Review: Petition for a Manifesto for Rooting and Liberating Arab Sociology [Mishkat Mithaq Ta’sseel wa Tahrir ‘Ilm al Ijtima‘a al ‘Arabi], by Mahmoud Al Dhaouadi Available to Purchase

The book is a hallmark in Arab sociology as it calls for a new Arab epistemology, quite in line to what this reviewer has been calling for in Contemporary Arab Affairs (Hafez 2014). The book’s title immediately alerts the Arab reader that something new, even shocking is coming before his eyes. The author’s use of the work “mishkat” (lantern) is a key to what to expect in the book. It is a word used in the Holy Quran in the chapter entitled “The Light” (Al Noor). In that chapter, there is a metaphor where the message of Islam in the Quran is light shining from a lantern. The contrast between the modesty of the vessel and the power of the message of Islam embodied in the light of the lantern is the metaphor used also by the author. It did give a headache to...