During the two decades that preceded the 2011 revolutions in Egypt and
Syria, animated debates took place in Cairo and Damascus on political
and social goals for the future. Egyptian and Syrian intellectuals
argued over the meaning of tanwir, Arabic for "enlightenment," and its
significance for contemporary politics. They took up questions of human
dignity, liberty, reason, tolerance, civil society, democracy, and
violence. In Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution, Elizabeth Suzanne
Kassab offers a groundbreaking analysis of the tanwir debates and
their import for the 2011 uprisings.
Kassab locates these debates in their local context as well as in
broader contemporary political and intellectual Arab history. She argues
that the enlightenment they advocated was a form of political humanism
that demanded the right of free and public use of reason. By calling for
the restoration of human dignity and seeking a moral compass in the wake
of the destruction wrought by brutal regimes, they understood tanwir
as a humanist ideal. Kassab connects their debates to the Arab
uprisings, arguing that their demands bear a striking resemblance to
what was voiced on the streets of Egypt and Syria in 2011.
Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution is the first book to document
these debates for the Anglophone audience and to analyze their
importance for contemporary Egyptian and Syrian intellectual life and
politics.
