche 44 (3)
(1920), 1-48 = [633H680] (expanded as chapter IV, "Über den Aufbau der eu-
ropäischen Kulturgeschichte," in: Troeltsch, Der Historismus und seine Probleme I:
Das logische Problem der Geschichtsphilosophie = Troeltsch, Gesammelte Schriften III
[Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1922; reprint: Aalen: Scientia, 1961], 694-
772).
21 . Françoise Waquet, Le latin ou l'empire d'un signe, xvP-xx* siècle (Paris: Albin Michel,
1998), English translation: Latin or the Empire of a Sign, tr. John Howe (London;
New York: Verso, 2001).
22. See Philip J. van der Eijk, 'Introduction', in H. F. J. Horstmanshoff and M. Stol
(eds), Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine,
Studies in Ancient Medicine 27 (Brill: Leiden; Boston, 2004), 1-10.
23. This is a hotly debated topic; see for instance the following works which adopt
often contrary positions: Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Clas-
sical Civilization, 3 vols: vol. 1 The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985 (New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987); vol. 2: The Archaeological and Docu-
mentary Evidence (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991); vol. 3: The Lin-
guistic Evidence (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2006); M. R. Lefkowitz,
G. Maclean Rogers (eds), Black Athena Revisited (Chapel Hill, London: University
of North Carolina Press, 1996); M. Bernal, Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal
Responds to His Critics, ed. D. Chioni Moore (Durham, London: Duke University
Press, 2001); Mary R. Lefkowitz, 'Black Athena: the Sequel (Part 1)/ International
Journal of the Classical Tradition 9 (2002/2003), pp. 598-603; W. Burkert, The Orien-

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 205
feeling of a
achievement
how the Gr
'"EXÀTiveç de
globalised G
Macedonian a
he strove to
cident.24 Th
Alexandria,
Just as the
cultures in t
pact on vari
lamic worl
Christendom
icine, philos
risprudence
without the
centuries.25
present discu
tures engage
talizing Revolu
tr. M. E. Pind
Harvard Univ
Asiatic Eleme
24. See A. B. B
cent books w
Alessandro: d
over the Silk
of Hellenic C
Shiruku Rõd
(Nara, Japan
25. Cf. e.g. P.
Islamic Surve
Al-Kindi, ser
Press, 2006); P
ical Concepts
K.Versteegh,
guages and L
lenistische Ze
York: De Gru
griechischer P
Kirchengesch
(eds.), Takhyi
Memorial Tru
: the Graeco-
4th/8th-10th
26. Recent lit
Colonial Wor
Alexandra Lia
in the Histor

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
In the debates about Egypt's place in world culture and history, Tãhã Hu-
sain argued strongly against those who wanted to see Egypt as different in
nature from Western culture. He expressed his ideas in somewhat Hegelian
terms27:
Therefore, the ancient Egyptian intellect is not Eastern, if one un-

derstands by 'the East' China, Japan, India, and other adjacent re-
gions. The origin of the Egyptian intellect is in Egypt, yet influenced
by natural and human conditions which surrounded it and helped
shape it, so that it grew and developed, influencing other, neigh-
bouring peoples, and being influenced by them. The people who
were first most influenced by the Egyptian intellect, and then most
influenced it, were the Greeks.
If we have to search for a family where we can situate the
Egyptian intellect, then it is the family of the peoples who lived
around the Mediterranean Sea [bahr ar-Rüm2*]. The Egyptian intel-
lect was the oldest of those originating in this piece of the earth, and
the most influential.
He thus picks up the first two points mentioned above, namely that Egypt in-
fluenced Greece, and that Egypt is heir to the Greek past.29 He conceives of
Egypt as part of a Mediterranean civilisation where exchange of goods and
ideas between the different shores fuelled cultural developments.30 In a simi-
lar line, the arguably greatest Arab playwright, Taufîq al-Haklm (1898-1987),
reminded his audience that Greek and Arabic literature had bonds of intel-
lectual kinship which ought to be renewed. In the preface to his Oedipus the
King, written in 1949 on the eve of Egyptian independence, he expresses his
sentiments most eloquently31:
There must occur a marriage between Greek literature and Arabic

literature with respect to tragedy comparable to the marriages that
took place between Greek philosophy and Arab thought and be-
tween French literature and Greek literature.
Hakïm here refers to the Graeco- Arabic translation movement and its impact
on Arabic philosophy. During this translation movement, Greek poetry and
2008); and, more specifically, Barbara Graziosi, Emily Greenwood (eds.), Homer in
the Twentieth Century: between World Literature and the Western Canon, ser. Classical
Presences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
27. Taha Husain, cllm at-tarbiya (The Science of Education), in id., al-Magmüla al-kämila
li-mu "allafat ad-duktür Taha Husain (The Complete Collected Works of Dr Taha Hu-
sain), 16 vols (Beirut: Dãr ai-Kitãb al-Lubnânï, 1970-74), vol. 9; here, p. 24.
28. The Arabic ar-Rûm, like the Greek Pcojxaloi, designates both Romans and Byzan-
tine Greeks.
29. See also Phiroze Vasunia, The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to
Alexander, Classics and Contemporary Thought 8 (Berkeley; London: University
of California Press, 2001).
30. Peregrine Horden, Nicholas Purcell, The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean
History (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000).
31. Taufîq al-Hakïm, Al-Malik QdTb (Oedipus the King), Maktabat Taufîq al-Hakim a§-
ëa'bïya (Taufïq al-Hakim's Popular Library) 15 (Beirut: Dãr al-Kitãb al-Lubnãni, n.d.),

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 207
drama remai
this gap nee
Arabic drama takes French theatre as a model.
Both Tãhã Husain and Taufîq al-Hakïm incurred criticism for what some
perceived to be an uncritical and over-enthusiastic embrace of all things West-
ern. As we shall see in part III below (pp. 224-228), some ardent adherents of
Arab nationalism and devout defenders of traditional Islam took Husain to
task for his Westernisation (tagrTb). Before turning to the Homeric question
and its implication for Quranic scholarship as one of the major battlegrounds
for cultural identity, it is necessary to consider briefly the construct of a Euro-
pean culture. From the Renaissance onwards, scholars have denied that the Is-
lamic civilisation had any significant impact on the essence of Europe's culture
and literature.33 Such a denial is, of course, ludicrous, at least for anyone fa-
miliar with the history of philosophy, theology, medicine, mathematics, and
astronomy during the Latin Middle Ages and the Renaissance.34 For this rea-
son, Muhammad 'Iqbãl, the spiritual father of Pakistan, insisted in a context
of anti-colonial struggle similar to Egypt's that medieval Europe is indebted
to the Muslim legacy; he cites the example of Roger Bacon urging his coreli-
gionists to learn Arabic.35
32; translation by William M. Hutchins, Plays, Prefaces & Postscripts of Tawfiq al-
Hakim, 2 vols (Washington: Three Continents Press, 1981-84), i. 281. Al-Hakîm's
version changes the plot of Sophocles' play and adapts it to a Muslim audience by
removing polytheistic and mythological references.
32. Exceptions to this rule are the so-called Sentences ofMenander, one-liners partly
taken from new-comedy plays. In the Arab world, some of these sentences circu-
lated under Homer's name. See Manfred Ullmann, Die arabische Überlieferung der
sogenannten Menander -Sentenzen, Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes
34.1 (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1961); Rudolf Führer, Zur arabischen Übersetzung der
Menandersentenzen (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1993); J. Kraemer, 'Arabische Homerverse',
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 106 (1956), 259-316.
33. See Peter E. Pormann, 'La querelle des médecins arabistes et hellénistes et
l'héritage oublié' in: Lire les médecins grecs à la Renaissance: Aux origines de l'édition
médicale, Actes du colloque international de Paris (19-20 septembre 2003), éd. Véronique
Boudon-Millot et Guy Cobolet, Collection Mèdie (Paris: De Boccard Édition-Dif-
fusion, 2004), 113-41 (an English translation of this article is forthcoming in Por-
mann [ed.], The Islamic Medical and Scientific Tradition [as in n. 25]).
34. Cf. e.g., Alain de Libera, Penser au Moyen-Age (Pans: Editions du beuil, 1991; repr.
1996); Nancy Siraisi, Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: the Canon and Medical Teaching in
Italian Universities after 1500 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987); George
Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (London, UK and
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007) - reviewed by Charles Burnett in International
Journal of the Classical Tradition, 15 (2008), pp. 666-669.
35. M. Iqbal, Six Lectures on the Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Lahore,
Kapur Art Printing Works: 1930), 180-1; see Roger Bacon, Opus Maius, ed. John
Henry Bridges, The Opus Majus ofR. Bacon (London etc.: Williams and Norgate,
1900), 80; tr. Robert Belle Burke, The Opus majus of Roger Bacon, 2 vols (Philadelphia;
London: University of Pennsylvania Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press,
1928), i. 75.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTCC
I. Tãhã Husain on Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Homeric Question
We have already encountered Tãhã Husain at the beginnig of this article, but
it is useful to rehearse briefly some events in his rich biography relevant to our
argument. Husain was born on November 14, 1889, shortly after the British
had invaded Egypt with great cruelty and turned it into a de facto British pro-
tectorate. He grew up during a period of effervescent Egyptian nationalism
and cultural renaissance. In 1919, Tãhã Husain returned from France to an
Egypt on the brink of revolution. In these tumultuous times, he taught An-
cient History at his alma mater, then still a private university, for six years,
until he was appointed professor of Arabic in 1925, when the University of
Cairo came under government control. Shortly after his appointment, he gave
a series of iconoclastic lectures on pre-Islamic poetry, which will be the focus
of this section. At the same time, he founded the department of Greek and
Latin at Cairo University.36 In the 1930s, he translated six of Sophocles' plays
into Arabic, and wrote an influential educational treatise with the title The Fu-
ture of Culture in Egypt (Mustaqbal at-taqãfa ft Misr). After World War II, he
briefly served as minister for education under the fading royal regime (1952-
4), and spent his late years as an engaged intellectual.
Long before Friedrich August Wolf published his Prolegomena to Homer
(Prolegomena ad Homerum), classicists debated the so-called 'Homeric ques-
tion', that is to say, whether or not the Iliad and Odyssey were written by a his-
torical 'Homer'. Yet although Wolf was not the first to raise this Homeric
question, his position, that the Epic works attributed to Homer were in fact
anonymous compilations in which many poets had taken part, famously be-
came associated with Wolf's name. Wolf's work also marks the beginning of
methodical German source criticism (or 'Quellenkritik'), which submitted
many classical authors to intense scrutiny, often with the result of challenging
time-honoured truths. In the Arab world, these debates became more widely
known through the publications of Sulaimãn al-Bustãnf s translation of the
Iliad in 1904, which included a long discussion of the Homeric question.37 It
36. The history of the department is richly documented in volume 4 of "Awrãq

