Background
Djait was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a conservative upper-middle-class family.
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( Islamic Culture in Crisis examines efforts by intellect...)
Islamic Culture in Crisis examines efforts by intellectuals and leaders in the Islamic world to adapt to what Hichem Djaït calls the “incredible novelty of modernity” that has come to Europe during the past 150 years. The chapters in the work are grouped into three sections, and were written by the author over a twenty-year period. Djaït describes the different meanings of modernity, the crisis of Islamic culture in its encounter with modernity, similarities and differences between Arabs and Muslims and other cultures, the politics of the Arabs, and the force of democracy in the Islamic world. In the sphere of politics, the Arabs have been excluded from history for a very long time. Instead, Turks, Mongols, Berbers, Persians, and Caucasians have led the destinies of the Islamic world, a domain that had become politically fragmented. But history has overlooked the concrete developments of that time, although they were full of consequences for the lives of the people. Paradoxically, what remains are the spiritual, trans-historic elements: religion, culture, and science. Contrasting the achievements of other civilizations, both past and present, Djaït demonstrates eloquently that Arabs and Muslims will not be able to connect with the modern world unless they are able to be inspired by a supreme ambition to further the causes of high culture—in knowledge, science, art, literature, and other spheres.
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historian university professor academic
Djait was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a conservative upper-middle-class family.
He had his secondary education at Sadiki College, where he studied French, world literature, Western philosophy, Arabic, and Islamic Studies. His Doctor of Philosophy in Arts and Humanities was defended in Paris in 1981.
His main works are The Great Fitna (1989) and The Life of Muhammad (2007). His training at Sadiki College made him discover Enlightenment thinkers and the ideals of the Renaissance and the Reformation which were rather different from the teachings of his family’s conservative milieu. Djait later travelled to France where he received the “Aggregation” diploma in History in 1962.
Today, Djait is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Tunis.
He is also a visiting professor at the McGill University and the University of California at Berkeley. In addition to the numerous honorary titles and awards he received, Djait was appointed president of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts on February 17th, 2012.
Professor Djait is a specialist in Middle-Age Islamic history. Among such publications, one may mention The Great Fitna (or The Great Discord) first published in 1989 and which represents a seminal study and a revolutionary reading of Islamic history following the death of Prophet Muhammad.
The Great Fitna is often described by scholars and critics as the most influential reference on the subject.
( Islamic Culture in Crisis examines efforts by intellect...)
