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James Denselow, Enlightenment on the eve of revolution: the Egyptian and Syrian debates, International Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 3, May 2020, Page 833, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaa073
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Extract
Written between the spring of 2011 and summer 2018, this well-referenced short text explores the debates on the search for political tanwir (enlightenment) in Syria and Egypt. Studying these intellectual debates is a fascinating way to move beyond the day-to-day challenges that both countries have faced over recent decades. While the book lacks the heft of a more detailed, longer and thorough analysis of this important subject, it captures the essence of some of its fundamental questions.
So what is tanwir? Elizabeth Kassab defines it, based on the arguments made by prominent Egyptian and Syrian intellectuals, as a search for dignity, rights, liberties, reason, humanity and freedom within the nature of society. Kassab analyses Egyptian and Syrian society in their post-independence phase or what she interestingly calls the ‘aftermath of sovereignty’. The book raises the question as to where intellectuals fit within modern political science. In Egypt, it chronicles their struggle to articulate and advocate tanwir, but the choice of Syria as a case-study seems somewhat strange, considering the historical lack of free and informed debate in the country.
