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The Syrian Christians and Early Socialism in the Arab World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Donald M. Reid
Donald M. Reid
Affiliation:
Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
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Extract

Few of the Egyptian schoolboys who now memorize the principles of Arab socialism have heard of Farah Antûn, Shiblî Shumayyil, or Niqûlâ Haddâd. Yet in the opening decades of the twentieth century this trio of Syrian Christians living in Egypt — along with the Coptic intellectual Salâmah Mûsâ — were among the foremost advocates of socialism in the Arab world. What was the connection between these Christian pioneers and the widespread but as yet ill-defined Arab socialism of today? The answer will fully emerge only as the roots of Arab socialism are probed. A beginning can be made by examining these writers themselves, why they were attracted to Western socialism, what they understood by it, and how they proposed to adapt and apply it to the Middle East. A correct evaluation of their positions depends to a considerable extent on understanding the precarious, but not entirely hopeless position, of the Christian minorities in a Muslim world which had long despised them.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1974 , pp. 177 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

page 177 note 1 Jaber, Kamel S. Abu, The Arab Ba'th Socialist Party (Syracuse, N.Y., 1966), pp. 1–5Google Scholar, has some brief observations on early socialism in the Arab world. See also Kerr, Malcolm, ‘Notes on the Background of Arab Socialist Thought’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. III (1968), pp. 145–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I have not yet been able to see a copy of Hanna, Sami A. and Gardner, George, Arab Socialism (Leiden, 1969).Google Scholar ‘Syria’ in this study refers to geographical Syria, the area included in present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

page 177 note 2 On Ottoman careers see Itzkowitz, Norman, ‘Mebmed Raghib Pasha: The Making of an Ottoman Grand Vizier’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1959), pp. 15–17.Google Scholar

page 177 note 3 The various Middle Eastern nationalisms, which have received considerable attention, will not be treated here. The attractions of the laissez faire ideology for Syrian Christians are discussed in Reid, Donald M., ‘Syrian Christians, the Rags to Riches Story, and Free Enterprise’. The journalists Ya'qûb Sarrûf and Jurjî Zaydân were two of the leading advocates of free enterprise.Google Scholar

page 178 note 1 For similar reasons other minority groups – including Armenians, Jews, Kurds, Italians, and Greeks – have been prominent in socialist and communist movements in the Arab world. A language barrier as well as a religious barrier separates some of these groups from Muslim audiences, a problem the Syrian Christians did not have. On the role of these groups in the communist movements, see Laqueur, Walter Z., Communism and Nationalism in the Middle East (New York, 1956), pp. 221–35 et passim. Laqueur does not comment on the role of the Copts in leftist movements.Google Scholar

page 178 note 2 Byrnes, Robert F., Antisemitisin in Modern France (New Brunswick, N.J., 1950), vol. I, discusses the antisemitism of both the left and the right.Google Scholar

page 179 note 1 This approach to winning Muslim acceptance is also illustrated by Antûn's assistance to the Egyptian nationalist movement. See Reid, Donald M., ‘Farah Antūn: The Life and Times of a Syrian Christian Journalist in Egypt’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1968), pp. 268–72.Google Scholar

page 179 note 2 ‘Fasâd Madhab al-Ishtirâkîyîn’, al-Muqtataf, vol. XIV (1890), pp. 361–4.Google ScholarAl-Hilâi also took up socialism in order to refute it; see, for example ‘al-Ishtirâkîyûn’, al-Hilâl, vol. IX (1900), pp. 20–1.Google Scholar The point on learning about socialism from its enemies is illustrated by Salâmah Mûsâ, one of Sarrûf's readers. Mûsâ first discovered Marx as an opponent, since he identified himself with Spencer's individualistic, free-enterprise school. Mûsâ, of course, soon changed his mind. See Mūsā, Salāma, The Education of Salāmah Mūsā (trans. Schuman, L. O., Leiden, 1961), p. 83.Google Scholar

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page 184 note 3 On al-Shifâ' see Reid, ‘Farah Antûn’.Google Scholar

page 184 note 4 For a perceptive study of social Darwinism in America, see Hofstadter, Richard, Social Darwinism in American Thought (Boston, 1955).Google Scholar

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page 185 note 2 Haddâd is treated in Dâghir, Masddir, vol. II, pp. 304–9Google Scholar and Reid, ‘Farah Antûn’, p. 101.Google Scholar

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page 186 note 2 The magazine had been started by Farah Antûn and his sister under the title al-Sayyidât. wa al-Banât in 1903. Haddâd had later assisted Rûzâ until the magazine was discontinued in 1906. When they revived it in 1921, the Haddâds called it simply al-Sayyidât. From 1924 until its disappearance in 1930 it was published as al-Sayyidât wa al-Rijâl.Google Scholar

