al-Husri

Tags: iraq

al-Husri directed education in Iraq, promoted pan Arabism, butted heads with the Columbia teacher’s college

Simon - Imposition of Nationalism on Non-Nation State says:

Husri cited german “volk” type of primordialism, extolled the idea of pre-Islamic Arabs
Decided that history of Arab nation was the history of the Arabs, not of Islam
Bypassing of religious unity via langauge, similar to Anderson - Imagined Communities
- Arabism could then transcend religion and be accepted by Sunni, Shia, Christian, and Jew
  - Notably no Kurds
left in 1936 due to disagreements with teacher’s college, but Muhammad Fadil al-Jamali and Sami Shawkat continued his work
History was used as a tool