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'slam Ass eThe Advent of t h e4 11 1 1 1 1 '

rnar

MARTIN KRAMER

ISLAMASSEMBLED

The Advent of the Muslim Congresses

MARTIN KRAMER

New York Columbia University Press 1 9 8 6

T H R EE

AN IDEA REFINEDFirst Proposals from Cairo

IN THE independent Ottoman and Qajar states, the congress idea

and its early advocates bore a stigma. Only in British Egypt, an occupiedcountry whose liberation was advocated so persistently by Blunt andAfghani, was the idea allowed to flourish. From subjugated Cairo, Mu-hammad cAbduh ( 1 8 4 9-1 9 0 5 ) , B l u n t ' s a s s o c i a te a n d A f g h an i ' s d i s ci p l e,

further propagated the congress idea. This he did in collaboration withhis own student, Muhammad Rashid Rida ( 1 8 6 5-1 9 3 5 ) , f r o m S y r i a nTripoli. Their instrument was al-Manar, a Cairo journal of religious andpolitical affairs, and perhaps the most widely circulated Mus lim peri-odical of its time. The achievement of these two men was that theytook advanced notions of religious reform, tainted by association withskepticism, and through judicious recasting made them more widelypalatable. Among those notions was that of a Muslim congress.

The bond link ing cAbduh to Afghani and Blunt was a close one.Blunt's quest for the true Islam had led him to cAbduh, then a shaykhfrom the Delta teaching at al-Azhar, as early as 1881. The debt owedby the Englishman to the Egyptian was an acknowledged one, and Bluntfound in cAbduh a sympathizer with his radical ideas on religious reformand the caliphate:

Sheykh Mohammed Abdu was strong on the point that what was neededfor the Mohammedan body politic was not merely reforms but a truereligious reformation. On the question of the Caliphate he looked at thattime, in common with most enlightened Moslems, to its reconstructionon a more spiritual basis. He explained to me how a more legitimateexercise of its authority might be made to give new impulse to intellectualprogress, and how little those who for centuries had held the title haddeserved the spiritual headship of believers. The House of Othman fortwo hundred years had cared almost nothing for religion, and beyond theright of the sword had no claim any longer to allegiance. They were stillthe most powerful Mohammedan princes and so able to do most for thegeneral advantage, but unless they could be induced to take their positionseriously a new Emir el Mumenin might legitimately be looked for.'

In cAbduh's writings, too, there was a discernible affection, if not pref-

A N I DEA REFI NED 2 7

erence, for the Arabs in this matter, although never in terms as extremeas Blunt's.2 More important was cAbduh's relationship with Afghani. When Af-ghani came to Cairo, first in 1869 and again in 1871, cAbduh becamehis fervent acolyte. Later, following cAbduh's self-incriminating in-volvement in the cUrabi revolt, he joined Afghani in that Paris roomwhere together they wrote and edited al-clirwa al-wuthaa, Although Af-ghani and cAbduh parted in 1884 upon the closure of the newspaper,never to meet again, an important correspondence between them sur-vives. From it, we learn that cAbduh took it upon himself to spread theword, at least during a v is it to Tunis, that al-clirwa al-unit* was notsimply a newspaper but a secret Muslim society under Afghani's guid-ance, with branches throughout the Muslim world. Unfortunately, onlythe internal regulations of the "fourth cell" of this imaginary societysurvive, so that it is impossible to say whether cAbduh envisioned ageneral Muslim congress of all the cells within the secret society.' I tseems nonetheless certain that cAbduh was fully acquainted with thecongress idea as it appeared in Blunt's work, and as possibly mentionedby Afghani.

In 1897, cAbduh, soon to be mufti of Egypt, was joined in Cairo byShaykh Muhammad Rashid Rida, a young enthusiast of religious reformfrom Syrian Tripoli. That same year, they founded al-Manar, a journalwhich advanced reformist ideas through Qui-panic exegesis and politicalcommentary. AL-Manar was controversial from the very beginning. Ac-cording to a group of ulama who asked that it be barred from Tunisiain 1904, the journal "had not ceased to undermine, at their foundations,the most essential and least debatable principles of Muslim orthodoxy."4Rashid Rida was often accused during his lifetime of religious noncon-formism, and was the target of an ugly disturbance which followed alesson taught by him in 1908 at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.5In cAbduh and Rida, then, the congress idea remained associated withfar-reaching reformism. Yet al-Manar's wide circulation, and consequentinfluence upon thought among Muslim readers as distant as Java andSouth Africa, gained for their ideas a more extensive following than inthe past.° Through al-Manar, the rationale for a congress made inroadsfar afield.