KläsTkTya (Classical Papers) with the subtitle Ar-ruwwãd wa-mïat ' ãmm fi 1-KlãsikTyãt
(Pioneers and Hundred Years of Classics), ed. 'Ahmad cEtmãn (Cairo: Cairo Univer-
sity, 1995), in the Arabic section entitled 'Sketches of pioneers' lives (lamahãt min
hayät ar-ruwwãd)' (pp. 13-314); see also volume 3 in the same series, dealing with
a major figure in the Classics department, Muhammad Saqr Haffäga.
37. For Wolf's work itself see the following editions and translation: F. A. Wolf, Prole-
gomena ad Homerum; sive, De operum Homericorum prisca et genuina forma variisque
mutationibus et probabili ratione emendandi (Halis Saxonum [i.e. Halle a. S.]: Libraria
Orphanotrophei, 1795); F. A. Wolf, Prolegomena ad Homerum, 3rd ed. by Rudolf
Peppmiiller (Halle: Libraria Orphanotrophei, 1884); F. A. Wolf Prolegomena ad
Homerum I Prolegomena to Homer, translated with introduction and notes by An-
thony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and James E.G. Zetzel (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1985). - Al-BustãnT includes a chapter on the 'Wolfian view (ar-
ra'y al-Wulfl)' in his translation; Sulaimãn al-Bustãní, 'Iliyãdat Hümírüs, mularraba
nazman wa-'alaihaëarh ta^rîhJ 'adabïwa-hiyâmusaddara bi-muqaddimafi Hümírüs wa-
ëi'rihT wa-ãdãb al-Yunãn wa-l-cArab wa-mudayyala bi-mucgam cãmm wa-fahãris
(Homer's Iliad, translated into Arabic verse, with a historical and literary com-
mentary; prefaced with an introduction on Homer and his poetry, as well as the

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 209
was also al-B

bic and Home
sicism, he res
render the H
of the Arabs,
civilisation.
On the face of it, the Homeric question would appear an unlikely candi-
date for stirring up a major debate about the Qur5ãn and its historicity. Yet it
was Tãhã Husain who gave it great prominence during the academic year of
1925-6. He delivered a series of lectures on pre-Islamic poetry at Cairo Uni-
versity, first published in 1926, arguing that one can apply the tools of histor-
ical criticism to the poems which allegedly were composed in the sixth and
early seventh centuries AD.38 For readers unfamiliar with the early develop-
ments of Arabic poetry, one can give the following sketch.
Muslim history generally distinguishes the 'Time of Ignorance (gähilTya)',
when God had not yet revealed the Qur'an, from the Islamic period. The tra-
ditional narrative of how early poetry developed is as follows.39 The desert-
dwelling tribes of the Arabian peninsula produced a number of outstanding
poets, who celebrated glory and exploits, sorrow and grief, and, most impor-
tantly, love and longing. Reciters (called räwTs in Arabic) then continued to
perform these odes, thereby transmitting them from generation to generation.
The pre-Islamic poetry found its first stable home, so to speak, in the poetry
collections produced during the second half of the eighth century, which, in
their turn, are quoted in later works such as the majestic Book of Songs (Kitäb
al-'Agäm) by Abu 1-Farag al-'Isbahanî (d. 967). Among the pre-Islamic poets,
seven reached particular fame, and their most celebrated works were gath-
ered together into an anthology of Seven Odes, called 'mu'alläqät (suspended)'
in Arabic, perhaps because they were hung up for public display at the Kacba
in Mecca. Between the language of the Qur'än, revealed between approxi-
mately 610 and 632, and these pre-Islamic poems, one finds many linguistic
literature of the Greeks and the Arabs; and appended to it are a general lexicon and
indices) (Cairo: Matba'at al-Hiläl, 1904), on pp. 47-51. For al-Bustanï, the critical
scholarship on Homer begins with the French humanist Isaac Casaubon (1559-
1614); he states (on pp. 47-8): 'The dissenters against Homer, the Iliad, and his
other poetic works began by publishing their claim at the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury, with Casaubon, the Frenchman, leading the vanguard. For he denied the ex-
istence of Homer and the fact that the Iliad was composed by a single poet/ He
refers here to a passage in Casaubon' s Notae ad Diogenis Laertii libros de vitis, dictis
et decretis principum philosophorum. (I owe this information to Anthony Grafton.)
38. Jãhã Husain, FT§-Sicral-GahilT (On Pre-Islamic Poetry) (1st ed., Cairo: Matba'at Dãr
al-Kutub al-Misrïya, 1926); reprinted with a preface by <Abd al-Mun'im Tulaima
(Cairo: Dãr an-Nahr li-n-naár wa-t-tauzf, 1996). Tãhã Husain himself revised the
book and published it the following year under a slightly different title as On Pre-
Islamic Literature (FT WAdab al-GãhilT) (Cairo: Mafta'at al-i'timad, 1927).
39. See Alan Jones, Early Arabic Poetry, 2 vols: vol. 1: MaräthT and $uclQk Poems (Read-
ing: Ithaka Press, 1992); vol. 2: Selected Odes (Reading: Ithaka Press, 1996); James
E. Montgomery, The Vagaries of the Qaçïda: The Tradition and Practice of Early Arabic
Poetry, Gibb Literary Studies 1 (Cambridge: Gibb Memorial Trust, 1997); Thomas
Bauer, Altarabische Dichtkunst: eine Untersuchung ihrer Struktur und Entwicklung am
Beispiel der Onagerepisode (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
210 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / ]une 2009
affinities. For this reason, Qur'an commentators from the earliest times on-
wards relied on this pre-Islamic poetry to explain the Holy Writ.
Tãhã Husain basically applied the tools of historical criticism, and no-
tably radical doubt, to this standard narrative, and argued that it could not
have been correct. In a methodological chapter of his On Pre-lslamic Poetry (FT
§-Sicr al-GähilT), he invokes the philosophical method of René Descartes (1596-
1650).40 He continues to make the case that the poetry generally known as
'Pre-lslamic' did not, in effect, originate in the pre-Islamic era, but was
wrongly ascribed '(intihãl)' in later times to this era. He argues, for instance,
that one would not expect the great thematic and linguistic consistency found
across Pre-Islamic poetry, unless the poets belonged to various times and
tribes speaking different dialects.41 He opens the second part of his argument
on 'the reasons for the false ascription of poetry ('asbãb intihãl aS-§icr)' with a
discussion of Greek and Roman parallels, which is worth paraphrasing.42
Tãhã Husain begins by stating that those who reached the wrong con-
clusions about Arabic literature and history did so because they neglected to
compare the Arabic past with that of other ancient nations. He will focus his
discussion on only two such nations, the Greeks and the Romans, because in
Antiquity they had a historical and political development similar to that of
the Arabs during the Middle Ages. They were all influenced by the sur-
rounding and preceding cultures, but went beyond them and left in their turn
a 'precious and eternal legacy (turät qayyim hälid)'. These three glorious na-
tions - the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabs - also share in a literary phe-
nomenon: they all ascribed poetry incorrectly to certain ancient authors.
Historical criticism, however, has shaken many beliefs about the Greek and
Roman past, and will continue to do so. Tãhã Husain addresses the reader di-
rectly, saying43:
If you consider this, you will agree with me that this movement of
[historical] criticism arose when literary and historical scholars were
influenced by this method which we advocated at the beginning of
this book, that is to say, the philosophical method of Descartes.
Whether we want to or not, we cannot help but be influenced
by this method in our scholarly and literary research, as Westerners
[*ahl al-garb] before us were influenced by it.
Husain continues by praising the arrival of Western methods in Egypt, and

then returns to the subject of Classics44:
I would like you to familiarise yourself a little with any one of the
many books nowadays published in Europe on the history of Greek
40. Husayn, On Pre-lslamic Poetry, ch. 1.2 entitled 'Research Method (Minhag al-baht)' ,
pp. 11-14 (1926); pp. 54-6 (1996); corresponding to On Pre-lslamic Literature, ch.
2.2, pp. 66-69 (1927).
41 . A summary of his arguments can be found in Arthur John Arberry, The Seven Odes:
the First Chapter in Arabic Literature (London; New York: G. Allen & Unwin;
Macmillan, 1957), 228-54; see also Jones, Early Arabic Poetry (as in n. 38), i. 17-25.
42. Chapter 2.1, entitled 'Wrongful ascription is not limited to the Arabs (Laisa l-in-
tihalu maqsüran c alai- "Arabi)', pp. 42-6 (1926)/pp. 81-4 (1996).
43. ibid. p. 45 (1926)/ 83 (1996).
44. ibid. pp. 45-6 (1926)/ 83-4 (1996).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 211
and Latin lit

literary hi
qudamä'] ad
about the Il
believed, a
qisasTyün]?
they took as
literature a
to read wh
history, and
two nations
of Ibn Ishäq
the stories o
commentat
the writing
[ûdabã*] ab
In this way
language and
as a model.
proaches wh
(1872-1938)
with Louis M
devoted most
ing his time
notably read
and Römisch
The reactio
we shall retu
to say that t
of Egypt's s
scholarship
declared and
ued to debat
the Greek h
II. Louis cA
One of the m
in the 1960s
45. Abdelrash
(Richmond: C
46. Theodor M
Fontemoing,
see Hussein,
my reader [i
myself in rea
great Germa
the whole ele
and the vast

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC12:34:56 UTC
his opponents on the subject of Pre-Islamic poetry. This student was Louis
cAwad, who later became one of Egypt's most influential literary critics.
cAwad hailed from a fairly modest middle-class family, originally from the
Minyã province in Middle Egypt.47 Already as a boy, he was an avid reader
and came into contact with the writings of c Abbãs Mahmud al-cAqqãd (1889-
1964), an important Egyptian intellectual who was to have a great effect on
c Awad. Although his father forced him to enrol in Law at Cairo University in
1931, cAwad soon secretly defied his wishes and changed to the Faculty of
Arts, where he attended lectures by Täha Husain and al-cAqqäd; when his fa-
ther learnt of this, he refused to continue funding his son's studies. Conse-
quently Louis c Awad had to fend for himself from an early age, but managed
to live by his pen. He so excelled in his studies that he won a scholarship to
study at King's College, Cambridge (1937-40), and later at Princeton (1951-3),
where he took a doctorate with a thesis on the myth of Prometheus in French
and English literature.48 He described his student days in his autobiography
Memoirs of a Scholarship Student.49
Throughout his life, from his student days in Cairo to his later years,
cAwad had great enthusiasm for the Greek and Roman authors, and studied
them in a comparative perspective. Yet, he also broke linguistic and cultural
taboos, and therefore incurred the scathing criticism of his contemporaries as
well as subsequent generations of academics and intellectuals.50 His rich
œuvre is too vast to allow for a detailed analysis. In the following, I shall
merely highlight three aspects of his work where his engagement with the
Classics proved so novel and iconoclastic in effect that it provoked major de-
bates about cultural identity in Egypt and beyond.
1. Horace and Arabic Dialect Poetry
The Arabic language possesses quite a complex nature, for there exists a di-
chotomy between the various spoken dialects and standard Arabic.51 Linguists
speak of the phenomenon of diglossia: speakers of Arabic learn their dialect
natively, but have to acquire standard Arabic in school and university. In the-
ory, modern standard Arabic follows the same grammatical rules as classical
Arabic, and both are called 'the pure [sc. language, al-Fushä]' in Arabic. The
Qur'an is written in this pure language, and it therefore enjoys great literary
prestige, whereas dialects are only used for oral communication and normally
not committed to paper. Louis cAwad, however, produced a thin volume of
47. See John J. Donohue, Leslie Tramontini (eds), Crosshatching in Global Culture: a Dic-
tionary of Modern Arab Writers: an Updated English version ofR. B. Campbell's 'Con-
temporary Arab writers', Beiruter Texte und Studien 101, 2 vols (Beirut; Würzburg:
Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft; Ergon in Kommis-
sion, 2004), i. 153-9.
48. Louis ( Awad, The Theme of Prometheus in English and French Literature: a Study in Lit-
erary Influences (Cairo: Ministry of Culture, 1963).
49. Louis c Awad, Mucfakkirãt tãlib bi'ta (Cairo: al-Hai'a al-Misriya al-cÄmma li-1-Kitãb,
1991).
50. See part 3, below.
51. Clive Holes, Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties (rev. ed., Washing-
ton, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2004).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 213
poetry entit
literary circ
In one of t
race's famou
dure the ag
Cambridge,
of Horace's ode in Latin:
Exegi monumentum aere perennius

regalique situ pyramidum altius
[I have built a monument longer lasting than bronze,

higher than the royal site of the Pyramids]
Then follows the poem in Arabic:
Not the marble of the Romans, nor their forts,

Nor the mastabas in Memphis' burning heat,
Nor the temples carved by the Ancients,
Nor the obelisk of Ramses' column,
Will endure forever like my poetry
And will fill each soul with humility.
52. Louis 'AwacJ, Plütüländ wa-qa&id 'uhra (Cairo: Matbafat al-Karnak, 1947). The
title is an oblique reference to T. S. Eliot's Wasteland, a work which ( Awaçl studied
intensively, and which he also translated into Arabic.
53. See Edwar al-Kharrat, 'The Mashriq', in: Modern Literature in the Near and Middle
East 1850-1970, ed. Robin Ostie (Routledge: London and New York, 1991), 180-192,
on p. 188; M. M. Badawi, A Short History of Modern Arabic Literature (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1993), 54; Roger Allen, The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Develop-
ment of Its Genres and Criticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
403.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
I am the one who received the revelation, I am the artist,

I translated the enigma of creation with tears.
One tear for Nini, one tear about my friends,
and my tear, make three tears.
I squeeze the rest of my heartblood onto the ground.
And I lament with it the mortals before death.
I say again: all this is clear: I am
the owner of the building, am built, and the builder.
Cambridge 31 May 1940
This poem is rather clever in that the beginning could be read as both standard
Arabic and dialect. Only in line 5 is there no doubt any longer that it is writ-
ten in the Egyptian colloquial.54 Obviously, this shift is hard to imitate in trans-
lation. Part of the novelty and the irony lie in the fact that cAwad uses
day-to-day language when stating that his poetry is eternal. In later years,
c Awad used colloquial Arabic on a number of occasions, notably in his auto-
biography mentioned above. He saw such a use as a means of emancipation,
similar to that achieved by the European vernaculars with regard to Latin.
This attitude did not win him any favour with religious and conservative fac-
tions, as they saw the promotion of the Egyptian dialect as a dilution of pure
Arabic, and ultimately also as an attack on either Islam or Arabism, or both,
as we shall see below in part III (pp. 224-228).
c Awad's character as a scholar and critic also appears in this collection of
poetry, for he often explains his own poems (perhaps in an attempt at self-
irony?). In the case of 'Sonnet V, he also provides a commentary (ta'lïq):
The idea conveyed in this poem is one known in the literature of the
East and the West. Al-Mutanabbï (915-61), for instance, says: 'If you
compose a poem, eternity will recite it {Hdã quita §icran, "asbaha d-
dahru munêidan)'.
cAwad goes on to quote other examples from Renaissance literature such as

