Author name:
خير الله حسين عبيس الحجام
Supervisor name:
مشتاق طالب حسين الخفاجي
Abstract:
This study, entitled "Abbas Mahmoud Al - Akkad; A Study of His Political Activity and His Hethodology in Historical Writing 1889 - 1964", deals with aspects of Al - Akkad's political life, his methodology in writing events and historical issues, and biographies of historical figures .Al - Akkad is an important figure that occupied the minds of many thinkers, historians and researchers. They had different opinions about him because of richness of his writings in intellectual, literary, political, historical filds. Which, actually, represented a wealth of knowledge to Arab schools of thought. The study sheds light on this character that led to remarkable achievements in both intellectual and political aspects of his era, which is one of the most important in Egypt's modern and contemporary history : the era marked from the end of the nineteenth century until the second half of the twentieth century. Almost from the first beginnings of the British occupation of Egypt AD 1882 until the July Revolution, 1952 .The subject matter of this study is vital because Iraqi historic libraries lack it, especially in its political aspects and historical writings and methodology in those writings. They also lack any significant academic study that cover this topic. The same applies to Egyptian universities, according to the researcher’s work. Although several academic studies do exist, but they on the literary and intellectual works of Al - Aqad. Some of these studies focused merely his Islamic and linguistic writings. That makes it so fiddicuilt to consider this study a supplement to these former studies because it is studying the personality of Al - Akkad. The study primerly aims to explore the political activism of Al - Akkad, a filed wasn’t extensively in most studies. Moreover, this represented a long period from 1907 to 1952. A period in which Al - Akkad contributed to political thought and direct action. This represented by his participation in the Egyptian House of Representatives, and being a member of a political party that he supported, and oppesed its rivals. However, Al - Akkad, the politician and historian, remained hidden from the eyes of both academic and non - academic readers, despite the calls for researchers and historians to address these aspects .From that perspective, the subject of this study was set to highlight Al - Akkad’s personality and to rediscover his political activity, in addition to analyze his approach in historical writing .The scientific method requires a study to be divided into : an introduction and four chapters, concluded by the most important results. Finally, appendices, a list of sources and references and then a summary in English . The first chapter discusses the life of Al - Akkad, from his birth in 1889 until 1918. This chapter includes his birth, family, youth, education, and cultural composition. Then inspects the beginings his vocational life and the start of his intellectual and political activism. The second chapter discusses Al - Aklkad’s political activism, which appeard to be more noticeable from 1919. That is when Al - Akkad became an active member of the Wafd Party of Egypt, the legitimate representative of the National Movement at the time. The chapter ends with the fall of the government of Muhammad Mahmud Pasha first in 1929. The third chapter demonstrates the formation of Al - Akkad’s political activism and his political positions. Starting from 1930, Al - Akkad was a member of the Egyptian parliament for the first time. The chapter reviwes his discussions within the parliament for various political, social and economic issues. It also reviews his political positions from the Egyptian ministries and the British occupation, until his resignation from the Wafd Party in 1935. Following that, joining the Saadi Party in 1937. The chaper goes on Al - Akkad’s second term in the Egyptian parliament from 1938 to 1942, and then his political positions on both the Second World War (1939 - 1945), the Muslim Brotherhood (1946 - 1950) and the July 1952 revolution. The fourth chapter, which included an overview of his intellectual work, and his concept and interpretation of history. The chapter reiviews Al - Akkad’s methodology in documenting historical events. The chapter aslo discusses Al - Akkad’s approach in writing biographies .The researcher relied on a wide spectrum of sources to support the content of the study. Starting with the unpublished documents of the Royal Court files, and the published documents, especially the record of the first session of the fourth round of the Egyptian parliament (1930) and the second session of the seventh parliamentary body. As well as a number of other references, such as documentaries and personal memoirs. The researcher also returned to several Arabic and Iraqi theses and dissertations, in addition to books written in Arabic or translated to it. Most importantly, Al - Akkad's works and other books about him or related to the topic of the current study. Moreover, the study returned to research, published articles, newspapers, and magazines that covered a wide range of Egypt's modern and contemporary history during the first half of the 20th century and continued until after the death of Al - Akkad in 1964 .The researcher came to a number of results. Al - Akkad was a distinguished character among his peers during his early years and education. Family and social environments had an impact on him. This impact reflected on his nurture and nature. Al - Akkad showed an early passion for learning and knowledge. He also showed strength, boldness and challenge. These traits enabled him to be one of the most brilliant minds of his time in the fields of knowledge and politics. His envolvement in political life was out of patriotism, because he considered the country's best interest his priorty. That represented in standing against the king, British occupation and the cabinets that supported them .Intellectually, Al - Akad made great contributions, hincluding his historical works. He formed his own opinion concerning the concept of history, its purpose and interpretation. His he followed the historical scientific methodology in his writings on historical. He preferred the analytical method for collecting and analyzing information. Al - Akkad Adapted an integrational approach inspired from psychoanalysis and the historical methodology. He used to imploy different approaches in writing biographies to shed light on historical characters. His encyclopedic skills and literary style greatly reflected in the quality of his works .
