Translating Ottoman into classical Arabic: nahda and the Balkan Wars in Ahmad Shawqi's "The New al-Andalus"

This article reassesses the typical scholarly projection of Turk-Arab relations in the late Ottoman Empire as an imperial center hegemonizing the Arab periphery. The article demonstrates that early modern neoclassical Arab poets drew upon the Arab-Islamic heritage, turath, to provide their interpretation and even critique of the late Ottoman period. As a case study, I give a close reading of Ahmad Shawqi's poem on the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), "The New al-Andalus." My reading departs from the common assumption that Shawqi's pan-Ottomanist poems express uncritical admiration for the caliphate. Through revealing the nuanced interpretive dynamics in Shawqi's poem, I draw upon translation theory and propose that early modern neoclassical poetry refracted rather than reflected political transformations of its period. This refraction played a crucial role in shaping the vision of nahda, because Shawqi, like other Arab thinkers, believed that the empire needed to go through "renaissance" after the Balkan defeat.