Mulūk al-ʻArab (Les Rois des Arabes) d’Amīn al-Rayḥānī. Littérature, déplacement et recherche identitaire

This contribution focuses on the introduction of Mulūk al-ʻarab (Kings of the Arabs, 1924) by Amīn al-Rayḥānī. In this travelogue al-Rayḥānī relates his journey across the Arabian Peninsula, which is a personal search for an authentic modern Arab identity and a political quest for the unity of the Arab world. His engagement in the nationalist debate and in the quest for a modern Arab identity is marked by his multifaceted personal identity – as stranger – which reflects also on his literary work. In this contribution we aim at analysing the role of al-Rayḥānī’s special status as stranger characterized by a multiple territorial and literary membership. In particular we pay attention to the role of literature and displacement in al-Rayḥānī's search for his personal and collective identity as an Arab. Al-Rayḥānī metaphorically moves between different literary traditions – Arabic, European and American – and he physically moves through the Arab world. al-Rayḥānī's literary and territorial in-between standpoind suggests the possibility of a modern personal and political identity founded on a multiple intellectual and territorial membership characterized by the circulation and dissemination of texts, literary traditions, intellectuals and openness to diversity.