The Nature of Tyranny - And the Devastating Results of Oppression

The Nature of Tyranny was written and published at the dawn of the twentieth century by Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi, one of the pioneering thinkers of the Arab world. More than a century later, another Arab awakening exploded, led by a new generation of youth who chanted Al-Kawakibi's words in revolutionary cries from Aleppo, his hometown, to Cairo's Tahrir Square. Today this seminal text appears in English for the first time, with a foreword from Leon T. Goldsmith offering an overview of Al-Kawakibi's intellectual contributions. The first chapter of the text provides a definition of tyranny, presenting it as akin to a sickness or malaise that seeps into all classes of society, leaving behind decay. The following seven chapters apply this conception of tyranny to what Al-Kawakibi sees as society's crucial elements: religion, knowledge, honour, economy, ethics and progress. Having laid a theoretical framework for understanding the centrality of tyranny, its characteristics and its devastating effects, Al-Kawakibi concludes by setting forth a brief programme for remedying the 'disease' of tyranny. The final chapter outlines another book in which he had planned to elaborate upon his ideas-but, ultimately, his fate arrived too soon.

Product details

• Authors: Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi
• Publisher: Hurst Publishers
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9781787385481
• ISBN: 978-1-78738-548-1
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, Middle East, Politics & government, Political oppression & persecution, Political oppression and persecution