Forgotten Words
A forgotten word is a regular feature presenting the views and perspectives of a range of Arab intellectuals and writers from the past.
This
article is taken from the writings of Makram Ebeid (1889-1961, Egypt).
After
studying law at Cairo and Oxford, Ebeid joined the Wafd as soon as it was formed
and was sent into exile in the Seychelles with Zaghloul and Nahas. A brilliant
orator, a master tactician and an eminent representative of the Coptic
intelligentsia, he became secretary-general of the Wafd and negotiated the
Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936. His dissensions with the entourage of the then
president of the party, Mustafa al-Nahas, eventually led him to leave the Wafd;
he then founded the Wafdist Kutlah party (1943) and campaigned with the rightist
parties against the Wafd. Along with Sabri Abu Alam, he was probably the most
outstanding representative of liberal political thought in Egypt between the
wars.
We
have chosen the text that follows because it illustrates Makram Ebeid’s
worldview, from the ideal of the Egyptian homeland to the cause of the Arab
world. His view of Arabism was national, cultural and political; religious
factors are seen to have played little part in it. The reader will note that
this passionate and specific defence of the Arab ideal is the work of an eminent
Coptic politician and thinker.
The Egyptians Are Arabs:
We
are brothers in the struggle to save our homelands and win our freedom.
Catastrophes reinforce the bonds uniting their victims, and we are talking of
nations united by a shared language, a common tradition and the same fundamental
sociological characteristics.
The
history of Arabism is made up of continuous links, forming a closely knit chain.
The ties of language and culture are more pronounced in the Arab countries than
in any other area of the world. Religious tolerance was born, prospered and
still exists between the members of different religions in the fraternal
neighbouring countries. Who then can doubt that my phrase ‘the Egyptians are
Arabs’ encompasses affinities and ties that have never been broken by
geographical boundaries or political ambition, despite all the efforts that have
been made to divide the Arab countries, kill their inhabitants’ Arab spirit
and disunite and persecute those who work towards Arab unity. That unity
undoubtedly constitutes one of the major foundations of the modern renaissance
of the Arab East, which so needs unity and solidarity in the face of the
European wave which has submerged it.
The
Arabs need to believe in their Arabism and in all its constructive features
which, in the past, helped them to build a flourishing civilisation and
subjugate the European countries for so long.
We
are Arabs. We must always remind ourselves, in the present era, that we are
Arabs, united by suffering and hopes, welded to one another by catastrophe and
pain, forged on the same anvil of injustice and defeat; we have all become alike
in every aspect of life.
We
are Arabs in this open struggle, which is developing in all of Arabism’s
territories, to win complete freedom and revive the glory of Arab civilisation,
to improve our public affairs, to guide our youth towards high ideals, to
educate our people soundly so as to shake them out of the inertia of the past
years, encourage them to look after their own interests, awaken them from their
slumbers and light up the path before them. They will then see contemporary life
in its true colours and will be able to distinguish between that which serves
their cause and that which is harmful to it; they will choose that which will
enable them to build a new life based on the glories of the past, with all that
that means in terms of spiritual strength and celestial faith, yet solidly
attached to the best of what the era has to offer in the way of scientific
progress and industrial production.
Yes,
we are Arabs, both in this way and in terms of the history of the Arab
civilisation in Egypt and the closeness of our ancestral stock to that of the
Semitic tribes who emigrated to our country from the Arabian Peninsula long ago.
That is why we have to strengthen our solidarity, work cooperatively towards a
shared glory and build up that Arab unity which rests on common hopes and
sufferings, and on our history, our language and our specific national
characteristics.
Arab
unity is an effective reality, but it requires an organisation whose task it
will be to constitute a front against imperialism, preserve national
specificity, ensure prosperity, develop economic resources, encourage local
production, intensify exchange and mutual interests, and co-ordinate
relations…. Our destiny will lead us to rally round a common ideal and
purpose, to unite in a single bloc, joining our countries together in a single
national league or in a great homeland made up of several territories, each with
its own personality but all with the same general national characteristics, all
solidly linked to the great homeland.