The Arabic language, nationalism, and nation-building in the Mashriq and the Maghrib: the case of Iraq and Morocco

This paper discusses the role of Standard Arabic in nationalism and nation-building in the Mashriq and the Maghrib through two case studies, Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s and Morocco in the three decades after its independence in 1956. It explores the history and political significance of the modernisation and standardisation of the Arabic language and analyses Standard Arabic's role in nationalism and nation-building in the Mashriq and the Maghrib in general and in Iraq and Morocco in particular. It argues that while both the Mashriq and the Maghrib saw a process of Arabisation, this process was a revival of Arabic in Iraq and the Mashriq and a reclamation of the language in Morocco and the Maghrib, and that while the Arabic language was used in the independence struggle and nation-building in both the Mashriq and the Maghrib, it was used as a symbol of Arab nationalism in Iraq and the Mashriq but as a symbol of Islam in Morocco and the Maghrib.