Al-Manar first raised the congress issue in an article on religious re-form, directed to Abdillhamid and published in 1898 in the first volumeof the new journal. The article opened with explicit reference to Ab-dillhamid as amir a l - m u3m in in , a n d t h e n w e n t o n t o n o te t h at t he u ni -

fication of creeds, teachings, and laws was the most important principleof Islamic reform.

28 A N IDEA REFINED

This reform is consistent with the creation of an Islamic society, underthe auspices of the caliph, which will have a branch in every Islamic land.Its greatest branch should be in Mecca, a city to which Muslims comefrom all over the world and where they fraternize at its holy sites. Themost important meeting of this branch should be held during the p il-grimage season, when members (acda) from the rest of the branches inthe rest of the world come on pilgrimage. Thus they can bring back totheir own branches whatever is decided, secretly and openly, in the generalassembly (al-mujtamacal-camm). This is one of the advantages of establishingthe great society at Mecca rather than Dar al-Khilafa [Istanbul]. There areother advantages, the most important among them being the distance [ofMecca] from the intrigues and suspicions of [non-Muslim] foreigners, andsecurity from their knowing what there is no need for them to know,either in part or in whole.7Here was an early expression of that radical concept of pilgrimage

which set Mus lim reformers apart. The traditional pilgrimage was anobligation performed usually once, by individual Muslims in search ofa transcendent religious experience of communion with God. The ex-change of ideas between pilgrims themselves was incidental. ShaykhscAbduh and Rida made that exchange central. An article in al-Manarlamented the attitude of returning pilgrims, who spoke much abouttheir journey and not at all about the circumstances under which theirMuslim brethren elsewhere lived. This was contrary to the meaning ofthe name cArafat, the great plain on which all pilgrims stood beforeGod at the close of the pilgrimage: it was a place not only of ritual andprayer, but mutual acquaintance (facaruf).8 In Mecca itself, this exchange would be institutionalized. The pro-posed society would publish a religious journal in the holy city, andwork to counter religious innovations and corrupt teachings. A bookwould be composed by the society, in which the principles of Muslimfaith would be set down in conformity with the society's decisions.This work would then be translated into all Muslim languages, "andthe caliph would announce that this is Islam, and all who believe in itare brethren in faith." The caliph would also order the society to com-pose books of law, drawn from all the schools (madhahlb) and adaptedto contemporary circumstances, and the resulting legislation would takeeffect in all Muslim states. But the caliph himself, while presiding overthis unification, would be a member like all other members in thesociety.

The choice of Mecca as the society's center, and the relegation of thecaliph to the position of an ordinary member of the society, were prob-ably sufficient to alert Ottoman authorities to the nature of this proposal.The appeal, although couched in a deferential tone, could only offend

AN IDEA REFINED 2 9

Ottoman sensibilities and those Muslims for whom the claims of Istan-bul and the Ottoman caliphate were not open to dispute. The followingyear, cAbduh and Rida complained that their proposal had played onthe minds of these Muslims, and had taken a strange form among somewriters. These had urged that the Muslim congress (al-mu'tamar al-islami)be convened in Istanbul. This modification was completely detachedfrom reality, argued an article in al-Manar: not only would a congressset in Istanbul do more harm than good, but the idea was opposed byAbdulhamid himself. The evidence for this opposition, theorized thearticle, could be found in the complete absence of such a proposal fromthe Istanbul press.9 T h e p r o p o sa l f o r a n I s t an b u l c o ng r es s had o r ig i na t ed

not in Istanbul, but in the Indian Muslim press, and al-Manar cited anIndian example calling for the creation of an Islamic association (majtamacislami) in Istanbul, under the presidency of Abdillhamic l.1°

The poor reception which greeted al-Manar's proposal was evidencedin yet another controversy. In one of his pieces on Islam, the Frenchhistorian and diplomat Gabriel Hanotaux, against whom cAbduh hadlaunched a vigorous polemic, wrote that Paris was an appropriate sitefor the creation of a society of ulama from all parts. Such a society,Hanotaux argued, would draw Muslims closer to France. Al-Manarlaunched a vigorous attack upon this suggestion, and repeated the prin-ciples of its earlier proposal.

