The Arabist is dedicated to covering the politics and culture of the Arab world. It is published and maintained in Cairo, with contributions from journalists and researchers working in the region.

Originally launched in December 2003, The Arabist is centered on Egypt but also aims to cover other areas of the Arab world–most notably the Levant and the Maghreb. While focused on political issues, it aspires to highlight important cultural trends in the Arab world. What it is not–by far–is authoritative or exhaustive. It merely reflects the interests and the expertise of its contributors.

It has become commonplace in the mainstream press to criticize US (and other) foreign policy veterans with deep knowledge of Arab politics, culture and language as “State Department Arabists.” The implication is that anyone who takes such interest in the region is inherently suspicious and must have “gone native.” This is taking place at a time when interest in the Arab world should be encouraged rather than discouraged.The term “arabist” is also confused with “pan-Arabism” and similar nationalist ideologies that exist in the Arab world. The interpretation of the word “arabist” as someone biased towards Arabs or who espouses Arab nationalism has unfortunately begun to make it into contemporary dictionaries as its usage as a derogatory term has spread.

There is also a tendency to confuse the terms “arabist” and “orientalist”–with the latter word carrying the negative connotation it has been given by the scholarship of Edward Said on (mis)representations of the Arab world in European literature and arts. Suffice it to say that this site seeks the very opposite of romanticizing the Arab world or trying to explain it through essentialist cultural theories. Debunking ill-informed, culturalist or alarmist works about the region is one of the main preoccupations of this site.

This site proudly defends the term “arabist” and proposes its own definition, one that could be applied to great Western scholars of the Arab world such as Maxime Rodinson just as well as it could to Arab thinkers such as Ibn Khaldoun, the inventor of sociology and the first great theorist of Arab political systems:

Arabist |ˈarəbist| |ˌɛrəbəst| |ˌarəbɪst|noun

a person who studies Arabic civilization or language.