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Farewell to Hassan Hanafi, the Intellectual Father of the Islamic Left and Occidentalism
Farewell to Hassan Hanafi, the Intellectual Father of the Islamic Left and Occidentalism Hassan Hanafi (1935-2021) was one of the big names of contemporary Arab philosophical and theological studies. He was one of the most prolific and erudite of the 1960s generation of Arab philosophers and thinkers who formed and defended reforms throughout their lifetimes. Hanafi left a huge body of work for scholars to study, to agree and disagree with. He was mourned by prominent Arab intellectuals and scholars, including the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. On his funeral, on 22 October 2021, his coffin toured the campus of the University of Cairo that he loved, and where he…
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Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern Shore
Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern Shore There is a lot of ideology – i.e. politics at large – behind what we know, how we know, and what we do not know. Time, space, family, society, egoism, and the political world order we are born into are all major factors that impact our limited view of the things around us. Even in our scholarly studies, which are supposed to be “neutral” and “objective”, there is always the personal, and/or the political, whether we admit it or not. The most we can do to be balanced in our views is to control both the personal and the political,…
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Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern Shore
Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern ShoreMohammed Hashas 8 August 2021 There is a lot of ideology – i.e. politics at large – behind what we know, how we know, and what we do not know. Time, space, family, society, egoism, and the political world order we are born into are all major factors that impact our limited view of the things around us. Even in our scholarly studies, which are supposed to be “neutral” and “objective”, there is always the personal, and/or the political, whether we admit it or not. The most we can do to be balanced in our views is to control both the personal…
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A Tribute to the late Modernist Moroccan Philosopher Mohammed Sabila
Mohammed Sabila, an important Moroccan and Arab scholar-philosopher, died on June 19th (1942 – 19 July 2021, Morocco) because of complications due to Covid-19. While he is little known in the non-Arabic speaking world, tributes written about him by prominent scholars that were either influenced by his work, or were his students and colleagues, are a testimony to the large role he played in introducing modern philosophy to Moroccan universities, Moroccan intellectual culture, and Arab culture at large. He was mourned in various widely-circulated Arab language newspapers, like Alaraby (London/Qatar), Aawsat (London/Saudi Arabia), Almayadeen (Beirut), Alittihad (Abu Dhabi), and many others.