William Shakespeare ('Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / of princes
shall outlive this powerful rhyme'; Sonnet 55) and Pierre de Ronsard ('Ne pilier,
ne terme dorique / D'histoires vieilles décoré / ... Ne te feront si bien revivre, / Après
avoir passé le port, / Comme les plumes et le livre / Te feront vivre après ta mort, Odes
I 8). In the same year as this collection of verse appeared, cAwad also pub-
lished a bilingual edition of Horace's Art of Poetry, containing a fairly exten-
sive introduction and copious notes.55
2. Greek Sources of Classical Arabic Literature
Ancient literary criticism was to remain one of c Awad's abiding interests, and
in 1965 he brought out a substantial compendium of source texts in Arabic
translation entitled Greek Texts on Literary Criticism.58 Whilst working on this
54. The demonstrative 'ha (this)' and the preposition ' zayy (like)' clearly belong to the
Egyptian colloquial register.
55. Louis lAwad, bann aè-bî'r (Horace s Art poetica) (Cairo: MaKtaDat ai-rsianaa ai-
Misrïya, 1947), 88-90.
56. Louis 'Awad, Nusüs an-naqd al-adam al-yünänJ (Greek lexts on Literary criticism;
(Cairo: Dar al-Macãrii, 1965).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 215
volume in 19
deals with asp
lus) compare
to the quest
beginning of
pect of Aris
around a kat
attended the
underworld i
Epistle of For
departed pio
to his great
[zindTqs] hav
In a numbe
1964 in the S
papers, Al-
Ma'arrf s Ep
Dante's Divin
tools of com
ious Greek
about them.
bãsid transla
and in the lat
Syria, and th
Greek speak
Ma'anT, and
Macarri in hi
To illustrat
One of the t
dise is that e
Qärih encou
him that th
tells him tha
House of Sci
Qãrih to exc
57. Abu l-cAlâ

(3rd ed., Cair
edy, tr. G. B
Mansour Mon
dem 'Sendsch
2002).
58. For the debate about Dante's oriental sources, see Gotthard Strohmaier, "Die ange-
blichen und die wirklichen orientalischen Quellen der „Divina Commedia" ",
Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch 68/69 (1993/4), 183-98, reprinted in Strohmaier, Von
Demokrit bis Dante: die Bewahrung antiken Erbes in der arabischen Kultur, Olms Stu-
dien 43 (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1996), 471-86.
59. Louis {Awad, 'Ala hãmiS al-Gufrãn (On the Margins of [the Epistle of] Forgiveness),
Kitãb al-Hilãl 181 (Cairo: Dãr al-Hilãl, 1966), 125-6.
60. p. 287 (ed. Bint aS-Sätf' 3rd ed.; see above n. 57).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
come purer than camphor'. After relating this scene, cAwad makes the fol-
lowing observation about this feature found in paradise where the formerly
ugly become fair61:
The fact that in paradise mankind returns to a state of eternal youth

[aë-Sabfib ad-dãHm] and is clothed in radiant beauty despite their orig-
inal ugliness does not have any support [sanad] in Ibn c Abbãs nor in
the [other] Islamic sources on which the story of [Muhammad's]
journey-to-heaven [qissat al-Micräg] relies. What corresponds to this
[nazTr hãdã] is what happens to Odysseus and his men in the agree-
able company of the Nymph Circe [ft na'Tmi 1-hürTyati Ktrkä': when
they are all returned to eternal youth [ae-§abãb ad-dãHm] and lofty
manliness [al-futüwa al-fãriâ] by drinking a surplus of the magical
plant potion 'moly [idubA.!)]'. Something similar also occurs in Hes-
iod's Works and Days when this poem turns its attention to the de-
scription of the next world [al^älam al-'ähar], Aristophanes also
describes something similar in the Frogs where we find a chorus of
Initiates [küräs as-Süfiya] imploring Iacchus, the lord of vegetation
and renewal [rabb al-hudra wa-t-tagaddud], to return them again to
youth. Perhaps al-Macarrf s description of the renewal of youth and
beauty in paradise was a literary imagination of the Noble Hadith
[tasawwur li-l-hadît aë-ëarîf], influenced by the descriptions of the an-
cients [muta* aturan bi-âwsãfal-qudamã*].
The micrãg (' journey-to-heaven') to which cAwad refers here is a complex con-
cept. The word originally means 'ladder', and comes to designate the prophet
Muhammad's nightly journey to heaven ('¿sra') and 'the furthest place of wor-
ship (al-masgid aWaqsd)', later identified as Jerusalem. By al-Macarrf s time,
the Mi'rag symbolises the soul's ascent to heaven where it is judged.62 When
cAwad mentions Ibn c Abbãs, he does not refer to cAbd Allãh ibn ai- c Abbãs (c.
619-688), an important early Qur'ân scholar and ancestor of the cAbbãsid dy-
nasty, as such, but rather to an account of the Micräg attributed to him, which
is almost certainly apocryphal.63
c Awad therefore maintains that since the idea of eternal youth in Paradise
is not found in the Islamic sources, al-Macarn is perhaps (rubbamä) influenced
by similar accounts in Homer, Hesiod, or Aristophanes. To this argument one
can easily make two fundamental objections. First, the dream of eternal youth
is almost universal, and al-Ma'am would not have needed Greek sources to
develop it. Second, Homer's Odyssey has to this day not been translated into
Arabic, and was, despite cAwad's contentions, not available to al-Ma'arrï.64
61. ibid. p. 126.

62. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, art. 'Micrag: 1. In Islamic exegesis and in the
popular and mystical tradition of the Arab world' (B. Schrieke-Q. Horovitz], J.
Knappert), vii. 97a-100a.
63. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, art. /cAbd Allah ibn al-' Abbas' (L. Veccia
Vaglieri), i. 40a-41b; Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, art. 'Micmg: 2. In Arabic lit-
erature' (J. Knappert), vii. 100a-104a.
64. Pormann, 'The Arabic Homer' (as in n. 5); there are two Arabic paraphrase 'trans-
lations' of the Odyssey: c Anbara Salãm al-Hãlidí, al-Üdísa (The Odyssey) (Beirut:
Dar al-'Ilm li-1-malãyIn, 1979); and Aiman cÄdil, The Most Famous Epics in History:

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 217
The chances
even the gr
stand Aristo
Let us brief
In the Odys
mans not "b
Circe's magi
are aligned in
to Odysseus
fusion is eas
regards Hesi
where
coerce 0eoi
voö(J)lv áiE
Yf|Qaç èjtf
xéQJTDvx' è
just like go
their lives,
entirely ap
not oppress
and they de
In other wor
where man
And again h
to the hymn
notably the
The Iliad and O

t'ta'rïh: Al-Il
MaSãriq, 200
65. Franz Ros
(London: Rou
tike in der m
tur, ed. Geor
66. Homer, O
évavxíoi, T) [
afcko.
67. Homer, Odyssey, x. 302-6: còç aça (|)u)vf]oaç Jióoe (|>áenaxov Aqy^óvxtíç [i.e. Her-
mes] / éx ycútiç èovaaç xaí pot <t>i>aiv ai)xoí> ëôeiÇe. / qíÇji 'izv 'iëkav ëoxe, yaXaxxt
ôè eixeXov àv6oç- / fxcaXu òé piv köIeovoi Geoí, xatarcov ôé x' òçvooeiv / àvòçáoi
ye OvTixoíof 0eoi ôé xe jiávxa òvvavxau For a discussion of this term, see B. Mader,
article ''uo'v', in Lexikon des Frühgriechischen Epos, ed. Bruno Snell et al., 3 vols
(Göttingen: :Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1955-), iii. 290-91.
68. Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 112-15; translation by Glenn W. Most, Hesiod:
Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Loeb Classical Library 57 (Cambridge, Mass.;
London: Harvard University Press, 2006), 97, slightly modified according to the
earlier Loeb by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (London; Cambridge, Mass: W. Heine-
mann; Harvard University Press, 1936), 11.

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"EyeiQ' <(b> ctôyéaç èv yeQOÌ yàg rjxei xiváoocov,

'Iaxx', (î> 'Iaxxe,
VVKTEQOV TeXexf|Ç (t>(00(()ÓQOÇ áoXTjQ.
())éYY£"f at ài] ^Xoyt Xet|X(bv
yóvu jtáXlexai yeqóvxwv-
àjiooetovxai ôè Mjkxç
XQovlodç x' èxœv jtaXaiœv èviauxoùç
legâç vjtò xi|xf|ç.
Si) ôè Xanjcáôi <J)éYY<üv
jiQoßaOT]v Eây' èjr' ávBíiQÒv eXeiov ôájieôov
XOQOjTDióv, pxixaQ, f|ßav.
Awaken blazing torches, tossing them in your hands,