How did the Muslims receive this [original] proposal? The great majorityare neither sensitive nor thoughtful, and as far as those assigned to writeand thus guide the Muslims through the newspapers, they disfigured theproposal and turned away from its intent. They started writing articlesurging an "Islamic congress" (mutamar islami) in Istanbul, and so couldnot wait to divert the proposal into the deserts of fantasy, except to urgea switch in the venue. Among our proofs against them, by which wemade them realize the error of their opinion, was to ask whether therewas even one Istanbul newspaper that supported this appeal, given thatall of these newspapers are virtually official, and print only what theauthorities wish them to p rine l

From al-Manar's account, it was thus clear that Abdillhamid continuedto oppose the idea of a congress, not only in Mecca but under his ownauspices in the Ottoman capital. The reasons for his opposition to aMeccan congress were apparent, given his concern over Arab separatismin general and Hijaz i autonomy in particular.'2 T h e I s t a n b u l s e t t i n gprobably was rejected on other grounds. It almost certainly seemed tothe authorities a roundabout means for the establishment of a struc-turally parliamentary forum in the capital of the Empire. As the pointof Hamidian pan-Islam, in the domestic sphere, was the enhancement

30 A N I DEA REFI NED

of the absolute authority of sultan-caliph, support for such a congresswould have directly contradicted established policy.

Yet while al-Manar was incapable of overcoming these obstacles tothe organization of a congress, the journal was the perfect device forthe wide dissemination of the idea through a literary piece of fiction.The congress idea was given detailed expression for the first time incAbd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi's well-known Arabic treatise, Limm al-qura,first published in 1900.13 l i m m a l -q u r a , o n e o f t h e n a me s of M e cc a , was

where Kawakibi set a fictional Mus lim congress the proceedings ofwhich he ostensibly recorded but in fact composed.l4 L i m m a l - g a r a r e p -resented not only the most imaginative treatment, but also the mostvirulently anti-Ottoman elaboration, of the congress theme. For in theseimaginary proceedings, Kawakibi argued at length for an end to theOttoman caliphate, and its replacement by an Arabian Qurashi cali-phate in close association with a great Muslim congress. Rashid Ridatook this work and made it famous, through serialization in al-Manar.

Kawakibi ( 1 8 5 4-1 9 0 2 ) a n d h i s w r i t in g s w er e n ot c e le b ra t ed d ur in g

his lifetime, so that important questions about his political affi liationsand sincerity remain unresolved. Even the details of his public careerare not clear. He was born in Aleppo to a scholarly family, and spenthis youth in that c ity and in Antioch, receiving a solid education inArabic, Turkish, and Persian. He showed ability, and while still in histwenties he gained a reputation as editor of Aleppo's official newspaper,al-Furat, and then as editor of a series of other Aleppan newspapers. Hisfurther journalistic career seems to have been one of advancement,sudden reversals, and clashes with various Ottoman governors, the rea-sons for which are now obscure. At the height of his Aleppan period,he fi lled a number of bureaucratic posts concerned with local admin-istration. The reasons for his disaffection and fall from favor are nolonger clear, but while still in Aleppo he began to compose Ilmm al-qura,an explicit repudiation of that Arabo-Turkish symbiosis in which hewas formed. In 1899, at the urging of a friend, he left for Cairo, withthe intention of publishing his work .15Once in Cairo, he immediately published a series of implic itly anti-Ottoman articles on despotism in the Cairo daily al-Meayyad, under thetitle Tabeic al-istibdad.16 A t t h e s a m e t i m e , K a w ak i b i r e v is e d h is d ra ft of

Limm al-qura six times before its clandestine publication in 1900 underthe pseudonym of al-Sayyid al-Furati.'7 I t s e e m s c e r t a i n t h a t t h e i n fl u -

ence upon timm al-qura of Rashid Rida and perhaps Muhammad cAbduhwas great, for Rashid Rida later wrote that the draft first presented inCairo by Kawakibi was only an outline, and was much expanded in

A N I DEA REFI NED 3 1

consultation with himself and others. " I have the original manuscriptthat confirms this," wrote Rida over thirty years later .18It is thus reasonable to see in timm al-qura a further elaboration ofideas current in the circle of Afghani's disciples, and the theories ofWilfr id Scawen Blunt, for the familiar theme which ran through Ka-wakibi's work was the need for radical religious reform.19 L i k e h i s p r e d -ecessors, he insisted that there was some kernel of belief and r itualwhich was incontestably Islamic and indisputably valid, obscured byaccretions which were neither. Kawakibi demanded a stripping awayof these accretions, particularly Sufism, and urged an apologetic cam-paign in defense of the kernel laid bare. This attempt to reduce anintegrated tradition to pristine essentials had led Afghani and cAbduhto skepticism, and attracted Shaykh al-Reis Qajar to Babism. Whereit left Kawakibi, one cannot say, for nothing survives concerning hisown convictions. During his lifetime, Kawakibi was not personally at-tacked for his religious views, as were Afghani, Shaykh al-Reis, cAbduh,and Rida, for Kawakibi published under pseudonyms and lived hiscreative period in relative obscurity.

