Translating Ottoman into classical Arabic: nahḍa and the Balkan Wars in Aḥmad Shawqī’s “The New al-Andalus”

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article reassesses the typical scholarly projection of Turk–Arab relations in the late Ottoman Empire as an imperial center hegemonizing the Arab periphery. The article demonstrates that early modern neoclassical Arab poets drew upon the Arab-Islamic heritage, turāth, to provide their interpretation and even critique of the late Ottoman period. As a case study, I give a close reading of Aḥmad Shawqī’s poem on the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), “The New al-Andalus.” My reading departs from the common assumption that Shawqī’s pan-Ottomanist poems express uncritical admiration for the caliphate. Through revealing the nuanced interpretive dynamics in Shawqī’s poem, I draw upon translation theory and propose that early modern neoclassical poetry refracted rather than reflected political transformations of its period. This refraction played a crucial role in shaping the vision of nahḍa, because Shawqī, like other Arab thinkers, believed that the empire needed to go through “renaissance” after the Balkan defeat.