Krytyka religii i kultury arabskiej w "Chorobie islamu" Abdelwahaba Meddeba

Abstract

he first Polish edition of Abdelwahab Meddeb’s La maladie de l’islam (The Malady of Islam) is an important achievement for all researchers of Islam, Arab culture and relations between the West and the Arab/Islamic world. The book was firstly publi shed in Paris in 2002 by Éditions du Seuil publishing house. Meddeb’s work, with the title inspired by Voltaire’s dismissal of Jansenist movement, presents an important voice within widely understood contemporary humanities. Meddeb’s intellectual project is de eply rooted in thinker’s twofold genealogy – French and European, but equally Tunisian and Arab. His critique of Islam, however passionate and polemic, actually builds on the longstanding potential of Arab-Islamic culture e.g. by focusing on the rethinking of the heritage of Ibn ‘Arabī and Ibn Rušd in contemporary contexts. Meddeb’s text abounds in references to giants of Western and Arab thought, and encourages mystical dialogue between and inside Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions.