Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition

Ahmed El Shamsy

Published by Princeton University Press 2020

Rediscovering the Islamic Classics

How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition

Ahmed El Shamsy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691201245

Overview
Contents

About this book

The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionized Islamic literature

Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East only in the early nineteenth century, and it wasn't until the second half of the century that the first works of classical Islamic religious scholarship were printed there. But from that moment on, Ahmed El Shamsy reveals, the technology of print transformed Islamic scholarship and Arabic literature.

In the first wide-ranging account of the effects of print and the publishing industry on Islamic scholarship, El Shamsy tells the fascinating story of how a small group of editors and intellectuals brought forgotten works of Islamic literature into print and defined what became the classical canon of Islamic thought. Through the lens of the literary culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Arab cities—especially Cairo, a hot spot of the nascent publishing business—he explores the contributions of these individuals, who included some of the most important thinkers of the time. Through their efforts to find and publish classical literature, El Shamsy shows, many nearly lost works were recovered, disseminated, and harnessed for agendas of linguistic, ethical, and religious reform.

Bringing to light the agents and events of the Islamic print revolution, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics is an absorbing examination of the central role printing and its advocates played in the intellectual history of the modern Arab world.

Author information

Ahmed El Shamsy is associate professor of Islamic thought at the University of Chicago and the author of The Canonization of Islamic Law: A Social and Intellectual History.

Reviews

"A revelatory study about the invisible class of editors, book collectors, librarians, and publishers who brought the vast manuscript legacy of the Islamic world into print. Elegantly written, and groundbreaking in its conclusions, El Shamsy's work brings to light the fascinating journeys that many medieval texts took en route to becoming modern classics."—Elias Muhanna, Brown University

"This is simply a marvelous book."—Frank Griffel, Yale University

"A brilliant and captivating book."—Walid Saleh, University of Toronto

"The transition from manuscript to print in the Arabo-Islamic world of the nineteenth and early twentieth century and its implications for intellectual history is a topic that has barely been explored up until now. El Shamsy's fine piece of scholarship transforms this field entirely, setting a new benchmark for any future study of Islamic intellectual history during the modern period."—Sabine Schmidtke, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. The Disappearing Books Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Chapter 2. Postclassical Book Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Chapter 3. The Beginnings of Print Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
Chapter 4. A New Generation of Book Lovers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter 5. The Rise of the Editor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Chapter 6. Reform through Books Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Chapter 7. The Backlash against Postclassicism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
Chapter 8. Critique and Philology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285