مثقفو الإنسيكلوبيديا الفرنسية و مثقف دائرة المعارف العربية

Abstract EN

This paper examines the methodologies adopted in the production of the French Encyclopédie by a galaxy of Western thinkers who adhered to the ideas of the Enlightenment in the second half of the eighteenth century (1751-1772), and compares these to those adopted in the production of the Da’irat al-Maarif al-Arabiyah (the Arabic Encyclopedia) by the scholar Butrus al-Bustani during the Arabic Nahda in the last quarter of the nineteenth century (1876-1900).

The apparent similarity in the general intellectual orientation (Enlightenment and Nahda respectively) did not lead to similar results.

The Enlightenment in the West led to revolution, while the Nahda in the East led the region to where it stands today.

The Arab Encyclopedia relied on private, political funding from Khedive Ismail, while the French Encyclopédie relied on subscriptions from a public readership who supported this great cultural project giving it a popular political and intellectual identity independent of the governing powers.

The lack of belief in collective working, and the reliance on the material support of the authorities, coincided with narrow literary and cultural choices that shaped the Arabic encyclopedia.

By contrast, the Encyclopédie was from the outset concerned with the sciences and crafts within a vision that subsequently led these sciences and crafts to transform into a technological and industrial revolution in less than a century.

The Enlightenment encyclopedia came cast in an implementing, progressive, and collective mind set while that of the Nahda, a century later, was cast in a different mold, predominantly based on individual genius and literary culture, contented with the call for social justice under the ceiling of tradition.