• Taha Husayn
• modernità
• Islam
• Università del Cairo
• Paul Kraus

This work aims to cover a field of study and of philosophical research which has not as yet received the attention it deserves – that is, the Modernist ideas circulating in the academic environment of the first secular university in the Arab world, the Cairo University. In parallel, I have also considered the decline of the ideal of continuity in the cultural exchange between Egypt and Europe, which had been brought forward by Taha Husayn (1889-1973). The emphasis on continuity can be seen as an attempt on
Husayn’s part to extend the Modernist intellectual debate beyond the élite. The first step towards this goal would have been, in Husayn's eyes, the acquisition of the philological method as it was applied by the European Orientalists for the interpretation of texts. In this way it would have become possible to take back the monopoly of the study of literary works and the teaching of humanities from the religious authorities. With regard to this, the life of Paul Kraus (1904-1944) and his foundational philological work on the medieval alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān have been included in this work. Kraus was one of the last Western Arabists to be active at the Cairo University. The increasingly tempestuous Islamist movements which arose in the 1920s more or less indirectly put an end to the European academic contribution, accelerated the decline of the nahda ("Renaissance") and weakened the Modernist intellectual turmoil which had gained momentum during the previous century. My research has been guided by the idea to bring out the philosophical aspects inherent in the thought of the Egyptian intellectuals who had the most marked influence on the cultural scene of the nahda between the19th and 20th centuries. I considered this approach the most fitting one to obtain as complete, well-founded and clear a knowledge of the relationship between Islamic culture and modernity as possible. Notwithstanding the lack of completeness in that primary documentation that can be consulted only on the spot or in specialized libraries, I think this research can count as a basis for further study of modern and contemporary Arab thought from the perspective of democracy, equality, and freedom of
thought.