Through Muslim Eyes: M. Rashid Rida and the West When Western influences began to pervade the Muslim world over a century ago, intense and rapid changes occurred in almost every sphere of Muslim life. The encounter with the West profoundly influenced Arab and Muslim intellectuals and led them to compare their stagnant condition with that of the more dynamic West. Questions arose: What were the secrets behind the West’s ascendancy and the reasons for the East’s decline? How could the East be revived? Could it reconcile the prevailing values in the East with those of the West? In spite of its brevity, this book offers the reader a fascinating study of how one of the century’s most important Muslim thinkers dealt with the ideas and institutions of the West. While Rida’s intellectual odyssey ran from guarded admiration of the West to contempt for its hypocrisy and even to calls for open rebellion, what is important to note is that his foremost concern was with values and ideas, in the tradition of the hadith which states that wisdom is like the believer’s lost camel, it is his to mount regardless of where he may find it. Thus, while Rida could hardly have endorsed the colonial policies of a Bismarck, for example, he nonetheless admired the man’s thinking in regard to education. Emad Eldin Shahin was born in Egypt on 27 Muharram 1377 AH/ 24 August 1957 AC. He received his BA in Political Science with a minor in Economics from the American University in Cairo in Sha’ban 1400 AH/ June 11, 1980 AC. He also received an MA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo in Sha’ban 1403 AH/ June 12, 1983 AC. The present volume is based on the dissertation he submitted for that degree. He then went on to receive his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Ramadan 1410 AH/ May 24, 1990 AC. He worked as a research assistant at the American University in Cairo, has written, published, and participated in a number of conferences on various aspects of the modern Islamic movement. He has also worked as a consultant to a number of institutions specializing in Islam and the Muslim world. (1993)

Paperback: 978-1-56564-142-6 / Price: $7.50 Hardback: 978-1-56564-141-9 / Price: $15.50 eBook: 978-1-56564-785-5 / Price: $3.95 Pages: 120 Year of Publication: 1993