The Epistemological Violence of the Nahḍah: Hadīth ʿĪsā bin Hishām (1907) and the Specter of Inḥiṭāṭ
Date of Award
Spring 6-6-2025
Document Type
M.A. Essay
First Advisor
Tarek El-Ariss
Abstract
This thesis locates the reemergence of inḥiṭāṭ (decline) as an internal symptom and enduring residue of modernity, rather than its antithesis—a recursive structure within the epistemological grammar of the Nahḍah that exposes the limits, contradictions, and disavowed failures of reformist discourse. In doing so, I turn to Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī’s Hadīth ʿĪsā bin Hishām (1907) and read how inḥiṭāṭ is positioned as a phenomenon that reflects what I call the paradox of reform, instead of a static historical condition; I read moments where the text captures the contradictions, breakdowns, and unintended consequences of the Nahḍah. Al-Muwayliḥī problematizes the linear narrative of decay and progress that structured much of Nahḍah thought, but rather than simply lamenting the failures of Ottoman institutions, the text suggests that inḥiṭāṭ and disruption are not antithetical to modernity but are constitutive of it. Ultimately, Hadīth ʿĪsā bin Hishām does not offer a singular resolution but instead exposes the Nahḍah as an ongoing and contested process, one that is marked by laḥẓāt (moments) in which the ideal of renewal is revealed to be unstable, incomplete, and perhaps even doomed.
Recommended Citation
Al Dulaimi, Umer, "The Epistemological Violence of the Nahḍah: Hadīth ʿĪsā bin Hishām (1907) and the Specter of Inḥiṭāṭ" (2025). Comparative Literature M.A. Essays. 201.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/complit_essays/201
