ABD AL-KARIM SORUSH (1945– )

_Abd al-Karim Sorush is the pen-name of Hassan Haj-Faraj

Dabbagh. Born in 1945 in Tehran, Sorush attended Alavi

High School, an alternative school that offered a rigorous

curriculum of Islamic studies in addition to the state-mandated,

standardized education in math and sciences. He studied

Islamic law and exegesis with Reza Ruzbeh, one of the

founders of the school. He attended Tehran University, and

in 1969 graduated with a degree in pharmacology. He continued

his postgraduate education in history and philosophy of

science at Chelsea College in London. In 1979 he returned to

Iran after the revolution, and soon thereafter was appointed

by Ayatollah Khomeini to the Cultural Revolution Council.

He resigned from this controversial post in 1983.

In his most celebrated book, Qabz va Bast-i Teorik-i

Shari_at (The theoretical constriction and expansion of the

shari_a), Sorush developed a general critique of dogmatic

interpretations of religion. He argued that, when turned into

a dogma, religion becomes ideological and loses its universality.

He held that religious knowledge is inevitably historical

and culturally contingent, and that it is distinct from religion,

the truth of which is solely possessed by God. He posited that

culture, language, history, and human subjectivity mediate

the comprehension of the revealed text. Therefore, human

understandings of the physical world, through science, for

instance, and the changing nature of the shared values of

human societies (such as citizenship and social and political

rights) inform and condition religious knowledge.

There was a contradiction between Sorush’s understanding

of epistemological problems of human knowledge, which

he saw as logical and methodical, and his emphasis on the

_Abd al-Nasser, Jamal

4 I s l am and the Mus l im Wor ld

historical contingencies of the hermeneutics of the divine

text. This contradiction was resolved in his later writing in

favor of a more hermeneutical approach. In his early work, he

was influenced by analytical philosophy and skepticism of a

post-positivist logic, whereas in his later writings he adopted

a more hermeneutical approach to the meaning of the sacred

text. In his earlier work he put forward epistemological

questions about the limits and truthfulness of claims regarding

knowledge, but in two important later books, Siratha-yi

mustaqim (1998, Straight paths) and Bast-e tajrubih-e Nabavi

(1999, The expansion of the prophetic experience), he emphasized

the reflexivity and plurality of human understanding.

In his plural usage of the Qur_anic phrase “straight

paths,” Sorush offered a radical break with both modernist

and orthodox traditions in Islamic theology.

In the 1990s, Sorush emerged as one the most influential

Muslim thinkers in Iran. His theology contributed to the

emergence of a generation of Muslim reformers who challenged

the legitimization of the Islamic Republic’s rule based

on divine sources rather than on democratic principles and

popular consent.

See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Khomeini, Ruhollah.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sadri, Mahmoud, and Sadri, Ahmad, eds. Reason, Freedom, &

Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of _Abdolkarim Soroush.

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

_ABD AL-NASSER, JAMAL

(1918–1970)

The Egyptian leader who dominated two decades of Arab

history, Jamal _Abd al-Nasser was born 15 January 1918, the

son of a postal official. Raised in Alexandria and Cairo, he

entered the military academy and was commissioned in 1938.

Thereafter, he joined a secret Muslim Brotherhood cell,

where he met fellow dissidents with whom he later founded

the Free Officers. On 23 July 1952 the Free Officers seized

power; within a year they outlawed political parties and

established a republic. In 1954, they dismissed the figurehead

president Muhammad Najib (Naguib) and repressed all opposition.

Elected president in June 1956, Nasser ruled until

his death. Under his leadership Egypt remained a one-party

state. The ruling party changed names several times; the Arab
Socialist Union, formed in 1962, survived until 1978 when

Nasser’s successor, Anwar al-Sadat, abolished it.

A charismatic leader, Nasser drew regional acclaim and

international notoriety for his championship of pan-Arabism

and his leadership role in the Non-Aligned Movement. His

popularity soared during the 1956 Suez Crisis, sparked by

Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. The

tripartite British-French-Israeli invasion failed to topple his

regime and solidified his reputation. Frustrated with the pace

of social and economic reform, in the early 1960s Nasser

promoted a series of socialist decrees nationalizing key sectors

of industry, agriculture, finance, and the arts. Egypt’s

relations with the Soviet bloc improved, but Nasser never

turned entirely away from the West. In regional affairs the

years after Suez were marked by a series of setbacks. The

United Arab Republic (1958–1961) ended with Syria’s cessation,

and the Yemeni civil war (1962–1967) entangled Egyptian

troops in a quagmire.

Many contend that Nasser never recovered from the

disastrous defeat by Israel in June 1967. Yet he changed the

face of Egypt, erasing class privileges, narrowing social gaps,

and ushering in an era of optimism. If Egyptians fault his

failure to democratize and debate the wisdom of Arab socialism

or the state’s secular orientation, many still recall his

populist intentions. When he died suddenly of a heart attack

on 28 September 1970, millions accompanied his coffin to

the grave.

See also Nationalism: Arab; Pan-Arabism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gordon, Joel. Nasser’s Blessed Movement: Egypt’s Free Officers

and the July Revolution. 2d ed. Cairo: American University

in Cairo Press, 1996.

Jankowski, James. Nasser’s Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and the

United Arab Republic. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2002.