Iacchus, Iacchus,
brilliant star of our nighttime rite!
Lo, the meadow's ablaze with flame,
and old men's knees are aleap
as they shed their cares
and the longdrawn seasons of ancient years,
owing to your worship.
Now illuminate with torchlight
and lead forth to blooming meadowland
our dancing youth, o blest one!69
The resemblance between the two scenes is extremely superficial. In Aristo-

phanes, old men are restored to youth in the afterlife through the action of
Iacchus, that is to say, Dionysus, whom they worship. In al-Macarrï, formerly
ugly women are beautified, notably by changing one woman's original black
skin colour into white; the latter was generally perceived as being much more
attractive.70 If one adds the difficulty that Aristophanes' Frogs was almost cer-
tainly unknown to al-Macarrï, the chance for a generic link between the two
texts becomes extremely slim.71
Be that as it may, cAwad certainly makes interesting observations, even
if the parallels between the classical Greek and Arabic texts can certainly be
better explained in terms of thematic affinities, and not historical filiation.
c Awad's more fundamental point has undoubtedly great merit: that even Ara-
bic literature owes much to the cultures with which the Arabs came into con-
tact. Another area where Louis cAwad saw parallels between Greek and
Arabic cultures is mythology.
69. Aristophanes, Ranae, 341-52; tr. Jeffrey Henderson, Aristophanes: Works IV (Frogs,
Assemblywomen, Wealth), Loeb Classical Library 180 (Cambridge, Mass.; London:
Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 73-5.
70. See Manfred Ullmann, Der Neger in der Bildersprache der Arabischen Dichter (Wies-
baden: Harrasowitz, 1998).
71. For a more recent engagement with the Greek comical tradition, see the special
issue The Performance of the Comic in Arabic Theater: Cultural Heritage, Western Mod-
els, Postcolonial Hybridity, ed. Mieke Kolk, Freddy Decreus, Documenta: tijdschrift
voor theater, mededelingen van het documentatiecentrum voor dramatische kunst, Gent
23 (2005), no. 3.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 219
3. Compara
Although Lo
Macarrf s Ep
continued t
of three yea
peared in 19
the preface
Finally I sh
in my tran
basis of th
series,74 a n
Buckley, pu
etic translat
in renderin
Greek text
lating Aris
methods w
logues as pr
humour an
on many o
maintain th
problem w
magnificent
For this rea
the beginn
experiment
periment s
maintainin
the value o
entailed re
that is to s
retaining th
[...] Regardl
72. Louis c Aw
Kitãb al- 'Ar
Ushïlûs) (Cai
li-hsMüs) (C
second editio
1986).
73. ( Awad (tr.), Agamemnon by Aeschylus (as in n. 72), 29-30.
74. Aeschylus: vol 2: Agamemnon; Libation-Bearers; Eumenides; Fragments, tr. Herbert
Weir Smyth, Loeb Classical Library 146 (London : Heineman, 1957).
75. The Tragedies of JEschylus, tr. Theodore Alois Buckley, Bohn's Classical Library 1
(London: Bohn, 1849).
76. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, tr. Edmund D. A. Morshead (London: Henry b. King,
1877).
77. See above, p. 215.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
a necessary one insofar as it attempts to rid the actors of long prose

sentences which can often be so tiring. One can only pass final judg-
ment on the merit of this experiment when one listens to the free
verse being actually performed on stage. If the experiment is useful,
it can be repeated; otherwise, I hope that I can plead my good inten-
tions to help rejuvenate the Arabic style [bayãn] by different [future]
experiments.
Like many of those who rendered Greek into Arabic in the twentieth century,
cAwad really translates a translation: he translates an English version into
Arabic, presumably because his Greek is not as good as his English.78 Yet im-
portantly, he also follows the fads of the time, for free verse (Sicr hurr) and
'prose odes (qasTdat an-natr)' had become fashionable since the early 1950s.79
Louis cAwad was not, however, content with merely translating the
Oresteia. He also produced an intriguing study in comparative literature and
mythology under the title The Myth of Orestes and Arabic Epic Poetry.80 Whereas
in his work on al-Ma'arrl cAwad had dedicated a comparative study to one
of the Arabs' most celebrated authors of prose and poetry, he now turned to
what one might call popular literature. To put it differently, al-Macarrï firmly
belongs to the classical canon of great Arabic authors alongside al-oãhi? (776-
868/9) and Abu Nu was (d. c. 814). The Epic of az-Zír Sãlim, however, with
which cAwad compares the Oresteia, circulated in many different versions,
and never attained the same acclaim as al-Ma'arrf s Epistle of Forgiveness.*1
c Awad's The Myth of Orestes and Arabic Epic Poetry basically retells the
story of az-Zïr Sãlim and lists parallels with Aeschylus' Oresteia and other
Greek, and sometimes Egyptian, mythical accounts. As this Arab myth will be
unfamiliar to many classicists, it will be useful here to give a brief summary
of it. This summary is based on cAwad's version of the myth, and simplifies
some of the subplots. cAwad himself sometimes tells diverging versions of
the story, but I have glossed over these.
Once upon a time, Tubbac Hassan, the king of Yemen, conquered Syria
(Bilãd aS-èãm), and he learnt that one of the chieftains there had a daughter of
exquisite beauty called (Salila. Hassan asked her father for her hand in mar-
riage, and the latter acceded to this request, even though GalTla had previ-
ously been betrothed to her cousin Kulaib. Outraged by this betrayal, Kulaib
disguised himself during the wedding celebrations as Oalïla's fool, and smug-
gled in his men hidden in her bags and chests. Kulaib was thus able to kill the
king Hassan, and marry Galîla in his stead.
When news of Hassan's ignoble death reaches his sister, the fearsome
warrior and sorceress Sucad, she vows to avenge her brother. Disguised as a
soothsayer (kähina), Sucäd travels to Kulaib's cousin and Galïla's brother,
78. For parallel cases, see Pormann, The Arabic Homer' (as in n. 5).
79. See Paul Starkey, Modern Arabic Literature, ser. New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 89-90.
80. Louis ( Awad, ' Usfurat ' Qrist wa-l-malähim al-cArabJya (The Myth of Orestes and Ara-
bic Epic Poetry) (Cairo: Dãr al-Kãtib al-cArabî, 1968).
81. Marguerite Gavillet, La geste du Zir Salimi d'après un manuscrit syrien (Sïrat az-Zîr
Sãlim hasba Hhdã al-mahtutãt as-Sttrîya) (Damascus: Institut français du Proche-Ori-
ent, 2Ó05)

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 221
Gassãs. In a
brother, az-
help, Öassäs
in their end
further poiso
time of thes
Higris, havin
Yamãma had
profoundly
Galïla out of
hold. Oalîla
ther's killer
Yamãma cal
years he is u
his brother
grievously w
into a box a
Jewish king
years, az-Zïr
In the cours
him of his b
might be her
apples at thi
Therefore, Y
true identity
Zïr Sãlim de
side. Higris a
tally wound
kills Gassãs
Higris becom
So far the s
to other myt
and his jealo
over Egypt.
c Awad sees
to Seth and
latter was i
drunk. More
ferent parts
nation, cAw
brother, tak
guistic link84
82. The most

ed. John Gwy
Press, 1970).
83. ibid., p. 101.
84. ibid., pp. 101-2.

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Even the name of Sultan, the killer of az-Zïr, has elements of Seth.
Perhaps the two overlap in the name Soter [2(ott)q], which is one of
Zeus' epitheta ornantia in Greek. It is thought that it is derived from
the ancient Egyptian term 'Soneter', meaning 'great god (al-Hläh al-
'akbar)' (compare also 'Sothis [IcoBiç]', the [name of the] star Sirius
[aS-$icrä] or Sirius [SeÍQioç] in Greek, which is thought to have an
etymological link to áaitãn, Satan [Zctxâv], Sathan.85
This etymological link is tenuous at best, as is the parallel between Seth and
Öassäs.
cAwad also compares the warrior witch Sucãd to Cassandra. And when
Yamãma laments her father's death, she resembles the grieving Electra.
Yamäma also urges her paternal uncle az-Zír Sãlim to take revenge on her ma-
ternal uncle Öassäs, just as Electra incites her brother Orestes to avenge him-
self on Aegisthus, her mother's lover and her father's killer.86 In a similar vein,
Higris is likened to Orestes, as both take revenge for their father's death.87 But
the similarities between the two do not stop there: both use a ruse to achieve
their aim of revenge. Higris puts on a fake fight, whereas Orestes brings
Aegisthus a letter in disguise.88
A parallel with Homeric lore can, according to c Awad, be found in the
episode where Kulaib hides his men in the boxes and chests containing
Galîla's dowry. This reminds cAwad of Odysseus' trick with the Trojan
Horse.89 Moreover, c Awad finds the three apples, used by Yamãma to recog-
nise her brother, reminiscent of Penelope's encounter with Odysseus, as
cAwad explains90:
The use of apples and arrows as a means of recognition existed

among the Greeks. For instance, in Homer's Odyssey, this is the
means by which Penelope recognises the return of her absent hus-
band Ulysses (Odysseus) to his palace in Ithaca in the dress of a beg-
gar.
c Awad seems to conflate two traditions here. When Odysseus takes his bow
at the end of book 21 of the Odyssey and handles it expertly, he reveals him-
self to his son Telemachus and the suitors, and promptly and gruesomely kills
the latter at the beginning of book 22. Penelope had seen Odysseus in book 17,
but without realising that he was her husband. It is only in book 23 that
Odysseus renews his courtship and that Penelope, after some hesitation, for-
mally recognises her former husband.91
In the examples above, the similarities between the two epics, the Greek
and the Arabic, appear to be rather superficial. Louis cAwad often has to
stretch the evidence, pointing out generic links where some thematic corre-
85. See Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, ch. 61, 375F-376A.

