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Abstract
This paper places Milton's opinions on freedom of expression, in particular his seminal prose work, Areopagitica, into the context of the Arab world today. Areopagitica was translated into Arabic only very recently (2009) by Mohamed Enani. This study analyses the relevance of Milton's arguments about liberty in light of Egypt's current protocols with regard to book publication, and the ongoing political and social fluctuations occurring in the region. It also compares Milton's civil war context with the political and social rhetoric present in Egypt's increasingly polarised society. Through philological analyses of the translation's linguistic and religious emphases, it will be established that Areopagitica has a potential relevance not only to the sociopolitical contexts of the region, but also to the Arab world's prevailing Islamic culture. At its core, Islamic teaching emphasises the importance of both scripture and freedom. As a result, reading is an important Islamic activity, and allows the religion to be perceived as a complete way of life, concerned with both religious and worldly issues. Milton's tract touches on ideas of “religious and civil wisdom”, linking such wisdom with “discovery” and “freedoms”. While such ideas seem to match aspects of Islamic belief, this paper considers how we are to understand such issues when literacy rates of Muslim majority countries remain lower than the global average, and when censorship is in many ways rife in media, as well as in works of fiction and non-fiction. This study provides numerous links between Milton's tract and the Arab world today, drawing attention to the poet's perhaps surprising relevance to the region. It also shows how such comparisons point us towards the relevance of Milton's other works, namely his epic poem Paradise Lost, and a number of his sonnets.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to David Currell and Francois-Xavier Gleyzon for instigating this study by inviting me to present a plenary talk at the “Reading Milton through Islam” conference at the American University in Beirut (May 2014). I am also grateful to the attendees of this conference for their positive feedback, and to Hugh Adlington and Beverley Sherry for providing feedback on an earlier version of the article.
Notes
1Tamlālī.
2Al-Arabiya News.
3Denham.
4Mohamed, 955.
5Egypt's uprising against Hosni Mubarak's 30-year regime took place in the form of mass mobilisation around the country in January and February 2011. The presidential elections which followed saw Mohamed Morsi, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, voted as president. His term began in June 2012, but in July 2013 he was overthrown by Egypt's army after mass protests. Since then, the country has been split between support for the army and mass protests against it. There has been a crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood members, with the organisation considered officially a terrorist group in Egypt. Morsi's Minister of Defence, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who was responsible for ousting Morsi, became Egypt's president in June 2014 after winning a two-candidate election with an overwhelming margin.
6Issa, ‘Fragmentation’, 225.
7Ibid., 226.
8Unless otherwise stated, quotations from Mohamed Enani are from a personal interview with the author, 2011.
9Issa, ‘Fragmentation’, 225–6.
10Egyptian State Information Services, 2013. The Al-Azhar institution, Egypt, is the world's most acknowledged Sunni authority.
11Republished as Fil-Adab Il-Jāhiliy [On Pre-Islamic Literature] (1927).
12Known in English translation as Children of Gebelawi.
13Mehrez, 65.
14Najjar, 145.
15Mehrez, 65–6.
16Ibid, 67–8. Al-Azhar opposed these death fatwas.
17Najjar, 139–40. Then less than 35 US cents.
18I write “at face value” because my doctoral thesis finds that Paradise Lost is less often a religiously taboo text than might first be thought. See Issa, “Transforming”.
19Dowling, xi.
20Sirluck, 158.
21Qur’ān, 2:256. All translations of the Qur’ān are my own.
22Qur’ān, 17:105.
23Qur’ān, 96:1–5. While the term “iqra’” can also mean “recite”, its more likely meaning in this context is “read”. When the verse was revealed, it is reported that the angel Gabriel ordered Muhammad to “iqra’”, to which Muhammad replied “mā ana bi-qāri’” [I am unable to iqra’], likely referring to his illiteracy. This narration is recorded in Ḥadīth 6982 (Al-Bukhārī 1268) and Ḥadīth 160 (Muslim 77). Ḥadīths are the recorded sayings or actions of Muhammad, and are the second authority in Sunni Islam after the Qur’ān.
24Esposito, 306–7.
25UNICEF.
26Qur’ān, 2:33.
27Dhaoudi, 45–6. See also Al-‛Aqqād, who writes that Adam's knowledge is “what distinguished him above all other creations” (Al-Insān 11, 47).
28Milton, Areopagitica, 513–14. Parentheses added. Spellings in all quotations from the tract are modernised. Unless otherwise stated, all quotations of Areopagitica are taken from Complete Prose Works.
29Ibid., 514.
30Ibid., 514–15.
31Qur’ān, 21:35.
32Milton, Areopagitica, 528.
33Qur’ān, 8:28.
34Ibid., 2:77.
35Al-Albāni, 1138, 1601.
36Sirluck, 166.
37“Bassem Youssef Khilāl Al-Mo'tamar Al-Ṣaḥafi Lil-Bernāmeg (Bassem Youssef's Speech at the Press Conference for Albernameg),” YouTube video, 8:02, 4 June 2014.
38Albernameg. Episode no. 28, first broadcast 21 June 2013 by Middle East Broadcasting Center.
39Milton, Areopagitica, 563–4.
40Milton, Areopagitica, in Al-Firdaws Al-Mafqud, trans. Enani, 1022.
41Oxford English Dictionary Online, “gross” adj., and n.4.
42Milton, Arcades, lines 72–3, cited from Carey, ed., 165.
43Carey, 165.
44Paradise Lost, 12.531–7.
45Oxford English Dictionary Online, “outward” adj., n.1, and adv.
46Milton, Areopagitica, 549–50.
47On this thematic link between Areopagitica and Paradise Lost, see Lowenstein, Milton and the Drama, 119. Interestingly, Milton here relates the search for the truth to the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris.
48BBC News, “Egypt: Oscar-nominated The Square Never Screened at Home.”
49BBC Arabic, “Egypt: Does the Prime Minister Have a Right to Stop the Movie ‘Beauty of the Soul’?”
50Suffolk, 35.
51Milton, Areopagitica, 559.
52Sirluck, 167.
53Milton, Areopagitica, 543. Milton's reference to “truth” is complicated; it is summarised well by John Schaeffer, who states that Milton refers both to “religious truth” and “rhetorical truth” (88). Balachandra Rajan also states that to Milton, “truth” is “synchronic” and “diachronic” (95–7).
54Al-Tirmidhi, 454.
55Al-Qaradawi, 2013.
56Qur’ān, 49:14.
57Ibid., 5:41.
58Milton, Areopagitica, in Al-Firdaws Al-Mafqud, trans. Enani, 1005.
59Numerous video recordings show calls for people to vote coming from mosque minarets (during the 2014 constitutional referendum and the 2014 presidential elections). One of these, in January 2014, tells people explicitly to vote “yes” to the constitution, because otherwise, “we're telling the Jews: come and govern us”. See Istikhdām Al-Masājid Fil-Da‘āyā [Using Mosques in Propoganda], YouTube video, 2:57, 16 January 2014.
60Myers, 381.
61Al-Albāni, 525.
62Milton, Areopagitica, 543.
63Qur’ān, 26:69.
64Ibid., 17.84.
65Al-‛Aqqād, Al-Tafkīr Farīḍah Islāmiyyah, 3.
66Milton, Areopagitica, 543.
67Qur’ān, 67:10.
68Ibid., 2:242.
69Ibid., 6:97–9. The Qur’ānic terms used for this lexical group—reasoning, understanding, pondering—are most often: يعقلون (ya‛qilūn), يفقهون (yafqahūn), and يتفكرون (yatafakarūn) respectively.
70Al-‛Aqqād, Al-Tafkīr Farīḍah Islāmiyyah, 89.
71Ibid., 89–90.
72Sirluck, 167.
73Milton, Areopagitica, 512–13.
74Ibid., 513.
75Qur’ān, 24:19.
76Tamer Amin Yaftaḥ Al-Nār ‛Alā I‛lān Wāqī Dhakari [Tamer Amin Opens Fire on Condom Commercial], YouTube video, 4:29, 26 April 2014.
77Qur’ān, 6:55.
78Milton, Prolusions, 299, cited from Complete Prose Works.
79Esposito, 154.
80Milton, Areopagitica, 554.
81Milton, Areopagitica, in Al-Firdaws Al-Mafqud, trans. Enani, 1014.
82Myers, 382.
83Milton, Areopagitica, 554.
84Ibid., 550. It is ironic, perhaps, that in calling for unity and acceptance, Milton categorises his enemies “as barbarous” (Chernaik 318).
85Safwat Hegazy threatens Egypt's Copts, YouTube video, 2:46, 14 December 2012.
86Fatwa Ali Gomaa Bi-Qatl Il-Ikhwān [Ali Gomaa's Fatwa to Kill the Brotherhood], YouTube video, 1:04, 23 August 2013. The first anniversary of Morsi's rule was on 30 June 2013, the day that witnessed the start of the protests which led to his ousting.
87Milton, Areopagitica, 554–5.
88Ibid., 555.
89Vaughan, vii.
90Achinstein, 67.
91Plattner, 64.
92McGrail, 104.
93Milton, Areopagitica, 560.
94Nicholson, 165–6.
95Milton, “Sonnet XII,” 297.
96Mueller, 487.
97Qur’ān, 13:11.
98Mueller, 488.
99Three rounds of presidential elections, two in 2012 and one in 2014, parliamentary elections 2011–12, Shura Council elections 2012, three constitutional referendums in 2011, 2012 and 2014. Of these eight, the only results upheld today are those of the latest presidential election, and the 2011 and 2014 referendums.
100Milton, Areopagitica, 492.