1876 - 1953
Syrian historian, literary critic, and educator.
Muhammad Kurd Ali was a man of letters who began his career during the Ottoman Empire as a pioneer journalist and then devoted his mature years to scholarship as a historian, literary critic, and memoirist. His writings embraced a wide range of subjects, but he paid special attention to the historical achievements of Arab - Islamic civilization and to a comparison of those achievements with the ascendancy of Western Europe.
Kurd Ali's father was from a long-established Damascene (Syria) family of Kurdish ancestry, while his mother's family was Circassian (from the Caucasus region of Russia). The family was of modest means. Kurd Ali's upbringing took place during a period of intellectual ferment in Damascus. Therefore, he was the beneficiary of a considerable range of educational opportunities, both formal and informal. After completing his secondary studies at a standard government school, he spent two years at the Lazarist school in Damascus where he acquired fluent French and began a lifelong appreciation of French literature and culture. He was also profoundly influenced by his personal contact with the Damascus circle of religious reformers and studied under their most prominent member, Tahir al-Jazaʾiri. In addition, he was a friend of Rashid Rida and an admirer of Muhammad Abduh, whose lectures he attended at Cairo's venerable institution of Islamic learning, al-Azhar University. Kurd Ali's outlook was further shaped by two lengthy visits to Europe (1908 and 1913), which convinced him that Western society possessed certain attributes that were worth emulating.
In 1901, Kurd Ali took up residence in Cairo, where he honed his journalistic skills in the lively Egyptian press, writing and editing for such well-known publications as al-Muqtataf and al-Muʾayyad. He founded his own journal, al-Muqtabas, in 1906 and transferred it to Damascus in 1909. It was as the publisher, editor, and principal correspondent of al-Muqtabas that Kurd Ali rose to prominence in Damascene society. Al-Muqtabas was an outspoken reformist journal that addressed such sensitive issues as Ottoman misrule, the stagnation of the Islamic world, and the special role the Arabs had to play in the revival of Islam. Despite his criticism of the Ottoman government, Kurd Ali favored Syria's continued affiliation with the empire. During World War I, he supported the government by serving on the editorial board of an Ottoman-sponsored newspaper, al-Sharq.
Following the Ottoman defeat and the establishment of a separate Syrian state, Kurd Ali abandoned political journalism. Although he served two terms as Syrian minister of education (1920 - 1922 and 1928 - 1931), he generally eschewed politics and devoted his energies to scholarship. He played a leading role in the establishment of the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1919 and served as its director until his death. Modeled on the Académie Française, the Arab Academy facilitated the publication of classical and contemporary works in Arabic and generally sought to encourage a public interest in literature. Kurd Ali's personal contributions to this endeavor were substantial. He edited several classical texts, compiled a six-volume history of Syria (Khitat al-Sham), and wrote other works on literature and on the achievements of Arab - Islamic civilization. He also published four volumes of memoirs.
Kurd Ali's historical studies were intended not only to inform readers about the past but also to demonstrate the positive achievements of Arab - Islamic civilization. He believed that European progress was generated by the rediscovery of ancient knowledge during the Renaissance, and he argued that Arab Muslims must become aware of the achievements of their ancestors in order to experience their own awakening and renewal.
Bibliography
Kurd Ali, Muhammad. Memoirs: A Selection, translated by Khalil Totah. Washington, DC: American Council of Learned Societies, 1954.
Seikaly, Samir. "Damascene Intellectual Life in the Opening Years of the 20th Century: Muhammad KurdʾAli and al-Muqtabas." In Intellectual Life in the Arab East, 1890 - 1939, edited by Marwan R. Buheiry. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1981.
— WILLIAM L. CLEVELAND
Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
