Acculturation, or more precisely Westernization, in the Near and Middle East has gone through distinct typical phases. After the shock of inferiority discovered, an almost complete surrender to the foreign values and (not infrequently misunderstood) aspirations; then, with Westernization partially realised, a recoiling from the alien, which however continues to be absorbed greedily, and a falling back on the native tradition; this tradition is restyled and, in some cases, newly created with borrowed techniques of scholarship to give respectability to the (...) results. Finally, with Westernization very largely completed in terms of governmental reforms, acceptance of the values of science and adoption of Western literary and artistic form, regained self-confidence expresses itself in hostility to the West and insistence on the native and original character of the borrowed product. (shrink)

The essays in this volume deal with three fundamental problems in Islamic civilization; the growth among Muslims of a consciousness of belonging to a culture; the unity of Muslim civilization as expressed in literature, political thought, attitude to science and urban structure; and the interaction of Islam with other civilizations.