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Antun Sa'adeh
The Man and His Thought
• Biography
• Arabic Works
• Arabic Excerpts
• English Excerpts
• Arabic Articles on Saadeh
• His Contributions
• Bibliographies
• Int'l Publications
• Saadeh's Museum
• Martyrdom
• Translated Works
• Tributes
• Books
• News & Events
• Donations
• Related Links
Antun Sa’adeh, a nationalist thinker who lived from 1904 to 1949, not only strongly influenced the development of Syrian nationalism; he was one of the major intellectual figures of modern Syria. The impact of his ideas has been felt in politics, literature and philosophy, as well as in the social sciences. Indeed, the publications for which he was best known (The Rise of Nations, The Ten Lectures, Intellectual Struggle in Syrian Literature, and The Folly of Immortality), have had a broad influence on the politico-intellectual movement in Syria and throughout the Arab World.
Sa’adeh’s life was a unique blend of dedicated, perpetual struggle, righteous idealism, and theoretical pragmatism. He was not simply an outspoken figure on the political stage, but attempted the revolutionary treatment of paramount social and economic ills. Sa’adeh’s strength - regarded by some as a weakness - lay in his ability to confront social reality as a normative thinker interested in what ought to be rather than in the pragmatic what is. Some saw his vision as an essential utopian one. If that is utopian, every critic and reformer is a utopian. A scholar, who cultivated his friendship, described him as a man of “unusually strong character and striking personality. He possessed a great deal of will power and was extremely intelligent with a deep insight for politics.”
Sa’adeh passionately desired to achieve a united society, in which its people understood thattheir highest duty was to the nation. The ways and means by which he could achieve this goal seemed to him as important as the goal itself. He was not an amateur, attracted by fanciful ideas, whose realization did not matter; he was a national leader with a unique vision, and struggle was the only means he knew to achieve this vision.