86. ibid. pp. 80-1.
87. ibid. pp. 82-3.
88. ibid. p. 182.
89. ibid. p. 90.
90. ibid. p. 174.
91. Cf. Chris Emlyn-Jones, 'The Reunion of Penelope and Odysseus7, in: Lillian E. Do-
herty (ed.), Homer's Odyssey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 208-30.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 223
spondence a
scenes are re
disclose his
a kind of tric
yond the fa
common gro
parallels list
caused by a
both epic tr
best be called thin evidence.
Before turning to Louis c Awad's and Tãhã Husain's critics, let us briefly
explore another treatment of az-Zïr Salim's story by an author, critic, and
friend of cAwad's. Although this version of the story does not directly draw
on Greek sources, it illustrates the intellectual milieu in which cAwaçí wrote
his essay on the myth of az-Zïr Sãlim. Alfred Farag (b. 1929), the author of this
new version, was born in Alexandria and worked as a teacher and journalist,
before turning to writing for the theatre. After initial difficulties, he estab-
lished himself with his play The Barber of Baghdad (Hallãq Bagdad, 1964).92 Like
so many prominent intellectuals, he clashed with the authorities and had to go
into exile (Libya, London).93 In 1967, not long after his Barber of Baghdad, he
published a play entitled Az-ZTr Sãlim: A New Play, in which he treated the
subject of the popular epic in dramatic form.94 He changes quite a few minor
details in the myth as told by c Awad: for instance, the whole episode of az-Zîr
being put into a box and spending seven years in a far-flung land is altered.
Farag makes az-Zïr loose his memory for seven years, and during his mental
affliction lets him be hidden by his fool. More substantially, however, Farag
modifies the role and character of Higris. He portrays him as a gentle and
peace-loving soul, opposed to the cruelties of war. For this reason, Yamãma
and Higris do not meet in battle, but at their father's grave. Likewise, Higris
does not take part in killing Gassäs or anybody else for that matter. In his pref-
ace, Farag explains what motivates him to effect this change: he wants to con-
vey a message of hope that life continues despite all odds.95 And he has Higris
voice the same feeling at the end of the play, as he becomes king96:
Here I am, coming onto the throne, innocent of all wrong-doing, with
a pure soul and clean hands, compelled by honour [...]
Farag and cAwad had both studied with Tãhã Husain, who had a pro-
found effect on them. They also believed that literature had a social role to
play. Theatre more specifically should be engaged in a Brechtian sense; we
can view the denouement which Farag proposed for the story of az-Zïr Sãlim
in this light. Yet although c Awad favoured socialism, as many intellectuals of
92. Future research will perhaps establish whether Farag knew of the opera by Peter
Cornelius (1824-74) with the similar title Der Barbier von Bagdad (1858).
93. See Donohue, Tramontai (eds), Crosshatching in Global Culture (as in n. 46), i. 324-
8.
94. Alfred Farag, Az-Zïr Sãlim: Masrahïya hadïia (Az-Zïr Sãlim: a New Play) (Cairo:
Wizãrat aMaqãfa/Dãr al-Kãtib al-cArabï, 1967)
95. ibid. pp. 9-10.
96. ibid. p. 125.

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his time did, he believed that intellectual freedom constitutes the highest
good, and that one should not confuse 'engagement (iltizäm)' with 'compul-
sion (Hlzäm)'.97 One aspect of cAwad's world view was his scepticism about re-
ligion, which, at times, could veer to outright hostility. More generally
speaking, like Tãhã Husain before him, cAwad offended many Arabs and
Muslims from different and at times diametrically opposed intellectual and
political backgrounds.
III. Criticism ofTähä Husain and Louis 'Awad

1. al-Rafi'f s Under the Banner of the Qur'an
Both Tãhã Husain and Louis c Awad found themselves at the receiving end of
a great amount of criticism. In the context of the tense political situation of
the mid-1920s, Tãhã Husain's On Pre-Islamic Poetry was attacked with great
vigour by the religious establishment. The first reaction to it was a veritable
barrage of vicious criticism in the daily press, notably in perhaps the major
paper, al-Âhräm.98 The second onslaught came in the form of two commis-
sions set up by clerics at al-Azhar University, the stronghold of religious con-
servatism. These clerics, led by Sheikh Mustafa al-Qayyãtí, petitioned the
university authorities and the governments to censure Tãhã Husain. He was
even accused of apostasy and dragged through the courts, although he was ul-
timately acquitted." Yet he also incurred severe criticism from nationalist
quarters, as he was suspected to sell Arabic culture short, and merely to fol-
low Western Orientalists.
A prominent critic of Tãhã Husain was Mustafa Sãdiq al-Rãficí, a con-
servative literary scholar (1880-1937).100 He was one of those who attacked
Tãhã Husain first in the press and then also published an influential book en-
titled Under the Banner of the Qur'än: the Struggle between the Old and the New
in the same year in which Husain's On Pre-Islamic Poetry appeared.101 It bears
the telling subtitle
Articles on Arabic literature in the Egyptian University, the refutation

of the book On Pre-Islamic Poetry by Tãhã Husain, and the elimina-
tion of the new heresy [al-bidca al-gadîda] of those calling for a re-
newal of religion, language, the sun, the moon . . .
97. M. M. Badawi, Modern Arabic Literature and the West (London: Ithaca Press, 1985),
14-16.
98. See Yunan Labib Rizk, Taha Hussein's ordeal', Al-Ahram Weekly 24-30 May 2001
(535) [available at: http://weekly.ahram.org.ee/2001/535/chrncls.htm ].
99. See Hairï Salabî (ed.), Muhãkamat Taha Husain: nass qarãr al-ittihãm didda Tãhã Hu-
sain sanat 1927 haula kitãbihT 'Fîë-ëi'r al-Öahilf (The Trial of Tãhã Husain: the Text of
the Charge against Tãhã Husain in the Year 1927 regarding His Book 'On Pre-Islamic
Poetry') (Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabïya li-d-Dirãsãt wa-n-nasr, 1972).
100. For a very sympathetic account of ar-Rãficf s life, see Muhammad Sacíd al-cIryãn,
Hayãt ar-Râfi'T (Ar-Rafi'T's Life) (al-Maktaba al-Tigãríya aí-Kubrã, 1955).
101. Musfafã Sãdiq ar-Rãfi£í, Tanta ray at al-Qur^än: al-ma'raka baina al-qadlm wa-al-hadii
(1st ed., Cairo: al-Maktaba al-'Ahlïya, 1926); 4th ed. by Muhammad Sacîd al-'Iryän
(al-Maktaba al-Tigãríya al-Kubrã, 1956). In the following I shall quote from this
4th edition.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 225
The title an
claims to de
cuses Husain
to designate
of this title r
his followers
RäficT sets th
One of thei
was this Dr
ian Universit
against God
bi-n-näs], f
[previous] hi
tiplying err
have helped
obstinacy [al
Ar-Raficï co
ing him to b
lined as foll
marvellous l
is wrong; th
new concept
and Islamic c
take just one
tered intellec
It should no
opinions in
independen
fikrï at-tãmm
an influence
and each in
sickness of s
al-'ilahïya],
and America
ity is a 'conf
is a 'confess
fession', an
The point is
oric: too man
through rec
of such dise
102. See Encyc

103. Ar-Rãfi%
104. ibid. p. 14
105. The Arab

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Apart from religious themes, ar-Rafi'I also argues extremely strongly

against the idea of abandoning the Ture Arabic (language) [al-c Arablya al-
Fushä]' or denigrating the literary legacy written in it. Another intellectual
who was no less offended by Tãhã Husain's ideas about Pre-Islamic poetry
was Mahmud Muhammad Sãkir (1909-97). He apparently stormed out of
Jãhã Husain's lectures when he heard them as a young student at Cairo Uni-
versity in the mid-1920s. Some forty years later, he was to become one of Louis
cAwad's most strident critics.
2. c Awad as an Agent of 'Westernisation (tagrïb)'
Louis cAwad's work on al-Macarrï stirred a great deal of debate and contro-
versy. Immediately after 'Awad's articles on the subject had appeared in al-
yAhräm, his critics attacked him in the Egyptian and Arab press; at times, their
censure took vitriolic forms. Leftist intellectuals accused him of being right-
wing, right-wing authors of being a left-leaning Marxist, others that he was
'the last consul of the Christian world in Egypt since the Crusades Cãhiru
qunsulin li-Inalanti 1-masïhTyi ft Misra mundu l-hurübi s-Salîbtyati)' - because of
his Coptic family background - , and yet others that he promoted Egyptian
'Pharaonic' nationalism over Arab nationalism.106
Mahmud Muhammad áãkir, who had stormed out of Husain' lectures,
also pilloried c Awad' s positions in no uncertain terms. He first voiced his dis-
approval in a string of articles published in the journal ar-Risãla {The Epistle),
and later collected them in a book with the programmatic title Idle Chatter and
Nightly Prattle {'AbätTl iva-' Asmär).107 áãkir begins by criticising cAwad for re-
lying solely on Tahã Husain's work on al-Macarrï and for having neglected
contemporaneous sources; at times cAwad even misunderstands or misrep-
resents Husain.108 áãkir points out that both Husain and c Awad do not always
quote their sources regarding al-Macarrî faithfully. For instance, in the so-
called bio-bibliographical literature - that is to say the Arabic biographical
dictionaries which also list books - we find a report that al-MacarrT 'passed
through (igtãza)' Laodicea (Aaoôíxeia, Arabic Ladiqïya); however, Husain and
cAwad change this to 'he studied in (tabuliamo)'.
Beyond these points which deal with the use of the sources, aäkir also
finds fault with c Awad's linguistic abilities.109 He repeatedly calls him a char-
latan, partly because he does not really have any knowledge of Greek, as áãkir
discovered through his own research, as he claims110:
I thought that he [cAwad] had a command of Greek and other lan-

