Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution

The two decades that preceded the 2011 revolutions in Egypt and Syria, especially the 1990s, witnessed animated debates on "tanwir," the Arabic version of Enlightenment ideas that date to the nahda, or Arab cultural renaissance, movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the turn of the millennium Egyptian and Syrian societies suffered the worsening impact of corrupt and autocratic regimes in almost every aspect of life. All efforts at protest and change had failed, leaving people with a deep sense of helplessness. State violence, repression, censorship, the absence of the rule of law, and pauperization, as well as the collapse of health and education, had traumatized these countries and exhausted their people. Various sectors of society, including workers, students, women, peasants and intellectuals had tried to oppose, resist, and reform but to no avail. The ominous sociopolitical, economic, and cultural consequences and the frustration and anxiety that they engendered resulted in the tanwir debates on the eve of the sweeping revolts of 2011. In both countries, Egypt and Syria, they addressed issues of human dignity, liberty, tolerance, reason, education, human rights, and democracy. What were the concerns, ideas, and values articulated in the debates? To what extent did they relate to what was expressed a few years later in the popular uprisings that took place in the cities and provinces of Syria and Egypt? Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution provides answers to these questions.