Freedom, Justice, and the Power of Adab

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8965597
AutoresEllen Mclarney (autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen48
Número1
Páginas25-46
Fecha de publicación2016-01-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743815001452
OpenAlexW2438371732
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas40

This article analyzes in depth four main writings by the pioneering nahḍa intellectual Rifaʿa Rafiʿ al-Tahtawi, who drew on classical kinds of adab to articulate new kinds of political subjectivities. He especially draws on the image of the body politic as a body with the king at its heart. But he reconfigures this image, instead placing the public, or the people, at the heart of politics, a “vanquishing sultan” that governs through public opinion. For al-Tahtawi, adab is a kind of virtuous comportment that governs self and soul and structures political relationships. In this, he does not diverge from classical conceptions of adab as righteous behavior organizing proper social and political relationships. But in his thought, disciplinary training in adab is crucial to the citizen-subject's capacity for self-rule, as he submits to the authority of his individual conscience, ensuring not only freedom, but also justice. These ideas have had lasting impact on Islamic thought, as they have been recycled for the political struggles of new generations

Body politic · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Islam · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Soul · Subject (documents · Education and Islamic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Turkey's Politics and Society