guages, and those who follow his scandalous acts [fadä'ih] believe
this. He wanted to apply this command to the tortured and miserable
note schools of Islamic law or philosophical affiliations. The idea expressed here
tends more towards the idea of a religious school of thought or 'confession'.
106. Cf. c Awad, On the Margins of [the Epistle of] Forgiveness (as in n. 58), on p. 8.
107. Mahmud Muhammad Sãkir, Idle Chatter and Nightly Prattle CAbãtil wa-' Asmãr)
(2nd ed., Cairo: Matba'at al-Madanï, 1972).
108. ibid. pp. 27-9.
109. In this criticism, he is joined by quite a number of Egyptian classicists; see aafïq,
'The Influence of Classics' (as in n. *), on p. 50-52.
110. Sãkir, Idle Chatter (as in n. 107), p. 563.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 227
Greek poet
translated i
news reached me and I learned that he is now 'in a confused state of
translation [habilunfthälati targamatin]' . For even if it is easy for some
people [...] to count this human being [hädä Z-5 adami, i.e. cAwad]
among the poets, it is not easy for me to count him among those who
understand [just] the easiest verse, not to mention difficult poetry,
or how to compose odes.
Then this play was performed, and I was surprised as well that
some of the 'gang members [*afräd al-cisäba]' described this transla-
tion as 'a marvel in the Arabic language [mu'gizat al-luga al-cArabTya]'
in a place over which this intellectual and comic evangelist [hädä I-
mubaëëir at-taqäft al-mudhik] had command, namely the newspaper
al-'Ahräm [...].
Ôãkir continues with a long tirade against cAwad's translation, claiming that
it lacks linguistic rigour and is often even blatantly wrong. He carefully analy-
ses the beginning of the play (vv. 1-56), reproaching the quality of the trans-
lation, especially of single words and expressions, in many places.111
Yet, Sãkir shows his true colours, so to speak, when he states what he
thinks about the Greek heritage as a creative inspiration for Arabic letters. He
talks about the 'imbecility of the allusions which this "charlatan" uses in his
writings', 'this renewed Greek imbecility [hädä l-suhf al-YünänT l-mustahdat}'
which he cannot endure and with which he does not want to soil the 'honour
of the Arab [Saraf cArabTyatihT]'.m This onslaught culminates in a profession of
faith113:
Thanks be to God who freed us from 'the allusions' [ar-rumüz, i.e. to

Greek mythology], as he freed us from polytheism; who put a dis-
tance between us and the 'myths of the Greeks', as he has put a dis-
tance between us and the act of taking equals [sc. to God, ittihäd
al-yandäd]; who kept us away from lies, as he kept us away from sub-
mission to others than Him - praise be to Him - [. . .]
In this way, the fight against Louis cAwad takes on decidedly religious over-
tones. The ancient Greeks worshipped many different gods, not just the one
God, and therefore were unbelievers. To use allusions to their pantheon, as
Louis c Awad was fond of doing, is an act of polytheism [ëirk] and ought to be
avoided at all cost according to Sãkir. Employing these literary techniques im-
plies that one copies Western values, something against which ääkir fought
valiantly not only in his refutations of Louis c Awad, but also in his other pub-
lications.
Another critic accusing c Awad of 'Westernisation (tagrïb)' was Muham-
mad cImãra (b. 1931), a member of Al-'Azhar's Academy of Islamic Studies
(Mugammac al-buhüt al-'IsläniTya), who generally advocated an Islamic mod-
ernism. He wrote a book with the programmatic title Gamäl ad-DTn al-'AfgänT:
111. ibid. pp. 566-578.

112. ibid. p. 428.
113. ibid. p. 437.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
between the Historical Facts and the Lies of Louis cAwad, which is mainly con-
cerned with c Awad's potrayal of al-'Afganï as a religious reformer.114 Leaving
this aspect aside, cImãra generally contends that cAwad belittles the Arabic
and Islamic heritage, stating115:
In the framework of trying to separate the Nation [al-'umma, i.e. the

Nation of Islam] from its cultural heritage also appear the efforts
which the Orientalist movement made and still makes, especially
those sections which doubt the cultural originality of the Arabs. For
the aim, here, is to denude 'the prey' [tagrTd 'al-farïsa'] of its histori-
cal glory, in order that it [the prey] surrender to 'Westernisation' ''at-
tagrTb'], since Westernisation, as far as the present and future are
concerned, is 'the only choice' ['al-hiyãr al-wahïd'], as long as our her-
itage signals us no alternative choice.
At this point, cImãra is primarily discussing cAwad's position regarding al-

Ma'arrT and the Greek influences in the Epistle of Forgiveness. 'Imãra accuses
cAwad of having deprived al-MacarrI of his originality, and reduced him to
being116
but an echo [sadd] of Byzantine monks, a pupil of their monasteries,

an impression [tabca] of the Western cultural heritage, which the
Greeks invented.
In cImãra's view, cAwad reduces al-Macarrf s great work to a patchwork of

quotations learnt - horror of horrors - from Christians. Such criticism is cer-
tainly unfair, and c Awad preemptively defends himself against it by stating
clearly that imitation or even inspiration does not preclude originality; for
what is literature from its inception but a constant reengagement with previ-
ous authors and poets?117
Conclusions
The two verses from the Qur'an which opened this article (above, p. 198) il-
lustrate two themes which have figured prominently in these pages. These
verses, appearing at the end of the best known süra, sürat al-Fätiha (similar in
importance to the Lord's Prayer in Christianity, or the Semac Yisräye~l in Ju-
daism), centre around the ideas of 'the right path (as-sirãt ai-mustaqïm)' '. The
word for 'path (sirät)', repeated twice here, comes from Latin strata (sc. via),
'paved way', whence we derive the English word 'street'.118 Therefore, these
114. Muhammad 'Imãra, Gamai ad-Dïn al-Âfgânï: baina haqa'iq at-ta^nh wa-'akadïb
Luwïs 'Awad (Cairo: Dãr ar-Raááãd, 1997).
115. Muhammad cImãra, Cantal ad-Dïn al-'Afganï: between the Historical Facts and the
Lies of Louis 'Awad (Gamãl ad-Dïn al-'Afganï: baina haqãHq at-ta'rïh wa-'akâdïb Luwïs
'Awad) (2nd ed., Cairo: Dãr ar-Raáãd, 1997), 16-17; the words in inverted commas
in my translation appear in guillemets («») in the Arabic.
116. ibid. p. 17.
117. cAwad specifically cites the example of Homer: although the first Greek author
recorded in writing, he still stands at the end of a long oral literary tradition.
118. Arthur Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur^ãn, ed. Gerhard Böwering and Jane
Dämmen McAuliffe, Texts and Studies on the Quran 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), under

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 229
verses show
ences, among
Arabo-Musli
from its ver
seventh cen
vealed. In t
Apollo enjoi
trodden trac
texts (as Lou
would seem
human exper
different fo
cilitated the
Tãhã Husain
education, an
ture and his
family, but
of their reli
detractors a
certainly too
doned their
selves denied
Arabo-Islam
Greek and L
dependence
discovered, a
ciety. Husain
Sorbonne; stu
Latin exams
In the cont
wanted to d
branches of
competence
sain' s insiste
versity, for
which many
'sirãt', pp. 19
bic via Greek
xáoxQOv < cas
ticularly com
119. For a ver
(ed.), The Qu
Claude Gillio
clopaedia of t
120. See A. A.
Interactions i
121. Hussein,
122. Husain, 'U
lish translatio

