ʿAbdallah Witwat

An Ordinary Protestant of the Arab Nahḍa

Bibliographic Data

ID11296799
AuthorsAnthony Edwards (0000-0002-7717-6499, Associate Professor of Arabic, Middle East and South Asia Studies, Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA USA, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume42
Issue1
Pages120-142
Publication date2025-03-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMission Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0168-9789 • E-ISSN: 1573-3831
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15733831-12342011
OpenAlexW4408666964
LanguageEN
References cited18

The intellectual elite in Beirut dominate the historiography of the Arab Nahḍa (“Renaissance”). Hence, this paper offers a microhistory of a relative nobody to shed light on how the ordinary man lived, worked, learned, and worshiped. The oldest son of the first Druze convert to Protestantism, ʿAbdallah Witwat received an American missionary education, worked as a teacher and type caster, expanded his intellectual horizons at learned societies, and practiced his enduring Protestant faith. His life echoes the lived experience of countless men and women who navigated the rapid social, political, religious, and cultural changes unfolding in Beirut in the long nineteenth century. As a member of the American missionary circle and longtime congregant of the Syrian Ottoman Protestant community, Witwat was both a beneficiary of and contributor to the Arab Nahḍa

History of religions · Protestantism · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · History · Islamic Studies and History · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy · Religious studies

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