Conflicting Arab Identities: Language, Tradition and Modernity

What are the roots of Arab identity and how do they affect Arab identity today? This research, connecting past to present, is an attempt to understand the key elements that have shaped, and are still affecting, Arab consciousness today. The 'pillars' of Arab identity - among which language plays the central role - are identified through the study of fundamental texts of Arab-Islamic heritage and explained in terms of the life conditions in the desert, where Arab culture was born. The impact of Arab identity's origins is followed through the centuries to understand how they act on contemporary Arab mindset. The content and linguistic analysis of modern fatwās and Muslims' questions to their muftīs reveals, with particular clarity, the complex interplay modernity has established with tradition and the roots of Arab identity.