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
over, both Husain and cAwad viewed their culture as very much part of the
same tradition as that of Europe.
To be sure, for various reasons which it would take too long to explore
here in the conclusions, Egypt in particular, and the Arab and Islamic world
more generally, fell behind Europe in many respects. But fundamentally, the
two share in the same cultural, literary, and intellectual traditions.123 This idea
of a shared heritage obviously stands in stark contrast to the notion, discussed
above on pp. 201-207, that Europe is the sole heir to Greece, and that the Mus-
lim mind is fundamentally alien to this tradition. In the eyes of Husain and
'Awad, the Arab renaissance (nahda) would have to engage with the classical
past, just as the European Renaissance had done. This engagement should
take two forms: a scholarly and a creative one. And this engagement would
have an emancipatory effect. At last, the Egyptian and Arab past, for too long
the domain of European scholars, could be explored by Egyptians and Arabs
themselves. And finally, the refertilisation of Arab literature through the mar-
riage of Greek and Arabic theatre, of which Taufrq al-Haklm spoke, would be-
come possible.124
*•*
Some of Husain's and c Awad's investigations and

pear somewhat naïve, especially when viewed from
one level, few scholars of Arabic literature, past
Husain's thesis that all pre-Islamic poetry is fabricati
convinced by the parallels between the ancient G
which Louis c Awad adduced. Yet, in this writer's
they were fundamentally right: the so-called Gra
ian, and Arabo-Islamic cultures are intrinsically an
other. They have interpenetrated each other for c
The shared Greek classical heritage, to which Mus
equally appealed throughout history, enabled them
in Egypt (Mustaqbal at-taqãfafíMisr), translated by Sidn

ture in Egypt (Washington, D.C.: American Council of
relevant chapters are 34 and 35. For a previous discu
mann, 'The Arab "Cultural Awakening (Nahda)"' (as i
123. See, for instance, George Saliba's interesting book Is
the European Renaissance (London, UK and Cambridg
who argues strongly for a scientific tradition, to whic
nificantly. See the review by Charles Burnett in this jo
my own review article "Arabic Astronomy and the C
nals of Science 66.3 (2009) [in press].
124. See above, pp. 206-207.
125. A prominent exception is the former Laudian prof
versity, David S. Margoliouth (1858-1940), who publis
similar case to that of Tâhã líusain. The two knew each
ston is certainly correct in saying that 'one can hard
rived wholly independently at the same conclusion'
Samuel (1858-1940)', Oxford Dictionary of National B
Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http:// www
cle/34874, accessed 5 Aug 2009]).

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 231
transcendin
c Awad, and
sics as an aca
modern Arabic literature is hard to conceive without its Greek and Latin
sources.127
And yet, one cannot ignore that their version of a mutual heritage and
shared legacy has come under pressure from many different quarters. On the
one hand, there are the Samuel Huntingtons and Anthony Pagdens of this
world, who argue for a continuous clash of civilisations between East and
West.128 Likewise, Islamic fundamentalism has grown in strength, and debates
about national and religious identity in the Arab world have greatly increased
since the 1990s.129 In this context, Arab academics, intellectuals and theolo-
gians of various persuasions have repeatedly engaged with Husain' s and
c Awad's thought. This is illustrated by the cause célèbre of Naçr Abu Zaid, an
affair in many ways similar to the controversies discussed above (pp. 224-
228). In the early 1990s, Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid (b. 1943), a professor of Arabic
language and literature, was first denied promotion, and then later forcibly di-
vorced from his wife. He had insisted that the Qur'an was a text revealed in
a context, applying some modern literary theory to its interpretation. For fear
of his physical well-being, he fled to the Netherlands, where he found shelter
at Leiden University, 'the stronghold of freedom (praesidium libertatis)' ac-
cording to its motto.130 The continuing interest in Husain and cAwad is also
126. The Egyptian Society of Greek and Roman Studies is extremely active (see
http: / / www.esgrs-escl.com / Classical%20Society / Classical%20Homepage.htm).
Most Egyptian universities now have classics departments or some teaching of
classics; in Cairo alone, there are Cairo University, cAin ãamá, Hilwãn, and al-
' Azhar. Yet all the 'foreign' universities, such as the American University in Cairo
and the German University in Cairo, do not even offer basic Latin and Greek lan-
guage courses. Moreover, the branch of the Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) in Egypt,
l'Université française d'Egypte, teaches neither Latin nor Greek; Tãhã Husain, if
he knew, would undoubtedly turn in his grave ...
127. See, for instance, Laurence Denooz, Entre Orient et Occident: rôles de l hellénisme et
du pharaonisme dans l'œuvre de Tawfiq al-Hakim, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de
philosophie et lettres de l'Université de Liège 282 (Liège: Bibliothèque de la Fac-
ulté de philosophie et lettres de l'Université de Liège; Genève: Diffusion, Librairie
Droz, 2002); Kadhim Jihad Hassan, La part de l'étranger, la traduction de la poésie
dans la culture arabe: essai critique (Paris: Sindbad; Arles: Actes Sud, 2007).
128. Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), and reprints; Anthony Pagden, Worlds at War: the
2500-Year Strudle between East and West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
129. Gilles Kepel, Jihad: the trail of political Islam (4th ed., London: I. B. Tauris, 2006),
originally published as Jihad: expansion et déclin de l'Islamisme (Paris: Gallimard,
2000); Kepel still adheres to his thesis that basically Islamic fundamentalism is in
decline; see id., Fitna: guerre au coeur de l'islam (Paris: Gallimard, 2004), published
in English as The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West (Cambridge, Mass.; Lon-
don: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004).
130. See, for instance, in English Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, Voice of an Exile: Reflections on
Islam, with Esther R. Nelson (Westport, Conn.; London: Praeger, 2004); and id.,
Reformation of Islamic Thought: a Critical Historical Analysis, WRR verkenningen 10
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006). His Being Declared an Apostate in

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
visible in the many reprints of their works and the growing number of refu-
tations. One such critique which is particularly popular at the present time in
the Arab world and has seen a number of different editions is Under the Ban-
ner of the Qur'än: the Struggle between the Old and the New by Mustafa Sãdiq ar-
Rãfi% discussed above in part III (pp. 224-228).131
***
These debates about cultural and religious identity

modernity matter, as they concern an ever growing
Muslims. After all, the title Under the Banner of the Qur'
(wasTya)' by 'Aiman az-2awãhirí, 'Usãma ibn Ladin's fo
Knights under the Banner of the Prophet.132 Az-âwahin
Pagden, sees Islam and the West locked in a historical
the beginning of his Knights under the Banner of the Prop
The Western forces that are hostile to Islam have c

their enemy. They refer to it as Islamic fundament
face of this alliance [sc. of Western forces], a fundame
is taking shape. [...] It is a growing force that is ra
banner of jihad, against the scope of the new world
Of course, a?-£awahirï and his companions do not in

polemically with Homeric scholarship. Yet, they deny
'Islam' and 'the West', between 'Tradition' and 'Modern
semble Husain's and c Awad' s detractors, discussed in
228). This obviously does not mean that all those critic
approve of az-âwãhirf s methods. It is, however, true
mate can ferment hostility. Both ar-Raficï and áãkir w
idea that one should apply historical criticism, and no
Homeric scholarship, to Pre-Islamic poetry. And both aut
sain (as well as c Awad in the case of áãkir) finds incre
vative milieus wishing to construct the idea of a pur
Islam.134 In this sense it is possible to say that a?-Zaw
the Time of Thinking (At-TakfTr fl zaman at-tafkTr), first p

and reprinted in a second edition in 2003 (Cairo: Maktab
testimony to his tribulations.
131. Ar-Rãficl, Under the Banner (as in n. 101); see also Ibrâhï
al-Öähili baina r-Rafi'i wa-Tãhã Husain: Bahi maudü'T mufas
lamie Poetry between [Mustafa Sãdiq] ar-RãficT and Tãhã H
Study) (Cairo: Matba'at al-Fagr al-gadïd, 1987).
132. 'Aiman a?-£awahirï, Knights under the Banner of the Prop
NabT) (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-'Islamîya, 2002); extracts are
Jean-Pierre Milelli (eds), AI Qaeda in Its Own Words (Cam
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008), 193-20
to get hold of the Arabic original; strangely enough, it is n
WORLDCAT].
133. ed. Kepel, Milelli (as in n. 132), pp. 193^.
134. To give just one recent example, Ahmad Atif Ahmad s
lamic fundamentalists in his recent and extremely stimula
nity, Violence, and Everyday Life (New York: Palgrave Mac

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC
Pormann 233
do operate in
the idea that
be applied to
Qãcida.
Scholars of
fute those w
tural entitie
are locked in
could make a
what Martin
eighteenth c
tions adjacen
idea of a pur
scholars in th
Islamic cultu
should becom
ishing in Eg
leagues. On t
the last deca
eastern shor
past impinge
of his critici
the importan
135. West, The
136. It should
command of
gust Wolf to
see, for insta
cerpta compon
ditionis copia
our excerpts
superior to th
F A. Wolf, Pr
Orphanotroph
Glenn W. Mo
p. 51.

149.130.90.2 on Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:28:10 UTC

Classics and Islam From Homer

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Classics and Islam: From Homer to al-Qā'ida

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