Sati‘ al-Husri’s Theory of Arab Nationalism

Abstract

This chapter discusses Sati‘ al-Husri’s theory of Arab nationalism. In the development of the concept of Arab nationalism, there is little doubt that Husri—both as a thinker and educator—takes pride of place. Like other twentieth-century nationalisms, Arab nationalism, as formulated by Husri, was based on the intellectual tenets of European ideas on the subject. This statement, admittedly, would have been assailed mercilessly by Arab nationalists during the peak of the Arab nationalist movement in the 1950s and 1960s. These nationalists held jealously to the notion that their nationalism was intellectually “authentic.” By the end of the century, however, few would contest the statement’s historical validity. Indeed, with the decline of Arab nationalism and the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, nationalism was being increasingly depicted unkindly as one of the failed imported Western solutions.