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{{Short description|Syrian philosopher}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| image = Sadiq Jalal al-Azm at UCLA 5-10-06.jpg
| image_size = 220
| caption = Sadiq al-Azm at University of California, Los Angeles, 2006
| name = Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm
| birth_date = 1934
| birth_place = [[Damascus]], [[Mandatory Syrian Republic|Syrian Republic]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2016|12|11|1934}}
| death_place = [[Berlin]], [[Germany]]
| nationality = Syrian
}}

'''Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm''' ({{langx|ar|صادق جلال العظم}} ''Ṣādiq Jalāl al-‘Aẓm''; 1934 – December 11, 2016) was a [[Professor Emeritus]] of Modern European Philosophy at the [[University of Damascus]] in Syria and was, until 2007, a visiting professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at [[Princeton University]]. His main area of specialization was the work of German philosopher [[Immanuel Kant]], but he later placed a greater emphasis upon the [[Islam]]ic world and its relationship to the West, evidenced by his contribution to the discourse of [[Orientalism]].<ref>{{Cite book|url={{Google books|izpNLWUxp5IC|plainurl=yes}}|title=Orientalism: A Reader|last=Macfie|first=A. L.|date=2000-01-01|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814756652|language=en|chapter = Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse}}</ref> Al-Azm was also known as a [[human rights]] advocate and a champion of intellectual freedom and free speech.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050609/2005060901.html |title=Syrian intellectuals call on the Baath congress to revive 'Damascus spring' |date=2006-03-19 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060319115555/http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050609/2005060901.html |archive-date=2006-03-19 }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Al-Azm was born in 1934 in [[Damascus]], [[Mandatory Syrian Republic|Syrian Republic]], into the influential [[Al-Azm family]].<ref name="Sadgrove 2010 loc=267">{{citation |last=al-Azm|first=Sadiq Jalal|year=2008|chapter=Science and Religion, an Uneasy Relationship in the History of Judeo-Christian-Muslim Heritage|title=Islam & Europe|publisher=Leuven University Press|page=129|isbn=978-9058676726}}</ref><ref name="aljazeera2016">{{citation |year=2016|title=صادق العظم.. مفكر درس الفلسفة واستغرقته السياسة|url=https://www.aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/icons/2016/12/4/%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B8%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%81%D9%83%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%81%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%BA%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9|publisher=[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al-Jazeera]]|quote=وُلد صادق جلال العظم عام 1934 في العاصمة السورية دمشق لأسرة تنتمي لعائلة سياسية عريقة من أصل تركي، وكان والده جلال العظم أحد العلمانيين السوريين المعجبين بتجربة مصطفى كمال أتاتورك في تركيا.|language=ar|access-date=2022-08-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Ottoman Rule in Damascus, 1708-1758|last=Barbir|first=Karl K.|date=1980|publisher=Princeton University Press|url={{Google books|qaX_AwAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}}|pages=58–61|isbn=1400853206}}</ref> The Al-Azm family rose to prominence in the eighteenth century under the rule of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the [[Syria (region)|region of Syria]]. Al-Azm's father, Jalal al-Azm, was one of the Syrian secularists who was known to admire [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]]'s [[Atatürk's Reforms|secularist reforms]] in the [[Turkey|Republic of Turkey]].<ref name="aljazeera2016"/>

Al-Azm was schooled in [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]], earning a B.A. in Philosophy from the [[American University of Beirut]] in 1957. Al-Azm earned an M.A. in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1961 from [[Yale University]], majoring in Modern European Philosophy.

==Career==
In 1963, after finishing his Ph.D., he began teaching at the [[American University of Beirut]]. His 1968 book ''Al-Nakd al-Dhati Ba’da al-Hazima'' (''Self-Criticism After the Defeat'') (Dar al-Taliah, Beirut) analyzes the impact of the [[Six-Day War]] on Arabs. Many of his books are banned in Arab nations (with the exception of Lebanon).

He was a professor of Modern European Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at the [[University of Damascus]] from 1977 to 1999. He continued to be active in lecturing at European and American universities as a visiting professor. In 2004, he won the [[Erasmus Prize]] with [[Fatema Mernissi]] and [[Abdulkarim Soroush]]. In 2004 he received the [[Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize]] awarded on behalf of the Protestant Faculty of the [[University of Tübingen]] by Professor [[Eilert Herms]] with an address entitled "Islam and Secular Humanism" <ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269805785|title=Humanism: A tradition common to both Islam and Europe|date=2013|journal=Filozofija I Drustvo|volume=24|number=1|pages=293–310|doi=10.2298/FID1301293D|last=Daiber|first=Hans|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Islam, Menschenrechte und Freiheit|url=https://www.polylog.net/fileadmin/docs/polylog/16_rez_Ben-Abdeljelil_Al-Azm.pdf|last=Ben-Abdeljelil|title=Gerechter Krieg? - polylog 16|date=2021|editor-last1=Walzer|editor-first1=Michael|editor-last2=Binder|editor-first2=Christina|editor-last3=Putzer|editor-first3=Judith|editor-last4=Amaladass|editor-first4=Anand|editor-last5=Pilz|editor-first5=Erich|editor-last6=Wimmer|editor-first6=Franz Martin|editor-last7=Bernreuter|editor-first7=Bertold|isbn=978-3901989148|publisher=Wiener Gesellschaft f. interkulturelle Philosophie|language=de}}</ref> In 2005, he became a Dr. Honoris Causa at [[Hamburg University]]. In 2015 he was awarded the [[Goethe Medal]] by the president of the Goethe Institute.