Limm al-qura, then, was in great part a repetition of ideas made familiarby Kawakibi's predecessors, and on most questions, Kawakibi's viewswere virtually identical with the reformist opinions given currency atthe same time by cAbduh and Rida. Kawakibi's originality lay ratherin his v iv id presentation of these ideas, set down in the fictional anddramatic framework of a Muslim congress held in Mecca during thepilgrimage season of 1898. The nominal narrator, al-Sayyid al-Furati(Kawakibi himself), describes how he was moved to gather a congressand embark on a journey through the Arabic-speaking provinces of theOttoman Empire to collect participants. Once in Mecca, he recruitsanother contingent from among the most notable pilgrims of more dis-tant lands. Twenty-two Muslims, each representing a different com-munity from Fez to China, are finally gathered together by the narrator,and Kawakibi uses their discussions as a vehicle for advancing a broadrange of radical religious and social arguments.

Yet the congress setting was not only a literary device, but was itselfone of those useful innovations for which Ilmm al-qura argued so force-fully. First of all, there was the congress for which limm al-qura servedas an account, and which Kawakibi entitled the Congress of IslamicRevival ( M u9t a m a r a l -n a n d a a l -i s l a nz i y y a) . K aw ak ib i gave this event the

character of an ad hoc and clandestine gathering of some two dozeninterested participants, who met in structured sessions, elected officers,and passed a set of resolutions. The wealth of detail offered by Kawakibifor the twelve sessions of this imaginary congress can be appreciatedonly through a full reading of the proceedings.

3 2 A N I DEA REFI NED

The third session, devoted to the decadence which afflicted Muslims,was not untypical. A participant from Istanbul blamed Mus lim rulersfor interference in areas reserved for Islamic law; a Kurdish participantpointed instead to the neglect of certain natural sciences by the ulama;and an Afghan participant cited poverty and the fiscal rapacity of gov-ernment as the cause. Further opinions were offered by participantsfrom Egypt, the Najd, and China, as well as by an English Muslim fromLiverpool.

Implicit in Kawakibi's presentation was the idea that such an orga-nized exchange of ideas was instructive and worthy of frequent repe-tition, for Kawakibi has this small group adopt a provisional charter(ganun) for regulation of a permanent body entitled the Society for theEdification of the Unitarians (jamciyyat taclim al-muwahhidin). This pro-jected society would consist of one hundred Muslims of solid reputation,whose precise method of selection was not explained. Ten of thesewould enjoy the rank of active members (Camilun), another ten wouldserve in advisory capacities, and the remainder as honorary function-aries. The select twenty, for whom there were special language andresidency requirements, would be elected in an annual general assemblyof the society. The twenty then would elect a president, vice-president,first and second secretaries, and a treasurer, for limited terms. The gen-eral assembly in annual session would fi ll a broad supervisory role,while the select twenty, required to remain at the headquarters of thesociety for eight months each year, would carry on the society's dailyfunctions. Upon the treasurer would devolve the usual responsibilityfor the raising and disbursement of funds. The other active and advisorymembers would be entrusted with carrying out a broad campaign toinform Muslims of their errors and rejuvenate religious thought throughpublications, educational programs, and missionary activ ities.20Beyond these functional provisions, inspired no doubt by a foreignmodel, were articles in the charter which made explicit Kawakibi's the-ories on the primacy of the Arabs in Islam. Kawakibi made the abilityto read, write, and speak Arabic a basic requirement of the society'select. The charter designated Mecca the official center (al-markaz al-rasmi)of the Society for the Edification of the Unitarians. Istanbul was rele-gated to the status of a branch (shucba), the same position enjoyed inUmm al-gura by Cairo, Damascus (for al-Sham), Aden, Hail, Tifl is, Te-heran, Khiva, Kabul, Calcutta, Delhi, Singapore, Tunis, and Marrakesh.The charter further emphasized that the society would not be alignedwith any Muslim state, an indication that it would not legitimize Ot-toman pretensions. In the charter, then, the organizational format ofthe congress appeared once again in an explicitly anti-Ottoman context.

