Abdelwahab Elmessiri’s Theoretical Abrogation and Appropriation of Western and Zionist Terminology

Abstract

While Elmessiri’s (the Egyptian scholar) means of expression is principally Arabic, his writings on modernism, Judaism, and Zionist thought could be considered as writing back to the centre of empire as far as the Jewish question in the West is concerned. Within this perspective, Elmessiri resolves to cater for the theoretical void that arises out of his partial dismissal of Western critical models after he underscores their problematic aspects. In view of that, the issue has grown in importance for him to erect a paradigm that best accounts for these concerns based on an Arab-Islamic worldview without entirely rejecting Western research tools and terminology. Although Elmessiri primarily puts Western thought and its categories at the vanguard of his critique, he devotes a considerable part of it to mainstream Arab thought as far as Jewish phenomena are concerned. His reproach points to Arab intellectuals’ uncritical accumulation of information, facts, ideas, and statements made by the West regardless of their relevance, centrality, or explanatory ability as this essay endeavours to demonstrate. Actually, Elmessiri’s proposed paradigm puts forward an alternative approach that goes beyond the passivity of mainstream Arab thought and the Western Eurocentric stance regarding these phenomena.