Arab nationalism
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Arab nationalism refers to a common nationalist ideology in the wider Arab world. Arab nationalism is a form of ethnic nationalism. It is a claim to common heritage — that all Arabs are united by a shared history, culture, and language. Pan-Arabism is a related concept, which calls for the creation of a single Arab state, but not all Arab nationalists are also Pan-Arabists. Arab independence refers to the concept of the removal or minimization of direct Western influence in the Middle East, and the dissolution of regimes in the Arab world which are considered to be dependent upon favorability with the West to the detriment of their local populations.
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Intellectual beginnings
The first stirrings of a specifically Arab nationalism were in Greater Syria, where in the aftermath of the sectarian disturbances in Mount Lebanon in 1860 Boutros al-Boustani launched his newspaper Nafir Suria. He called for a non-sectarian patriotism and the separation of state and religion, declaring that "love of the fatherland is faith". Other thinkers, mainly Syrians, followed in his footsteps, and the formation of patriotic secret societies, notably the Beirut Secret Society formed in 1875 which rapidly gained branches in Damascus, Tripoli and Sidon is evidence of an increasingly active proto-nationalist movement. The emigration of numerous Syrian Christian intellectuals to Egypt, where under Muhammad Ali Pasha and his successors they enjoyed greater freedom of expression than at home, was another factor in the spread of nationalist discourse.
The rise of Arab nationalism
The political orientation of Arab nationalists in the years prior to the First World War was generally moderate. Their demands were of a reformist nature, limited in general to autonomy within the Ottoman Empire, greater use of Arabic in education, and local service in peacetime for Arab conscripts to the imperial army. Some radicalisation followed the 1908 revolution in the empire and the Turkicisation programme imposed by the new Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, often known as the Young Turks) government. However, Arab nationalism was not yet a mass movement, even in Syria where it was strongest. Many Arabs gave their primary loyalty to their religion or sect, their tribe, or their own particular governments. The ideologies of Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism were strong competitors of Arab nationalism.
In 1913, Arab intellectuals and some politicians met in Paris at the first Arab Congress. They produced a set of demands for greater autonomy within the Ottoman Empire. They also requested that Arab conscripts to the Ottoman army not be required to serve in other regions except in time of war.
Nationalist sentiments became more prominent during the collapse of Ottoman authority. The brutal repression of the secret societies in Damascus and Beirut by Jamal Pasha, who executed patriotic intellectuals in 1915 and 1916, strengthened anti-Turkish feeling, while the British, for their part, incited the Sharif of Mecca to launch the Arab Revolt during the First World War. The Ottomans were defeated and the rebel forces, loyal to the Sharif's son Faisal ibn Abd Allah entered Damascus in 1918. Arab unity then saw its first failed attempt with the establishment of the short-lived Kingdom of Syria under Faisal.
During the war the British had been a major sponsor of Arab nationalist thought and ideology, as a weapon to use against the power of the Ottoman Empire. However, the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France provided for the division of the eastern Arab lands between the two imperial powers. During the interwar years and the British Mandate period, when Arab lands were under French and British colonial control, Arab nationalism became an important anti-colonial opposition movement against British rule.
Important Arab nationalist thinkers in the inter-war period included Amin al-Rihani, Constantin Zureiq, Zaki al-Arsuzi, Michel Aflaq and Sati' al-Husri. Competing ideologies included Islamism and local nationalism, notably the Lebanese nationalism promoted by various, predominantly Christian, thinkers and politicians in that country, and the Greater Syrian nationalism developed most notably by Anton Saadeh, which gained a certain adherence in Syria and Lebanon. Communism also became a significant ideological force, first and most notably in Iraq, but later also in Syria and to a certain extent in Egypt. However, while generally hostile for pragmatic reasons to specific pan-Arab political projects, Arab communism was not altogether incompatible with the general demands of nationalism.
Prominent Arab nationalist rulers have included Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Moammar Al Qadhafi, President of Libya, President Hafiz al-Assad in Syria and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Egypt and Syria
In 1958 the states of Egypt and Syria temporarily joined to create a new nation, the United Arab Republic. Attempts were also made to include North Yemen in the union, but the UAR collapsed in 1961 after a coup in Syria, leaving only Egypt, which had been its political centre, with Cairo as the capital and Gamal Abdal Nasser as the president. The name United Arab Republic continued to be used by Egypt until 1971, after the death of Nasser.
Ba'thism
Arab nationalists generally rejected religion as a main element in political identity, and promoted the unity of Arabs regardless of sectarian identity. However, the fact that most Arabs were Muslims was used by some as an important building block in creating a new Arab national identity.
An example of this was Michel Aflaq, founder along with Salah al-Din al-Bitar and Zaki al-Arsuzi of the Ba'th Party. Aflaq viewed Islam as a testament to the "Arab genius", and once said "Muhammed was the epitome of all the Arabs. So let all the Arabs today be Muhammed." Since the Arabs had reached their greatest glories through the expansion of Islam, Islam was seen as a universal message as well as an expresion of secular genius on the part of the Arab peoples. Islam had given the Arabs a "glorious past", which was very different from the "shameful present". In effect the troubles of the Arab present were because the Arabs had diverged from their "eternal and perfect symbol", Islam. The Arabs needed to have a "renaissance": the meaning of the word ba'th.
Throughout the Middle East, regional nationalisms and allegiances to the post-WWI states such as Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq partly compete and partly coexist with broader Arab nationalism. In Lebanon, for instance, the identity of "Arab" is rejected by some Lebanese nationalist groups (especially Maronite), while being enthusiastically embraced by others.
Definitions of "Arab" sometimes vary; see Arab.
Arab nationalist thinkers
- Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi
- Amin al-Rihani
- Sati' al-Husri
- Shakib Arslan
- George Antonius
- Michel Aflaq
- Constantin Zureiq
- Zaki al-Arsuzi
- Gamal Abdel Nasser