But just as the congress described in Limm al-gura was preparatory to

A N I DEA REFI NED 33

a larger society, so the society was conceived by Kawakibi as preparatoryto yet another organizational innovation. The dignitaries assembled un-der the society's auspices were to commit themselves to the conveningof an even greater congress: "Three years after its inauguration, thesociety will endeavor to convince Muslim kings and princes to convenean offi cial congress (inutamar rasmi) in Mecca, attended by delegatesfrom each of them, over whom shall preside the least of these princes.The subject of the proceedings shall be religious policy (al-siyasa al-dinlyya)."21 T h e r e su l t s of t hi s great cong ress were ant icipated by Ka-

wakibi, through the medium of a fictional Indian Muslim prince's com-mentary appended to the fictional proceedings.22 A g e n e r a l a d v i s o r ybody (hayat al-shura al-camma) of one hundred members, some electedand others delegated by Muslim sultans and amirs, would meet in Meccafor one month each year, on the eve of the pilgrimage. This officialbody would elect an Arab caliph of Quraysh, who would serve for aperiod of three years, after which his term of office required renewal.His own effective reach would extend only to the Hijaz, which was tobe defended by a Muslim force drawn from all Muslim states. Both thecaliph and the advisory body would desist from interference in theinternal affairs of Muslim states, and would concern themselves onlywith "religious questions." Thus was manifested Kawakibi's radical vi-sion o f the exclusively spiritual role o f the caliphate, and his utterrejection of the Ottoman claim.

The book made some impression upon initial publication, althoughthe earliest edition of the work is rare.23 I t s e e m s t o h a v e b e e n d i f fi c u l t

to come by even at the turn of the century, for when the first serializedinstallments appeared in Rashid Rida's al-Mahar in 1902, various Egyp-tian newspapers were unable to secure the full original edition. "At-tempts to fi nd this work have always been without result," reportedLes Pyramides in 1902. "What became of it? One supposes that all thecopies had been confiscated, then burnt."24 K a w a k i b i t h u s r e m a i n e d

unknown even to his few readers, and was led, by necessity or interest,to make his liv ing in the service of the Khedive of Egypt, 'Abbas Hi1mi11.25 This had some effect upon limm al-aura, in which there is an in-

congruous passage invoking the aid of the Khedive, and placing theprovisional center of the Society for the Edification of the Unitariansin Egypt. Nor was Kawakibi averse to serving the Khedive as an agent,and he went as far as Yemen to preach not an Arab caliphate of Quraysh,but a caliphate of Egypt's ruling house. In this fashion, Kawakibi man-aged to maintain himself in the brief period between his arrival in Cairoand his sudden death in 1902, at which time he was buried at theKhedive's expense.

Rashid Rida would not have serialized Limm al-qura in his widely

34 AN IDEA REFINED

circulated al-Manar had it been readily available, so that when the firstinstallment did appear, shortly before Kawakibi's death, the effect wasmildly sensational. Many believed that the Meccan congress describedin limm al-4114ra had taken place. The book itself probably let loose therumor current in Egypt in 1901, that seventy-two delegates from allMuslim countries had met in Mecca and decided to strip Abdillhamidof the caliphate.26 T h e p u b l i c at i o n o f t he b oo k in a l -M an ar s pr ea d this

rumor yet further, and the Arab separatist Negib Azoury, in his state-ment La 1?vell de la nation arabe, alleged that Kawakibi had been unjus-tifiably persecuted by Abdillhamid, adding:

Last year, a committee composed of several ulama met at Mecca to de-liberate on the institution of a purely religious caliphate located at Mecca.This committee decided to confide this important dignity to a Christianforeigner, rather than leave it to the loathsome Abdul-Hamid, for it iswritten in the sacred books of Islam that an infidel but just prince isbetter than an unjust Muslim prince. The sultan learned of the existenceof this committee and of some of its resolutions. To prevent this dangerousmovement from spreading beyond the tomb of the Arab Prophet, heordered the vali of the Hedjaz to provoke a massacre of pilgrims, and sorender the trip perilous to all civilized Muslims.27

