From an Arab Perspective: Contemporary Thinkers of Iran and the Arab World (5) Mālik b. Nabī: Identity Concerns and Civilizational Encounter

This article examines the thought of Mālik b. Nabbī, one of the most influential modern Muslim intellectuals, with particular emphasis on the questions of identity and civilizational encounter in the context of colonialism. The authors argue that Mālik b. Nabbī’s central concern was not merely the political liberation of Muslim societies—especially Algeria—from colonial domination, but also their emancipation from its deeper cultural, psychological, and civilizational effects. Within this framework, colonialism is understood as a process that disrupts the identity of colonized societies through the imposition of foreign languages, cultures, and intellectual paradigms. The article explores Ben-Nabī’s concept of the “explosion of identity” and highlights its dual consequences. On the one hand, such an awakening can become a force for resistance, renewal, and liberation; on the other, it may lead to a closed conception of identity characterized by suspicion toward the Other and the rejection of the achievements of other civilizations. The study further analyzes Ben-Nabī’s theory of civilization through his well-known triadic formula of human beings, soil, and time, as well as his cyclical model of civilizational development through the stages of spirit, reason, and instinct. Particular attention is given to the relationship between this framework and the problem of civilizational decline. The article also examines and critiques Bennabī’s concept of “colonizability” (qābilīyyat al-istiʿmār), one of the foundational ideas in his thought. While acknowledging its explanatory value, the authors argue that the concept involves a degree of overgeneralization and simplification in its interpretation of Muslim societies. Rejecting both conspiracy-centered explanations and the exclusive blame placed on external forces, the article concludes that understanding the crisis and backwardness of the Muslim world requires simultaneous attention to both internal and external factors, as well as a critical rethinking of the concepts of identity and civilization. This article has been translated into Persian with the permission of the original author.