united Arab country. However, the UAR quickly
dissolved in 1961 after just three years. Further,
Abd al-Nasir became involved in the North yemen
civil war in 1962, but this also ended in failure,
and Egyptian troops were recalled in 1967.
By far the most significant foreign policy
failure, however, was the disastrous defeat in the
1967 Arab-Israeli war, which for many discredited
the Egyptian and pan-Arab nationalisms that Abd
al-Nasir had helped popularize, and spawned
a swelling in the ranks of Islamist movements
as some sought a viable alternative to nation-
alism. Nonetheless, Abd al-Nasir remained an
immensely popular figure until his death in 1970;
his funeral is estimated to have drawn some five
million attendees. He was succeeded in office by
anWar al-sadat (d. 1981), his vice president.
See also arab-israeli conFlicts; colonialism;
politics and islam; secUlarism.
Joshua HoffmanFurther reading: Ghada Hasem Talhami, Palestine and
Egyptian National Identity (New York: Praeger, 1992);
James Jankowski, Nasir’s Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and
the United Arab Republic (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rein-
ner Publishers, 2002); Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism
in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh. Translated by Jon
Rothschild (Berkeley: University of California Press,
2003); Gamal Abdel Nasir, The Philosophy of the Revo-
lution (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1955);
P. J. Vatikiotis, Nasir and His Generation (London: C.
Helm, 1978).
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1933– )
internationally known Iranian-American Muslim
philosopher whose writings examine Islamic science,
philosophy, and Sufi mysticism
Born in Tehran, iran, Nasr completed his prepara-
tory education at the Peddie School in New Jersey,
and his undergraduate education in physics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At Harvard
he received his master’s degree in geology and
geophysics and his Ph.D. in the history of science
under the direction of Bernard Cohen, H.A.R.
Gibb, and Harry Wolfson. After returning to Iran,
he held academic appointments at the University
of Tehran as professor, dean and vice chancellor,
and he served as president of Aryamehr Univer-
sity and later chief of the cultural bureau for the
empress of Iran, Farah Diba (b. 1938). Since leav-
ing Iran permanently, following the iranian revo-
lUtion oF 1978–79, he has held professorships
at the University of Utah, Temple University, and
George Washington University.
Central to Nasr’s thought is the idea that,
beginning with the Enlightenment, philosophy
and even the great quest for knowledge itself,
has become separated from the sacred. This
separation has led to the tragic plight of modern
humans who have tried to find truth in purely
scientific-technical endeavors. This has caused
a gap between science, religion, and philosophy
with the result that people seek their origins
in incomplete Darwinism, denigrate religion to
mere belief, and demean philosophy to analysis
of language and scientific claims. Nasr’s philoso-
phy attempts to remedy these failings by taking a
holistic approach to these three disciplines.
In his early scientific studies, Nasr encountered
a chasm between his need for a complete scientific
understanding of the world and his deep devotion
to Islam as well as to perennial philosophy. His
explorations into the qUran regarding cosmic
and human origins, geology, oceanography, and
medicine led him to advocate that real science
is sapientia, knowledge engendering wisdom. He
points out that a number of the great Islamic phi-
losophers, such as al-Kindi (d. 866), ibn rUshd
(d. 1198), and ibn sina (d. 1037), were also sci-
entists and physicians. Furthermore, philosophers
inspired by sUFism, such as ibn al-arabi (d. 1240),
mUlla sadra (d. 1640), and al-Suhrawardi (d.
1191), connect the task of philosophy to the expe-
rience of the divine. Nasr’s comparative philoso-
phy shows that the aim of philosophy from Plato
(d. ca. 348 b.c.e.) in Greece to Shankara (ca. ninth
century c.e.) in India to Confucius (d. 479 b.c.e.)Nasr, Seyyed Hossein 519 J