Here was not only an affi imation that the congress met, but the additionof willful distortions to Kawakibi's account. Azoury was also joined bya number of orientalists who took the proceedings of Limm al-qura asgenuine. D. S. Margoliouth was perhaps the first of them to write aboutthe congress as though it had occurred, and the error was often re-peated.28But whether mistaken for a genuine account or understood as politicalliterature, Umm alegura attracted important interest in the congress idea,for the concept henceforth was identified with a cause. Unim al-gura waswritten in Arabic, on the eve o f a period in which Arabic-speakersopenly challenged Turkish-speakers for primacy in Islam. Kawakibi didfar more than Blunt, or even cAbduh and Rida, to associate the congressidea closely with one side of this incipient struggle. He also put fleshon the bones, for here were an agenda, protocols, and a rudimentarymodel for procedure, offered in a v iv id Arabic. With the passage oftime, limm al-gura became widely known for its message of Arab primacy,earning for Kawakibi a posthumous fame. Modern scholarship has donemuch to correct the version of Kawakibi's life which emerged from hiscanonization by Arab nationalists, and has established his frequent re-sort to plagiarism. Yet Limm al-qura, although a collection of borrowedideas by an author of mixed motives, was nonetheless of signal im-

A N I DEA REFI NED 35

portance to the evolution of the congress idea. The book presented adetailed and imaginative construction of a gathering which hitherto hadbeen conceived only in the most abstract sense. Kawakibi fi lled out theproposals of his predecessors with an engaging text that commandedthe attention of reformers and their opponents alike. His infl uentialwork thus had a dual effect: i t attracted to the congress idea a widesympathy among those in the expanding reformist school; and it furtherassured for the concept an abiding Ottoman hostility.

A N I DEA REFI NED

41. Ibid., Apr i l 10,1884.42. Ibid., June 5,1884.43. Blunt, Gordon at Khartoum, 492.44. Mirza Lutf Allah Khan Asadabadi, Sharh-i hal ve asar-i Sayyid lama' al-Din Asadabadi

mci'ruf bih Afghani, 56.45. Shaykh Ahmad- i Ruhi (Trabzon) to his mother (Kirman), Ramadan 22,1312/M ar ch

19,1895, in Faridun Adamiyat, Andishehha-yi Mirza Alla Khan Kirmani, 280-81.46. I n his preface to the Azal i Babi tex t Hasht Bihisht, as translated by N i kk i Keddie,

"Rel igion and Ir rel igion i n Ear ly Iranian National ism," 292-95.47. For Persian text and translation, see Edward G. Browne, The Persian Revolution of 1905--

1909, 409- 15, especially 412.48. Keddie, Sayyid lamal ad-Din, 445.49. The most thor ough account of Shaykh al -Reis is offered by Ibrahim Safa' i, Rahba-

ran-i mashruteh, 1: 563-91. Other biographical sources are not as frank. See Javahir Kalam,"Huj jat al- Islam vala Shahzada Abu al-Hasan Shaykh al -Reis Qajar ," and M uham m adNasir M irza Fursat, Kitab-i asar-i 'ajam, 529-30.

50. M i nutes o f the meeting, i n A bu al -Hasan Shaykh al-Ra' is, Muntakhab-i nails azasar-i hazrat-i Shaykh al-Reis, 117-23.

51. Abu al-Hasan Shaykh al -Reis, Ittihad-i Islam, 83-84.52, Algar , Malkum Khan, 225-27.53. H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bahl T Faith, 90.54. H . O' M ahoney, " Le Congres Panislamique," 17-18.

3. A N ID EA REFINED

2 0 1

1. Blunt, Secret History, 106.2. For when Blunt consul ted him about the fi tness of the Arabs for such a central role

in Islam, ' Abduh repl ied that they were indeed fi t, but the Turks w oul d never permi tthem to exercise author i ty, and the Turks were mi l i tar i ly stronger. Fur thermore, i f oneof these tw o peoples fel l under European dom inati on as a consequence of internecinestrife, al l Islam w oul d suffer . W i th thi s argument, ' Abduh claimed to have dissuadedBlunt fr om pursuing the idea of an Arabian cal iphate. M uham m ad 'Amara, al-A'mal al-kamila Ii I-imam Muhammad 'Abduh, 1: 735.

3. For the text, see Rashid Rida, Tierikh al-ustadh al-imam al-shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, 1:283-87. According to Rida, the basic charter (qanun asasi) of this organization was not putto paper, lest i t fal l i nto the wrong hands. But i t is obvious that the society never existed.W hat is certain is that ' Abduh organized a "br anch" dur ing a visi t to Tunis i n 1884-85.See M. Chenoufi , "Les deux sejours de Muhammad ' Abduh en Tunisie." On that occasion,he claimed that the society was founded by Afghani i n India, but no evidence exists forthe creation of a formal society there; see Aziz Ahmad, "Afghani ' s Indian Contacts." Foralleged correspondence of the society's m em ber s- thei r names deleted to protect t h e m -see Rida, Ta'rikh al-ustadh al-imam, 2: 553 ff.

