ABD AL-RAHMAN KAWAKIBI

ABD AL-RAHMAN KAWAKIBI
(1849?–1902)
An Arab nationalist and reformer,
Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi
was born in Aleppo, Syria, where he was educated and worked
as an official and journalist until being forced by Ottoman
opposition to relocate to Cairo in 1898. He joined the circle
of Arab intellectuals surrounding Muhammad
Abduh and
Rashid Rida. Kawakibi’s ideas are elaborated in two books,
Tabai
al-istibdad (Characteristics of tyranny) and Umm alqura
(Mother of cities). In the first, he argues that the
Muslims’s political decline is the result of their straying from
original Islamic principles and the advent of mystical and
fatalist interpretations. Such passivity, he argues, plays into
the hands of despotic rulers, who historically have benefited
from false interpretations of Islam. The book was a condemnation
of the rule of the Ottoman Turks, and particularly of
the sultan
Abd al-Hamid II. A revival of Islamic civilization
could come only after fresh interpretation of law (ijtihad),
educational reforms, and sweeping political change, beginning
with the institution of an Arab caliphate in the place of
the Ottoman Turks. The theme of renewed Arab leadership
in the Muslim umma is developed in the second book. The
title is taken from a Quranic reference to Mecca, where
Kawakibi places a fictional conference of representatives
from various Muslim countries aimed at charting the reform
of Muslim peoples.
See also Modernization, Political: Administrative, Military,
and Judicial Reform; Modernization, Political:
Authoritarianism and Democratization; Modernization,
Political: Constitutionalism; Modernization,
Political: Participation, Political Movements, and
Parties.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Husry, Khaldun S. Three Reformers: A Study in Modern Arab
Political Thought. Beirut: Khayats, 1966.
Kramer, Martin. Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslim
Congresses. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
Sohail H. Hashmi