Revisiting Hitti's Thoughts on Palestine and Arab Identity

Gregory J Shibley

doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.41.2.0150

Abstract

Philip K. Hitti was the first scholar to study Arab-American immigration to the United States. Highly influential during the twentieth century, his ideas have lost much of their appeal to current interpreters of the early diaspora of Arab-Americans called Syrians at the time. This article revisits Hitti's thought, focusing on the issues of Palestine and Arab identity. Using primary source material from Hitti's archived papers, plus multiple secondary sources, I argue that Hitti maintained consistency, both in his advocacy of the general Arab stance opposing a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and in his construction of Arab identity as different from Syrian identity. On Palestine, Hitti clashed with Albert Einstein, in public discourse and in an acerbic private exchange of correspondence. On Arab identity, Hitti held firm to a strict interpretation, distinguishing Syrians, conceptualized as Christian, from Arabs, conceptualized as Islamic.

Highlights

Archival evidence shows that Hitti recognized the need to update Syrians in America—and that he was cost-conscious to boot
Hitti’s commitment to the Arab position on Palestine did not wane. He sent Alling a letter in 1938, criticizing American presidential statements on Palestine, from Wilson’s time onward, as politically driven, noting that Britain only started to grasp what he deemed the impracticability of the Zionist program, and suggesting that the United States take hold of the Mandatory reins.[40]
An opportunity to testify on Palestine caused Hitti’s understanding of Arab identity to surface, yielding an elaboration reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s: ethnic Arabs were different from linguistic Arabs, the latter of whom were not truly Arabs at all

Summary

Introduction

He sent Alling a letter in 1938, criticizing American presidential statements on Palestine, from Wilson’s time onward, as politically driven, noting that Britain only started to grasp what he deemed the impracticability of the Zionist program, and suggesting that the United States take hold of the Mandatory reins.[40] He seemed to be saying, in effect, “I warned you,” suggesting uniformity between his past and present thinking, which was, substantively, the consensus view of Arabs.

Results

Conclusion