4. Mustapha Kraiem, " Au sujet des incidences des deux sejours de Muhammad ' Abduhen Tunisie," 92.

5. Al - M uns i f al -Shanufi , " ' A l ei q Rashid Rida, sahib al -Manar , m ea al - tunisiyyin,"133-37.

6. O n the school i denti fi ed w i th thei r thought, see H enr i Laoust, " Le reformismeor thodoxe des 'Salafiyya' et les caracteres generaux de son or ientation actuel le."

7. Al -Manar (December 17,1898) , 1(39): 765-66.8. Al -Manor (August 5,1899) , 2(21): 325.

2 0 2 A N I D E A R E F I N E D

9. Al-Manar (September 23,1899) , 2(28): 433-34.10. Al-Manar (December 31,1898) , 1(41): 807.11. Al-Manor (Apr i l 30,1900) , 3(7): 153-54.12. See Abu- M anneh, "Sul tan Abdi l lham id II and the Sharifs of Mecca." This was also

a per iod of Ottom an apprehension over revol t i n Yemen. See John Baldry, "Al - Yam anand the Turkish Occupation, 1849-1914."

13. Kawakibi has been the subject of several biographies. Am ong them are Norber tTapiero, Les ides reformistes d'al-Kawakik 1265-1320-1849-1902; Sylvia G. Haim, "The Ideasof a Precursor, ' Abd al -Rahman al -Kawakibi (1849-1902) " ; Sarni al - Dahhan, ' Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi; and 'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad, al-Rahhala "Kai": 'Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi.

14. Al -Sayyid al-Eurati [ A bd al-Rahman al -Kawakibi ], Umm al-aura. I have used a copyof the rare early edi tion, which belongs to the Pr inceton University Library. The Pr incetoncopy is bound w i th Taba' al-istibdad, and the binding bears the name of the former owner,' Abd al -Hamid al -Bakr i (1876-1940), Shaykh al-Sajjada al -Bakr iyya fr om 1911.

15. Aleppans repor ted having seen drafts of Umm al-aura before Kawakibi ' s departure.See Kam i l al-Ghazzi, " ' Abd al -Rahman al -Kawakibi ," 448-49; and the preface to theedi tion of Umm al-aura publ ished i n Al eppo i n 1959. O n the survival of that symbiosisthrough Kawakibi ' s formative years, see Shimon Shamir, " M i dhat Pasha and the Ant i -Turkish Agi tati on i n Syr ia."

16. A w or k since show n t o have been m uch infl uenced by Vi t tor i o Alfi er i ' s DellaTirannide, i n Sylvia Haim, "Al fi er i and al -Kawakibi ."

17. According to Rashid Rida's obi tuar y for Kawakibi , i n al-Manar (July 1902) , 5(7):279.

18. Al-Manar (February 1932), 33(2): 114.19. On the possible infl uence of Blunt, see Sylvia G. Haim, " Bl unt and al -Kawakibi ."

Here i t is noted that Blunt' s Future of Islam was not translated into Arabic (p. 137), al thoughBlunt himsel f wrote that the essays i n The F or tnight l y R e v i e w " f o u n d t h e i r w a y , t o s o m e

extent, i n translation to Egypt." Blunt, Secret History, 122. I have found no translation i nBlunt's ow n papers.

20. For the charter, see Kawakibi , Umm al-aura, 169-88; Tapiero, Les idies reformistes, 48-56.

21. Ibid., 186.22. Ibid., 211-12.23. Something on the appearance of the book can be learned fr om the reports to the

Khedive ' Abbas H i l m i f r om one o f hi s informants, M uham m ad ' Ur fi . A t fi r st, cUrfibelieved the congress to have been genuine, and related that the book had sur faced i nthe possession of pilgr ims arr iving in Egypt from Mecca. For his fi rst repor t on the book,see M uham m ad ' U r fi to Khedi ve ' Abbas H i lm i , October 4, 1900, i n AHP, 32:7. I n asubsequent undated letter , w hi ch obviously accompanied a copy of the book, he sum-marized Umm al-pra's contents; see AHP, 32:72-73. ' Urfi , i n repor ting an encounter w i thKawakibi , knew to i denti fy him as " one of the authors of LImm al-aura," i n a letter tothe Khedive of March 11,1901, AHP, 32:38,41.

24. Les Pyramides, M ar ch 19,1902.25. For a summary of the evidence, see Sylvia G. Haim, Arab Nationalism: An Anthology,

28-29; Elie Kedour ie, " T he Politics of Pol i tical Li terature: Kawakibi , Azour y and Jung,"109-11; Dahhan, 'A bd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, 29-30; 'Aqqad, al-Rahhala "Kat '':'Abd al-Rahmanal-Kawakibi, 101 f f . But I found no correspondence between Kawakibi and the Khedivein the latter 's papers.

