Arab nemzeti tudat a kora újkori Szíriában
Arab National Consciousness in Early Modern Syria

Summary/Abstract: The study of the Arabs of the Ottoman Empire has entered a new phase during the first two decades of the 21st century. Whereas economic and social history dominated the scholarship of last generation, younger scholars have increasingly turned to cultural and intellectual history. The study of Arab ethnic identity holds significant potential as a subject that can contribute to exploring the continuities between pre-modern and modern Arab history despite the fact that Western historians in particular continue to dismiss the suggestion that modern Arab nationalism had pre-modern antecedents. The article analyzes two questions, one more specific and empirical, the second more general and theoretical. First, what were the constituent elements of Arab identity as understood by the ‘ulama’ of this period, what, in the final analysis, distinguished Arabs from others. Secondly, what are the theoretical implications of the existence of Arab ethnic consciousness prior to the rise of nationalism for our understanding of concepts like “the nation” and nationalism itself, and was there an Arab nation before the rise of nationalism?

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