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culture and to show that arabs were just as capable of societal prog-
ress as their european counterparts, if not more so, even if arabs at
present were not as advanced.^50 the problem was that race- thinking,
which was then so deeply embedded in european thought, and which
these intellectuals duly accepted, suggested that, as members of a non-
european race, arabs might inherently lack the capacity for the intel-
lectual, social, and cultural progress that europeans had experienced.
to solve this conundrum, the Jews became a critical link.^51 Claim-
ing a close association with Jews offered Arabs proof that members of
their own race, as they conceived it, could be as successful and “ad-
vanced” as europeans. this logic is evident in an extended al-Muqtaṭaf
article about the egyptian Jewish businessman Felix Suares that was
written just after his death in 1906.^52 (though unsigned, the article
was probably written by Makaryus, who dedicated his monograph on
Jewish history to his friend Suares in a preface that is markedly similar
to this article.) the introduction to the article, part of a series on the
world’s leading businesspeople, offers us some insight into the way
in which the author— and al-Muqtaṭaf more broadly— viewed Jews in
relation to easterners, or, in the language of the day, “Orientals.” at
times, the author writes, circumstances demand that one “silence the
arguments of some europeans who claim that the nations of the east
[umam al- mashriq] are inferior to them, or that they [these nations]
have aged, that their demise is nearing, and that they will not en-
dure.” For this author, the most compelling refutation of such a claim is
found in the example of “the Israelites,” that is, the Jews. after all, the
Jews who settled in europe and were granted full civil rights “nearly
equaled or even excelled beyond” their non- Jewish neighbors in the
areas of science, philosophy, manufacturing, and commerce. especially
in the fields of philosophical sciences and financial activities, “every
european bows” to the Jews because “the balance of money is in their
hands, despite their small numbers.” this is the case not merely in
one country but “in every country in which they are given equal civil
(^50) On the nahḍa, see the classic work on the subject, hourani, Arabic Thought in the
LiberalAge,1798–1939. In 1899, the editors of al-Muqtaṭafwrote that “the West bor-
rowed from us when we were once great and now it is our turn to take from the West.”
“the egyptian princess,” al-Muqtaṭaf 23 (1899), 66. Cited in elshakry, “Darwin’s Legacy
in the arab east,” 111.
(^51) On other arabic journal responses to european condescension toward the arab/
Islamic world— including highlighting the glorious past of the Arab world, the intoler-
ance and violence of medieval European/Christian society, as well as self- critique— see
Sehayik, “Demut ha- yehudi bi- reʾi ʿitonut ʿarvit beyn ha- shanim 1858– 1908,” especially
43– 52.
(^52) Suares died in april 1906, and the article about him appeared at the opening of the
May edition of al-Muqtaṭaf.