26. L. Hirszowicz, " T he Sul tan and the Khedive, 1892-1908," 304-5, ci ting a Russiandiplomatic dispatch.

A PRACTICAL PLAN 2 0 3

27. Negib Azoury, Le Revell de la nation arabe, 229.28. D. S. Margol iouth, "Mohammedan Explanations of the Failure of Mohammedanism:

A Conference at Meccah."

4. A PRACTICAL PLAN

1. See A . Battal -Taymas, " Ben O n u O r da i n ( Ismai l Gaspiral l hakkm da notl ar ) ,"649-50.

2. O n Gaspr inski i , see Edward James Lazzer ini , " Ismai l Bey Gaspr inski l and Musl imModernism i n Russia, 1878- 1914" ; Cafer Seydahmet, Gasptrah Ismail Bey; Z. V . Togan,"Isma9I Gasprali (Gaspr inski)"; and Gerhard von Mende, Der nationale Kamp/ der Russland-tiirken, 44-61.

3. For an assessment o f thi s newspaper 's significance, see Alexandre Bennigsen andChantal Lemercier -Quelquejay, La presse et le mouvement national chez les musulmans de Russieavant 1920, 35-42.

4. Ch. Lemercier-Quelquelay, " U n reformateur tatar au XIX' siecle: ' Abdul Qal lum al-Nasyr i."

5. Lazzer ini, " Ismai l Bey Gaspr inski i ," 24.6. Ibid., 104-5.7. For general accounts of his proposal, see M ar ti n Har tmann, "Der Islam 1907/1908,"

11(2): 212- 15; 12(2): 34- 37; Thomas Kuttner , "Russian Jadidism and the Islamic W or ld:Ismail Gaspr inski i i n C ai r o- 1908," concerning the Ar abic newspaper al-Nanda w hi chGasprinskii publ ished i n Cairo; and Lazzerini, " Ismai l Bey Gaspr inski i ," 108-27.

8. See Charles Hostler , Turkism and the Soviets, 128. Katkov appears to have viewed thecul tivation o f selected Musl ims as an im por tant activi ty; he later i nv i ted Afghani t oPetrograd. See Keddie, Sayyid lamal ad-an, 282.

9. Gaspr inski i descr ibed his reception i n Cairo and the effect of the Reuter dispatchin Terciiman, November 2, 1907. I am indebted to Edward Lazzer ini, w ho provided m ewi th his microfi lms of Terciiman.

10. Vam ber y letter of October 12,1907, i n The Times, October 22,1907. The relevantissue of TercUman is missing from the col lection at m y disposal.

11. On several occasions, Gaspr inskii dismissed the suggestion of a European city, suchas Geneva, as a si te for the congress. H e m ay have feared that a M usl im congress i nEurope would inevi tably deter iorate into a forum for Ottoman exiles seeking to vent theirhosti l i ty toward the Hamidian regime.

12. T he more notewor thy Egyptian par ticipants are l isted i n Terciiman, November 20,1907.

13. For versions of the text, see Revue du monde musulman (November-December 1907) ,3(11-12): 497-500; Szrat-1 miistakim (Cemazi II, 6,1327) , 1(42): 2 4 8-5 0 ; T e r c u m a n , N o v e m b e r20,1907; al-Manar (November 1907), 10(9): 65E3-73; al-Muatatal (December 1907), 32(2):968-81.

14. Al -Manor (November 1907), 10(9): 677-78.15. For the cl imate i n Egypt, see Ar thur J. Goldschmidt, " T he Egyptian National ist

Party: 1892-1919" ; Fritz Steppat, "National ismus und Islam bei M ustafa Kami l " ; AbbasKelidar, "Shaykh ' Al i Yusuf" ; and Ann El izabeth Mayer , " A b b a s Hi lm l II."

16. C am bon (Constantinople) , dispatch o f September 1, 1892, Documents diplomafiquesfrancais, 1 8 9 1-1 9 1 4 , s e r . 1 , 1 0: 2 3.

17. Lor d Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2: 177.18. O n hi s modernist cr itics, see F. de Jong, " T ur ug and tur ug- opposi ti on i n 20th

century Egypt ," 84- 86. F or an account o f hi s career, see F . de Jong, " M uham m adTawfi k b. ' A l f b. M uham m ad al -Bakr i ."