Power and the Radical Arab Intellectual: Three Case Studies

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze the complexities of the relationship between the radical Arab intellectual and political power in modern times through the examination of three cases—those of Taha Hussain, Al-Jawahiry, and Edward Said. Spanning the course of the whole of the twentieth-century, the careers of these three key, radical Arab intellectuals offer illustrative and illuminating examples of the relationship between political power and intellectuals in the Arab world generally. Although there are important differences between the three key figures—with Taha Hussain being the major example of the pioneering Arab intellectual of the early decades of the twentiethcentury, the period of the Arab intellectual awakening, Al-Jawahiry, the exemplary political poet and intellectual and key leader in a mass political movement, and Edward Said, the exemplary Arab radical intellectual in exile who achieved international prestige and prominence—they share particularly illuminating similarities in the way they dealt or had to deal with political authority. While they largely reflect the changing historical conditions of early, middle, and late twentieth-century Arab socio-political and cultural conditions, the careers of these three figures also express, most deeply and extensively, themes that are common to generations of Arab intellectuals. In addition to the issue of coming to terms with political power, these themes include harmonizing local culture with international culture, the homeland and the attachment to place, and the issue of exile and identity. The paper will attempt, finally, to draw from the examination of these three cases, conclusions that may be of relevance to the study of the relationship between intellectuals and authority in Arab society generally, and perhaps even to the theoretical framework within which such relationships are usually studied. It is hoped that the deeper scrutiny of the specificity of the Arab situation may also help to expand the frontiers of theory..