===Controversy and arrest===
Al-Azm was at the center of a political controversy in December 1969 when he was arrested ''in absentia'' with his publisher by the Lebanese government; he had fled to Syria only to later return to Beirut to turn himself in, where he was jailed in early January 1970. He was charged for writing a book that aimed at provoking feuds among the religious sects of Lebanon. This was after publication in book form of various essays that previously appeared in journals, magazines and periodicals. Together, they comprised the 1969 book, ''Naqd al-Fikr al-Dini'' (''Critique of Religious Thought'') (Dar al-Taliah, Beirut). In it, Al-Azm's rebuke of political and religious leaders and the media who supported them for exploiting their populations' religious sentiments was relentless and made him enemies. He applied a Marxist-materialist critique to religion, not to discredit people's religious commitments, but to expose how "Arab regimes found in religion a crutch they could use to calm down the Arab public and cover-up for their incompetence and failure laid bare by the defeat, by adopting religious and spiritual explanations for the Israeli victory...."<ref name=naqdalfikraldini>{{cite book|title=نقد الفكر الديني|last=al-ʻAẓm|first=Ṣādiq Jalāl|date=1969|publisher=دار الطليعة،|chapter=Introduction|language=ar}}</ref>

Al-Azm was released from prison in mid-January 1970 after the "Court decided in consensus to drop the charges filed against the Defendant Sadiq Al-Azm and Bashir Al-Daouk due to the lack of criminal elements they were charged with."<ref name=naqdalfikraldini/>{{rp|Appendix}} Subsequent editions of ''Naqd al-Fikr al-Dini'' include the Documents from the Tribunal and continue to be published in Arabic to this day, though with restricted access in the Middle East.

Al-Azm long believed his arrest was motivated by other factors, perhaps as a way to "settle scores with their critics and foes." Regardless, the arguments Al-Azm raised in ''Critique of Religious Thought'' continue to be debated, and there have been numerous books published in Arabic furthering the positions of both sides of the debate. The most thorough chronicling of the "affair", to use the author's own words, outside the Middle East was in the German journal, ''Der Islam,'' by Stefan Wild in an essay translated "God and Man in Lebanon: The Sadiq Al-Azm Affair" in 1971.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/islm.1971.48.2.206/html|title=Gott und Mensch im Libanon|last=Wild|first=Stefan|journal=Der Islam|volume=48|issue=2|date=1971|doi=10.1515/islm.1971.48.2.206|s2cid=162275198 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Prominent views===
Historian [[Albert Hourani]] characterizes Al-'Azm's writing as "a total rejection of religious thought."<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Arab Peoples|chapter=A Disturbance of Spirits (since 1967).|publisher=Belnap Press of Harvard University Press|date=1991|last1=Hourani|first1=Albert|last2=Ruthven|first2=Malise}}</ref> Al-Azm was a critic of [[Edward Said]]'s ''[[Orientalism (book)|Orientalism]]'', claiming that it [[Essentialism|essentialises]] 'the West' in the same manner that Said criticises imperial powers and their scholars of essentialising 'the East'. In a 1981 essay, Al-Azm wrote of Said: "the stylist and polemicist in Edward Said very often runs away with the systematic thinker ... we find Said ... tracing the origins of Orientalism all the way back to Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides and Dante. In other words, Orientalism is not really a thoroughly modern phenomenon, as we thought earlier, but is the natural product of an ancient and almost irresistible European bent of mind to misrepresent the realities of other cultures, peoples and their languages. ... Here the author seems to be saying that the 'European mind', from Homer to Karl Marx and A.H.R.Gibb, is inherently bent on distorting all human realities other than its own."{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Within a decade, Al-Azm became an active participant in the dialogue surrounding free speech and the 1988 publication of ''[[The Satanic Verses]]'' by [[Salman Rushdie]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

