Research Catalog

Title

Islamic culture in crisis : a reflection on civilizations in history / Hichem Djaït ; translated by Janet Fouli.

Author

Djaït, Hichem.

Publication

New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, ©2011.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxix, 204 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• Islamic Culture in Crisis examines efforts by intellectuals and leaders in the Islamic world to adapt to what Hichem Djait calls the "incredible novelty of modernity" that has come to Europe during the past 150 years. The chapters in the work are grouped into three sections, and were written by the author over a twenty-year period. Djait describes the different meanings of modernity, the crisis of Islamic culture in its encounter with modernity, similarities and differences between Arabs and Muslims and other cultures, the politics of the Arabs, and the force of democracy in the Islamic world.
• In the sphere of politics, the Arabs have been excluded from history for a very long time. Instead, Turks, Mongols, Berbers, Persians, and Caucasians have led the destinies of the Islamic world, a domain that had become politically fragmented. But history has overlooked the concrete developments of that time, although they were full of consequences for the lives of the people. Paradoxically, what remains are the spiritual, trans-historic elements: religion, culture, and science.
• Contrasting the achievements of other civilizations, both past and present, Djait demonstrates eloquently that Arabs and Muslims will not be able to connect with the modern world unless they are able to be inspired by a supreme ambition to further the causes of high culture--in knowledge, science, art, literature, and other spheres. --Book Jacket.

Subject

• Islamic civilization
• East and West
• East and West
• Intellectual life
• Islamic civilization
• Islamic countries > Intellectual life
• Pays musulmans > Vie intellectuelle
• Islamic countries
• Islamic countries > Intellectual life

Note

• Translated from French. Some sections originally written in Arabic and translated into French.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

The Muslim world and the shock of modernity -- The cultural crisis in present-day Islam -- Rationalism and humanism in Europe and Islam -- A quest for values in Islam -- Renaissance, reforms, and revolutions in Islam in the last century (1880-1980) -- Japan advances, the Arabs lag behind -- Chinese thought : another aspect of otherness -- Islam and politics -- Culture and politics in the twentieth-century Arab world -- The chances of democracy in the Arab world -- Arab-Islamic thought and the enlightenment -- The shock rebounds : mutations in the world seen from the Arab world -- The force of history and paradoxes of the present -- Cultures and history in the Maghreb -- Islam in the Maghreb today -- Conclusion : Where is the Muslim world going?

ISBN

• 9781412811408
• 1412811406

LCCN

2010032816

OCLC

• ocn642848004
• 642848004
• SCSB-14457367

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library