Rethinking the Egyptian Historiographical Discourse

The Cultural Repertoire of Taha Husayn and the Formation of National Identity in Modem Egypt

الملخص

According to traditional historiography, the construction of modern Egyptian identity should be examined in the framework of a struggle between two mutually exclusive cultural forces: the Egyptian-territorial and the Islamic-Eastem. This study proposes a different approach to the examination of the intellectual effort involved in the articulation of Egypt's national culture and collective identity. By focusing on the writings of Taha Husayn and applying the polysystem theory, the study argues that during the 1920s and 1930s Husayn's articulation of national culture included components from both the Egyptian-territorial and the Islamic identities in Egyptian culture. Thus, the polysystem repertoire included seemingly contradicting cultural definitions. Husayn's imagined community was not exclusive, but rather a synthetic and realistic one which consisted of components from both cultural approaches.