The Nahḍa and the Haskala: A Comparative Reading of ‘Revival’ and ‘Reform’

Abstract

This article compares the modern Hebrew and Arabic ‘renaissance’ movements (the haskala and the nahḍa) to argue that the nahḍa can and should be studied comparatively, and to illustrate some of the insights gained through a comparative reading of non-Western cultural modernity. Much as the nahḍa is often read as the formative moment of modern Arab identity, the haskala is viewed as the originary moment of Jewish modernity. Comparative analysis sheds light on the ideas and psychology of the two movements as well their progenitors’ similar historical experiences. In particular, the contribution of Arab Jewish intellectuals to the haskala and the nahḍa opens new vistas into intersections of modern Arabic and Hebrew thought, further eroding long-standing assumptions about the boundaries between Arab and Jewish cultures. The textual output of Arab Jews in Arabic and in Hebrew illuminates the cross-cultural circulation of ideas and tropes of ‘modernity’ and ‘enlightenment’ underlying both the nahḍa and the haskala. I use the comparison to underscore that the nahḍa was at one and the same time an Arab movement, part of a multilingual regional discourse, and one of many global ‘enlightenment’ discourses that emerged contemporaneously in the colonial and post-colonial world.