In the Nahda, or Arab Renaissance, from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Arab culture and politics for the first time responded to European modernity and faced the challenges to Arab power, tradition, and identity posed by the industrial, colonial nations of the West. In the process, Arab society both imitated and innovated, translating contemporary foreign texts, adopting new genres, developing journalism, creating a new publishing industry, and building new educational systems as it changed under conflicting forces: nationalism, secularism, Islamic revival, and language reforms.

Collected in this anthology are texts by intellectuals, writers, clergy, and political figures that deal with authority, social norms, conventions and practices both secular and religious, gender roles, class, travel, and technology. Presented in the original Arabic and in English translation, they will be of interest to students of Arabic language and culture, history, cultural studies, gender studies, and other disciplines.