Considering the communicative and symbolic roles of language in articulating national identity, Yasir Suleiman
provides a fresh perspective on nationalism in the Middle East. The links between language and nationalism are
delineated and he demonstrates how this has been articulated over the past two centuries.
Straddling the domains of cultural and political nationalism, Suleiman examines the Arab past (looking at the interpretation
and reinvention of tradition, and myth-making); the clash between Arab and Turkish cultural nationalism in the
19th and early 20th century; readings of canonical treatises on the topic of Arab cultural nationalism, the major
ideological trends linking language to territorial nationalism; and provides a research agenda for the study of
language and nationalism in the Arab context.
This the first full-scale study of this important topic and will be of interest to students of nationalism, Arab
and comparative politics, Arabic Studies, history, cultural studies and sociolinguistics.