Arguing with Kant in the Postcolonial Middle East: Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Šaybānī and the Transcultural Journey of Critical Philosophy

This article examines the first Arabic translations of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1965) and Critique of Practical Reason (1966) in light of the intellectual journey of their translator, Aḥmad al-Šaybānī (1923–1995). It argues that, shaped by experiences of repression, exile, and a search for identity, Šaybānī developed in his own writings a core moral concern centered on human dignity, freedom, and rationalism—values that he perceived to be upheld by Islam and threatened by what he calls “materialism”. As the prefaces to his translations show, Kant helped him synthesize these beliefs, including his religious convictions. By offering a historically grounded perspective on Kant as a global thinker that goes beyond parochial Eurocentric truth claims, this article also draws attention to a philosophical engagement with the political and social changes of the postcolonial Middle East that evades the ideological framing prevalent in the intellectual historiography of that era.