==Bibliography (English)==
Al-Azm wrote numerous books and articles in Arabic, and some have been translated into European languages including Italian, German, Danish, French. Neither ''Al-Nakd al-Dhati Ba’da al-Hazima'' nor ''Naqd al-Fikr al-Dini'' has been translated in its entirety into English, though selections of ''Naqd al-Fikr al-Dini'' have appeared in English translation in John J. Donohue and John L. Esposito's [https://web.archive.org/web/20110102143745/http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/Islam/?view=usa''Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives''] ([1982]2007, 2nd Ed.) Additionally, chapter two of ''Nakd al-Fikr al-Dini'' was translated into English in a 2011 Festschrift in honor of al-Azm's career published under the title [http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/History/Regional%20%20national%20history/Asian%20history/Middle%20Eastern%20history/Orientalism%20and%20Conspiracy%20Politics%20and%20Conspiracy%20Theory%20in%20the%20Islamic%20World.aspx ''Orientalism and Conspiracy: Politics and Conspiracy Theory in the Islamic World, Essays in Honour of Sadiq J. Al-Azm.'']

===Books===
* 1967 ''Kant's Theory of Time'' New York, Philosophical Library.
* 1972 ''The Origins of Kant's Arguments in the Antinomies'' Oxford, Clarendon/Oxford University Press.
* 1980 ''Four Philosophical Essays'' Damascus, Damascus University Publications.
* 1992 ''The Mental Taboo: Salman Rushdie and the Truth Within Literature.'' London, Riad El-Rayess Books.
* 2004 ''{{lang|de|Islam und säkularer Humanismus}}'' (Islam and Secular Humanism), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005 {{ISBN|3-16-148527-0}}
* 2011 [http://www.saqibooks.com/book/self-criticism-after-the-defeat/ ''Self-Criticism After the Defeat.''] Saqi Books. London.
* 2013 Secularism, Fundamentalism, and the Struggle for the Meaning of Islam. (Collected essays in 3 volumes) – Vol. 1: On Fundamentalisms; Vol. 2: Islam – Submission and Disobedience; Vol. 3: Is Islam Secularizable? Challenging Political and Religious Taboos. Gerlach Press, Berlin 2013–2014, {{ISBN|978-3-940924-20-9}}
* 2014 ''[[Critique of Religious Thought (book)|Critique of Religious Thought]]''. {{ISBN|3940924458}},<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jalāl ʻAẓm |first1=Ṣādiq |title=Critique of religious thought |date=2015 |publisher=Gerlach Press |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3940924452 |oclc=1162391373 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1162391373}}</ref> in Arabic published in 1969 ({{langx|ar|نقد الفكر الديني}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=جلال العظم |first1=صادق |title=نقد الفكر الديني |date=1970 |publisher=نشورات مكتبة الجامعة - بيت لحم |location=بيت لحم |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6991429}}</ref>
* 2014 [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/909967056 Islam - submission and disobedience] {{ISBN|9783940924223}}

