Debates on Re-forming the Family: A „Private" History of the Nahda?

One of the key debates in Greater Syria during the nahda (the Arab literary and cultural awakening) period dealt with "private life." To date, research has mainly focused on the voices of leading intellectuals/bourgeoisie - both women and men - especially with regard to the women’s question. How their audiences envisioned their own "private lives" is less well known. This article examines controversies and commentaries published in the Beiruti newspaper Lisan al-Hal (1877-1900), as a case study to provide an intimate glimpse of the ways in which the ideas of the Greater Syrian nahda were enacted in the homes and minds of its readers at the turn of the century. The analysis sheds light on domestic issues, including relationships between parents and children and the relationships between men and women in marriage. By extension it compares and contrasts private voices and public stances on the debate over the meaning and implications of "private life" in the nahda. It also captures additional facets of the history of the Arab family as it developed in the nahda period. It is shown that "private life" in the nahda also had a public face in which women and men negotiated their social order, especially their relationship within the nuclear family.