THE PHILOSOPHY OF TAHA HUSSAIN

Is Egypt of the East or the West? We may paraphrase the question as follows:

Would it be easier for the Egyptian mind to understand a Chinese and a Hindu or to understand an Englishman or Frenchman? This is the question we must answer before we begin to think of the foundations on which we shall have to base our culture.

He then goes on to say that since the beginning of history, there has existed two distinct and bitterly antagonistic civilizations—the one in Europe and the other in the Far East.

This statement is a great oversimplification of history. Modern Western civilization began its present-day trends less than five hundred years ago. The scientific and technological dynamism of the West is no direct continuation of the development of ancient Greek or Roman society but rather a unique product of the Renaissance. If one cannot speak of a single civilization which has existed from “time immemorial” in Europe, still less does this apply to the Far East. The Far East has never been culturally homogeneous. Hindu India and Confucian China differed as much from each other as they did from medieval Europe.

Taha Hussain cites the close ties between ancient Egypt and Greece. He says: “The Greeks during their Golden Age used to consider themselves the pupils of the Egyptians in civilization, particularly in the fine arts and government.”

However much the Greeks may have been stimulated by the contributions of ancient Egypt in these fields, the contrast between the statues of Rameses and the sculpture of Phidias; the monarchy of the Pharaohs and Athenian democracy, is so great, it is impossible to assume that the latter was derived from the former.

Because of ancient Egypt’s sustained relations with Greece and her lack of communication with the Far East, Taha Hussain argues that “Egypt has always been an integral part of Europe as far as its intellectual and cultural life was concerned in all its forms and branches.”

The only period in which Egypt was culturally part of Europe was during the Hellenistic age inaugurated by Alexander The Great. But there is even less historic continuity between Pharaonic Egypt and Islamic Egypt than between the Athens of Pericles and Byzantium!

Dr. Taha Hussain cites the fierce rebellion of the Egyptians against the seventh century Arab invasion, claiming that Egypt was the first country under Islamic rule to assert its national personality.

The battles against the Arabian invaders were waged, not by native Egyptians, but exclusively by Byzantine mercenary troops who, despite their superior numbers and equipment, were quickly routed by General Amr. The native Egyptian Copts, persecuted for their faith by the Byzantine monarchs, welcomed the tolerant rule of the Muslims. Although Egypt emerged as an independent entity under the dynasty of ibn Tulun (868-84), the rulers as well as their subjects regarded themselves as Muslims rather than as Egyptians.

Nationalism as we know it today, simply did not exist.

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