The first book to present an analysis of Arab response to fascism and Nazism from the perspectives of both individual countries and the Arab world at large, this collection problematizes and ultimately deconstructs the established narratives that assume most Arabs supported fascism and Nazism leading up to and during World War II. Using new source materials taken largely from Arab memoirs, archives, and print media, the articles reexamine Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Iraqi responses in the 1930s and throughout the war.

While acknowledging the individuals, forces, and organizations that did support and collaborate with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, Arab Responses to Fascism and Nazism focuses on the many other Arab voices that identified with Britain and France and with the Allied cause during the war. The authors argue that many groups within Arab societies—elites and non-elites, governing forces, and civilians—rejected Nazism and fascism as totalitarian, racist, and, most important, as new, more oppressive forms of European imperialism. The essays in this volume argue that, in contrast to prevailing beliefs that Arabs were de facto supporters of Italy and Germany—since “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”—mainstream Arab forces and currents opposed the Axis powers and supported the Allies during the war. They played a significant role in the battles for control over the Middle East.

A study of Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid, widely recognized as the creator of Egyptian nationalism, and his impact on Egyptian culture and history.

Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid (1872–1963) stands among the most creative, impactful intellectuals of modern Egypt and the Middle East. While best known as the architect of Egyptian nationalism, his nationalist endeavor was in fact part of his broader project to bring enlightenment to Egypt under the yoke of British colonialism. Through his articles, editorials, and mentoring, his newspaper al-Jarida became a key forum for the lively debates of the time, ranging from the role of Islam in society to women's inclusion, all toward shaping a unique colonial modernity for his country.

The most comprehensive study of Lutfi, his writing, and his impact—Enlightenment in Colonial Egypt deconstructs the view that he was a covert apologist of empire out of admiration for the liberal aspects of European enlightenment. Lutfi faced this duality head on: He believed it essential to embrace parts of the West’s Enlightenment values and to decolonize and Egyptianize them in order to establish an authentic, indigenous, Egyptian civilization, appropriate for modernity. Israel Gershoni and Molly Bernstein argue that Lutfi successfully engaged with these most difficult challenges, shaping a detailed plan to implement enlightenment in the Egyptian national context.