Arabs and European Enlightenment Thought in the Discourses of Rifa'a al-Tahtawi and Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi: Criteria of Representation and Obstacles to Appropriation

The study examines how Rifa’a al-Tahtawi and Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi engaged with European Enlightenment thought in their respective works Takhlīṣ al-Ibrīz and Aqwam al-Masālik. Against the backdrop of the transformations experienced by Arab and Islamic societies in the nineteenth century and the growing attendant awareness of Europe’s military and scientific superiority, the two reformers studied European constitutions and laws and compared them with Islamic law. Both adopted a conciliatory discourse that sought to ground certain Enlightenment concepts in an Islamic frame of reference, thereby justifying their acceptance and addressing reservations about them. Al-Tahtawi advocated the separation of powers and the constitutional limitation of the ruler’s authority, while al-Tunisi praised political and personal freedoms, freedom of the press, and judicial justice. The study argues that their reception of Enlightenment thought remained limited because of the absence of a structural critique of political authority and inherited tradition, as well as their emphasis on describing European achievements without investigating their historical contexts. Their reform projects therefore remained partial and did not lead to a radical reassessment of existing political systems.