===Articles===
* 1967 "Whitehead's Notions of Order and Freedom." ''The Personalist: International Review of Philosophy, Theology and Literature.'' University of Southern California. 48:4, 579-591.
* 1968 "Absolute Space and Kant's First Antinomy of Pure Reason." ''Kant-Studien'' University of Koln, 2:151-164.
* 1968 "Kant's Conception of the Noumenon." '' Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review'' Queen's University, 6:4, 516-520.
* 1973 "The Palestinian Resistance Movement Reconsidered." ''The Arabs Today: Alternatives for Tomorrow'' Columbus, Ohio: Forum Associates Inc., 121-135.
* 1981 "[https://libcom.org/article/orientalism-and-orientalism-reverse-sadik-jalal-al-azm Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse.]" ''[[Khamsin (magazine)|Khamsin]]'' No.8: 5-26. Reprinted in Alexander Lyon Macfie, Ed. ''Orientalism: A Reader'' New York: New York University Press, 2000. 217-238." See Reference 1 for full article link.
* 1988 "Palestinian Zionism." [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1571166 ''Die Welt Des Islams''] Leiden, 28: 90-98.
* 1991 "The Importance of Being Earnest About Salman Rushdie." ''Die Welt Des Islams'' 31:1, 1-49. Reprinted in D.M.Fletcher, Ed. [https://brill.com/view/title/27965 ''Reading Rushdie: Perspectives on the Fiction of Salman Rushdie''] Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1994.
* 1993/1994 "Islamic Fundamentalism Reconsidered: A Critical Outline of Problems, Ideas and Approaches." ''South Asia Bulletin, [[Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East]]'' [https://read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/search-results?fl_TocHeadingTitle=Beyond+Identity+Politics%2c+Part+I Part 1]:13:93-121 [http://cssaame.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/13/1_and_2/93] [https://read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/article-abstract/14/1/73/364/Islamic-Fundamentalism-Reconsidered-A-Critical Part 2]: 14:73-98
* 1994 "Is the ''Fatwa'' a ''Fatwa''?" In ''For Rushdie: Essays by Arab and Muslim Writers in Defense of Free Speech'' Anouar Abdallah, et al. New York: George Braziller.[https://web.archive.org/web/20031231232601/http://www.georgebraziller.com/catalog/nonfiction/forrushdie.html]
* 1996 "Is Islam Secularizable?" ''Jahrbuch fur Philosophie des Forschungsinstituts fur Philosophie."
* 2000 "[http://cssaame.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/20/1-2/44 The Satanic Verses Post Festum:The Global, The Local, The Literary.]" ''Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East'' 20:1&2.
* 2000 "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2000/jun/15/the-view-from-damascus/ The View from Damascus]" ''New York Review of Books'' June 15.
* 2000 "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2000/aug/10/the-view-from-damascus-contd The View from Damascus, cont'd.]" ''New York Review of Books'' August 10.
* 2002 "[https://www.inth.ugent.be/bibliography/47856 Western Historical Thinking from an Arabian Perspective.]" in ''Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural Debate'' Edited Jorn Rusen. New York: Berghahn Books. [Original German 1999]
* 2004 "[https://www.jstor.org/pss/1571337 Viewpoint: Islam, Terrorism and the West Today.]" ''Die Welt Des Islams'' 44:1, 114-128.
* 2004 "[https://bostonreview.net/articles/al-azm-time-out-joint/ Time Out of Joint.]" ''Boston Review'' October/November
* 2008 "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qdwsq?turn_away=true Science and Religion, an Uneasy Relationship in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim Heritage.]" ''Islam and Europe: Challenges and Opportunities.'' [[Marie-Claire Foblets]], Ed.
* 2010 "[http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000021294 Farewell, Master of Critical Thought.]" On the passing of Egyptian intellectual [[Nasr Abu Zayd]]
* 2011 "Orientalism and Conspiracy." In ''Orientalism and Conspiracy.'' See above, pgs. 3-28.
* 2011 "[http://www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/33/rp_33_18.pdf The Arab Spring: 'Why Exactly at this Time?]'" originally published in Arabic in ''Al Tariq Quarterly'' (Beirut) Summer 2011, English translation by Steve Miller in ''Reason Papers: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Normative Studies'' vol. 33 Fall 2011.

==Interviews==
* 1997 "An Interview with Sadik Al-Azm." ''Arab Studies Quarterly,'' summer.[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_n3_v19/ai_20755838/?tag=content;col1]{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Also appeared in ''The June 1967 War After Three Decades.'' Edited by William W. Haddad, Et al. Washington, D.C., Association of Arab-American University Graduates. 1999.
* 1998 "Trends in Arab Thought: An Interview with Sadek Jalal al-Azm." ''Journal of Palestine Studies,'' 27:2, 68-80.[https://www.jstor.org/pss/2538285]
* 2000 "Analysis: The Rise and Rise of Bashar." BBC news report. June 21.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/799596.stm]
* 2005 "An Arab Exit Strategy." An Internet interview with Sadik al-Azm, Vali Nasr, Vahal Abdulrahman and Ammar Adbulhamid on Open Source Radio. November 10. [http://www.radioopensource.org/an-arab-exit-strategy/]
* 2009 Portrait Sadiq Al-Azm: An Argumentative Arab Enlightener [http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-478/_nr-983/i.html]
* 2011 [http://en.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-476/_nr-1498/i.html Interview with Sadiq Jalal al-Azm: A New Spirit of Revolution]
* 2013 [https://archive.today/20141019010154/http://aljumhuriya.net/en/4485 Interview with Dr. Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm: The Syrian Revolution and the Role of the Intellectual], ''Al-Jumhuriyya'' Group.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://en.qantara.de/content/essay-sadiq-al-azm-the-fight-over-the-meaning-of-islam Essay: Sadiq Al-Azm: The Fight over the Meaning of Islam]
*2008 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTm9limVucM "Democracy and the Middle East: A View from Damascus."] Lecture at the Kennedy Center for International Studies. 04/09/2008
* 2010 Sadik's comments on the Ground Zero Mosque at the ''TwoSeas Forum for Dialogue'', [http://www.islamcomment.com/twoseas/?p=74 "Should the West welcome new mosques? Should the East welcome other places of worship?"]
* A Collection of Sadik's essays and interviews can be found at the forum "What is said about Arabs and Terrorism": [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707154716/http://arabsandterrorism.com/interviewees.cfm?sn=53]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azm, Sadik al-}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2016 deaths]]
[[Category:American University of Beirut alumni]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Damascus University]]
[[Category:Princeton University faculty]]
[[Category:20th-century Syrian philosophers]]
[[Category:Al-Azm family|Sadiq Jalal]]
[[Category:National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces members]]
[[Category:Syrian critics of religions]]
[[Category:Syrian people of Turkish descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Syrian writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Syrian writers]]

Sadiq Jalal al-Azm - Revision history

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