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page 186 note 4 Haddâd's earlier articles on related subjects are in al-Jâmi'ah, vols. v and VI (1906–1909)Google Scholar, and al-Jâmi'ah al-Usbû'îyah (1907–1909).Google Scholar

page 186 note 5 For a brief summary of Henry George's life and ideas see Heilbronner, Robert L., The Worldly Philosophers (2nd ed., New York, 1961), pp. 156–63.Google Scholar

page 186 note 6 See the comments on Shumayyil's socialism in Hourani, Arabic Thought, pp. 252–3Google Scholar, and Kerr, , Journal of Contemporary History, vol. III (1968), p. 151.Google Scholar It does not seem quite accurate to say, with Kerr, that Shumayyil's socialism was devoid of economic content for it did involve guaranteed employment by the state and state guarantees of equal wages.

page 187 note 1 Haddâd, Niqûlâ, al-Ishtirâkîyah (Cairo, 1920)Google Scholar, reprinted in Jâbir, Kâmil Abû (ed.), Judhûr al-Ishtirâk^yah (Beirut, 1964), pp. 153–76.Google Scholar

page 187 note 2 Ibid. pp. 147–52.

page 187 note 3 Ibid. pp. 164–5.

page 187 note 4 Ibid. pp. 129–38.

page 187 note 5 Ibid. p. 179.

page 187 note 6 Ibid. pp. 183–4.

page 187 note 7 Ibid. pp. 175–6.

page 187 note 8 Ibid. pp. 181–2.

page 187 note 9 Ibid. pp. 304–5.

page 187 note 10 Ibid. pp. 57, 142.

page 18 note 1 Gibb, Studies, p. 300.Google Scholar

page 188 note 2 The best source on Mûsâ is his autobiography, Education. His socialism is analysed in Jaber, Kamel S. Abu, ‘Salāmah Mūsā: Precursor of Arab Socialism’, The Middle East Journal, vol. xx (1966), pp. 196–206.Google Scholar

page 188 note 3 His reactions to al-Muqtataf and Sarrûf are discussed in Mûsâ, Education, pp. 36–8, 155.Google Scholar

page 188 note 4 Ibid. pp. 153–5.

page 188 note 5 Ibid. p. 83, says he was first a disciple of free enterprise, and it seems likely that this was due to Sarrûf's influence.

page 189 note 1 For Mûsâ's comments on Shumayyil, see ibid. pp. 36, 125.

page 189 note 2 Ibid. pp. 37–44, 127, 154.

page 189 note 3 Ibid. p. 153.

page 189 note 4 Morison, Samuel Eliot and Commager, Henry Steele, The Growth of the American Republic (New York, 1950), vol. II, p. 368.Google Scholar

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page 189 note 6 ‘Haqîqah al-Ni^m al-Bulshifîki’, al-Hilâl, vol. XXIX (1920), pp. 24–32Google Scholar, and ‘Rûsiyâ Bulshifîkîyah’, al-Hilâl, vol. XXIX (1920), pp. 776–81Google Scholar, and Mûsâ, Salâmah, ‘al-Harakah al-Ta'âwunîyah’, al-Hilâl, vol. XXXI (1923), pp. 598–600, and vol. XXXII (1924), pp. 726–7.Google Scholar

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page 191 note 1 ‘Karl Marks’, al-Hilâl, vol. XXIX (1921), pp. 642–8.Google Scholar

page 191 note 2 ‘al-Musâwâh fî Rûsiyâ’, al-Muqtataf, vol. LXI (1922), p. 9Google Scholar, and ‘Mawqif al Ishtirâkîyah al-Yawm’, al-Hilâl, vol. XXXI (1923), pp. 360, 363. One wonders if it is coincidental that shuyû'īyah is taken from the same root as Sh'ah.Google Scholar

page 191 note 3 Kerr, , Journal of Contemporary History, vol. III (1968), p. 158;Google ScholarKerr, Malcolm, ‘Arab Radical Notions of Democracy’, St Anthony's Papers, vol. XVI (1963), pp. 9–40;Google Scholar and Hairn, Sylvia (ed.), Arab Nationalism: An Anthology (Berkeley, 1964), pp. 67–9.Google Scholar

page 192 note 1 Abdel-Malek, Anouar, Egypt: Military Society (trans. Markmann, Charles Lam, New York, 1968), esp. pp. 365–6.Google ScholarKerr, , Journal of Contemporary History, vol. III, p. 150, discusses the liberal tendencies of Egyptian Marxism.Google Scholar

page 192 note 2 Mûtsâ, al-Ishtirâkîyah, pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

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page 192 note 4 For example, Antûn is seen as an early socialist by al-Jundi, Anwar, al-Muhafazah wa al-Tajdîd fî al-Nathr al'Arabî al-Mu'âsir fî Mi'ah 'Am — 1840–1940 (Cairo, 1961), pp. 264–9;Google ScholarNajm, Muhammad Yūsuf in his essay in al-Adab al-'Arabî fî Âthâr al-Dârisîn (Beirut, 1661), p. 372;Google Scholar and Badr, 'Abd al-Muhsin Tâhâ, Tatawwur al-Riwâyah al'Arabîyah al-Hadîthah fî Misr, 1870–1938 (Cairo, 1963), pp. 84–7.Google Scholar Mûsâ's and Haddâd's books on socialism, as we have seen, have recently been reprinted.

page 193 note 1 On ‘Aflaq and the Ba'th see Abu Jaber, Ba'th.Google Scholar