Defining Arab Nationalism
This introductory chapter provides an overview of Arab nationalism. Throughout his numerous writings on Arab nationalism, Sati‘ al-Husri—the foremost theoretician of Arab nationalism—never lost sight of the ultimate goal of the ideology he so vigorously propagated, namely the political unity of the Arabic-speaking people. He wrote that the happiest of nations were the ones in which political and national boundaries were fused into one another. In another one of his writings, Husri says that he is constantly asked how was it that the Arabs lost the 1948–1949 war over Palestine when they were seven states and Israel was only one? His answer is unequivocal: the Arabs lost the war precisely because they were seven states. Thus, to avoid losing future wars, the Arabs had to unite into one Arab state.