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Vol.1 Issue 24, October 2020
ELITE

A Dialogue Between Prof.Mohamed Soffar and

The Lebanese Philosopher Nassif Nassar
translated to English : By Jasmin Nabil

This month ELITE is pleased to publish the conversa tion that delved deeper in your study of Ibn-Khaldun, I found myself in
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Soffar, Professor of Political Sc ience in need to write a review of such a valuable book les t it would
FEPS, Cairo University made with the Lebanese Philo sopher fall in the deep shadows of oblivion. Consequently , it was of
Nassif Nassar. ELITE Team wishes that this rich dia logue essence to seek clarification concerning what was p erceived to
will be of great benefit to those interested in phi losophy, Arab be obscure to me.
Culture and Ibn Khaldun.
ELITE Team wishes also to thank Prof. Dr . Soffar for Prof. Nassar:
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allowing us to publish such a precious discussion. We are Dear Professor Soffar, my thanks for your kind wish es, and
grateful too for Jasmin Nabil, FEPS Political Scien ce Fresh for your insistence to take me back to the days of my youth.
graduate and ELITE editor for exerting her efforts and skills Particularly, those days I spent in the company of Ibn-Khaldun
and his exquisite school of thought. As for your qu estions, I
to translate this dialogue into English. And below is the
answer them with brevity due to my isolation in my summer
dialogue.
house away from the tools of research and scrupulou sness.
Prof.Soffar:
Prof.Soffar:
Good evening Dr.Nassif. My best wishes and greetin gs for
As you previously stated, your book about Ibn-Khald un is an
your eightieth birthday; may God grant you longevit y andan
extremely condensed text. To begin, in the first pa rt of the
abundance of happiness. In the beginning, I would like to
book in the introduction, you stated that your read ing of Ibn-
thank you for granting me this opportunity to commu nicate
Khaldun is a phenomenological one. Due to the compa ctness
with you.
of the text, I could not discern the phenomenology about
It has been a while since I became intrigued by the study of
which you speak; is it that of Edmund Husserl, or t hat of
Ibn-Khaldun. At present, I teach sections from “The
Hegel? I think it is most likely that you speak of that of Hegel
Introduction ” [Moqadimat Ibn-Khaldun]at university within
because of your usage of the concepts of the return of
the framework of the Political Theory course. Surel y, it was
consciousness . Especially, with talks about an int ellectual
essential to review the valuable writings and liter ature about
development that places Ibn-Khaldun ’s “Introduction ” as an
Ibn-Khaldun such as; Satea Al-Hosary ’s book, Abed al-
intermediary link between Plato ’s “The Republic, ” and Marx ’s
Jabri ’s book, and definitely your book “The realistic thinking
“Capital. ” Would you please clarify this point?
of Ibn-Khaldun ” [La pens éer éalisted ’Ibn-Khald ûn]. In fact, as
I
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Vol.1 Issue 24, October 2020