Deconstructing the Fascination of the Middle East with Europe from Europe

Since the 19^th century, Middle Eastern travellers, students, and exiles in Europe have contributed to the creation of numerous representations of Europe in their home countries. Long before the era of telecommunication, their eyewitness accounts were considered as one of the most important sources of information on Europe, its culture, and its envied technical and scientific progress. But, contrary to the assumption that these visitors to Europe represented the spearhead of liberalization and modernization in their societies, this group seems to have produced some of the fiercest critics of the emulation of Europe in the interbellum period.

This paper focuses on Shakīb ʾArslān (1869-1946), a Lebanese pan-Arabic and pan-Islamic intellectual, who is considered as one the most influential Arab Muslim writers of his time. In his nearly three decades in European exile he was able to establish himself as one of the leading advocates of Muslim political causes in Europe. By focusing on his example, this paper seeks to examine the role played by individuals from the Muslim Middle East in Europe in the strengthening of both an anti-liberal and a conservative pan-Islamic attitude after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It will answer a set of questions related to their authority as eyewitnesses of European realities, which played an important role in the process of formation of modern nation states in the Middle East. What kind of ideas did they produce from Europe? How did their experiences in Europe nurture their disenchantment with it? How were their accounts used as a proof for the corruption and the inadequacy of the European model? How deep was their impact on the “East-West” dichotomy that still characterizes some attitudes till this day? Answering these questions will shed new light on the intertwined histories of the Middle East and Europe.