THE WESTERN CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES OF XIX CENTURY IN THE EYES OF ARAB SCHOLAR AND TRAVELER, RIFA‘A RAFI‘ AL-ṬAHṬAWI, BASED ON “TAḪLIṢ AL-IBRIZ FI TALḪIṢ BARIZ AW AL-DIWAN AL-NAFIS BI-ĪWAN BARIS"
THE WESTERN CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES OF XIX CENTURY IN THE EYES OF ARAB SCHOLAR AND TRAVELER, RIFA‘A RAFI‘ AL-ṬAHṬAWI, BASED ON “TAḪLIṢ AL-IBRIZ FI TALḪIṢ BARIZ AW AL-DIWAN AL-NAFIS BI-ĪWAN BARIS"

Summary/Abstract: The present paper is dedicated to the lexico-semantic examination of the corpus of the Arabic political and legal terms coined by the eminent Egyptian scholar, translator and the Renaissance (al-nahḍa) intellectual Rifā‘a Rāfi‘ al-Ṭahṭāwī (1801-1873) in his treatise “Taḫlīṣ al-ibrīz fī talḫīṣ Bārīz aw al-dīwān alnafīs bi-īwān Bārīs” (The extraction of Pure Gold in the Abridgement of Paris, or the precious dīwān in the īwān of Paris) to render the sociopolitical and legal realities of France of 1820-1830s. Al-Ṭahṭāwī was among the first Egyptian scholars to write about Western cultures in an attempt to reconcile Islamic and Christian civilizations and bring them to mutual understanding. Being al-Ṭahṭāwī‘s observation of the sociopolitical life in France of the period of his sojourn in France, “Taḫlīṣ” may be considered the true reflection of contemporary France in the eyes the great Egyptian scholar who opened the West to his fellow Egyptians explaining the state of affairs in France in his works and translations from the French sources. The importance of al-Ṭahṭāwī’s “Taḫlīṣ” and other works lays in the fact that they introduce contemporary Western sociopolitical concepts to Moslem audience unaccustomed to such notions as constitutional government, limited monarchy, elections etc. He is credited to be one of the first scholars who tried in his works, e.g. “Taḫlīṣ” to develop and modernize the Arabic political and legal glossary by making an endeavor to propose Arabic equivalents to French political and legal terms denoting contemporary social and political concepts alien to Islamic political tradition.

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