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Chapter 4
Arab Authors
The last two chapters of the book discuss the way
Arab authors in the nineteenth and early twentieth century responded to the
intellectual and cultural challenge of the West. Hourani gives the example of
Butrus al-Bustani, the editor of the first encyclopedia in modern Arab
history, Da'rat al‑ma'arif, and the example of another Lebanese
Christian, Sulayman al‑Bustani,
the translator of Homer's Iliad. These two literary and intellectual efforts
are important because (1) They highlight the contributions of Arab Christians
to modern Arabic thought and life; (2) they prove the ability of the Arabic
language, though having a rich poetic and stylistic tradition, to absorb new
forms of literary expressions; and 3) demonstrate the need for the modern Arab
intelligentsia to be open to the cultural tradition of the West and to assimilate
as much as possible of Western intellectual achievements.
In sum, Albert Hourani's Islam in European Thought is a passionate and elegant piece of
writing. It deserves to be read carefully and attentively.
