Becoming the Muʿallim
How tradition and innovation made a Nahḍa icon
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2773846 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anthony Edwards (0000-0002-7717-6499, Washington and Lee University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 241-259 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0041977x23000265 |
| OpenAlex | W4384067848 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
One cannot speak of the nineteenth-century Beirut Nahḍa and not mention Muʿallim Buṭrus al-Bustānī (1819-83). This article examines how al-Bustānī utilized the Arabic oratorical tradition and the innovative medium of print to create the Muʿallim brand. The first section analyses his Khuṭba fī Ādāb al-ʿArab (An Oration on the Culture of the Arabs, 1859) to illustrate how he operationalized the Arabic rhetorical style to position himself as an eloquent public intellectual. This article next discusses how he built parts of this lecture on sariqāt (literary thefts/legitimate borrowings) from his contemporaries and participated in the collective practice of knowledge production. Lastly, al-Bustānī's advertising tactics in print to promote his public persona are explored. This article demonstrates that al-Bustānī successfully established himself as the Muʿallim by coupling the enduring cultural power of Arabic oration with the modern might of print
Art · Bust · Humanities · Icon · Literature · Media studies · Operationalization · Persona · Power (physics) · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · African history and culture analysis · Computer Science · Engineering · History · Islamic Studies and History · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |