The problem of culture, by Malek Bennabi, Collection Malek Bennabi

Never has a Muslim author endeavored to evoke the nevertheless fundamental question of culture. This theme, totally foreign to contemporary Arab-Muslim thought, is only mentioned in the guise of distraction or entertainment, an adornment of the mind, which shows its poverty. Yet where culture is absent, civilization dies. And, through The Problem of Culture, Malek Bennabi reminds us forcefully: the Muslim world is in a situation of deep crisis.

If we like to ignore that culture goes from the simple daily gesture to the most grandiose design, if we forget that this concerns the painter as well as the peasant, the teacher as well as the politician, then civilization has no chance to emerge and regenerate.

Thus Bennabi calls, through this strong and relevant analysis, the urgency for the Muslim world to recreate and develop its own culture which was admired by the world at its peak, by dissecting the constituent elements of the culture that are ethics, aesthetics, pragmatic logic and technique, so that Muslim man can finally try to find a culture that allows him to resume his quest for his own civilization.

About the Author : Malek Bennabi

Malek Bennabi (1905-1973) studied the problems of civilization in general and those of the Muslim world for a long time. Strongly imbued with Arab-Muslim and Western culture, we owe him the concept of " colonizability ", a concept characterizing societies in decline. He has to his credit more than twenty books dealing with civilization, culture, ideology in general and problems related to the stagnation of Muslim society in particular. Through his writings, Malek Bennabi wanted to awaken Muslim consciences and relaunch a renaissance of Muslim society.