Abdelaziz Thâalbi
| Abdelaziz Thâalbi | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
September 5, 1876 Tunis |
| Died | October 1, 1944 (aged 68) Tunis |
| Other names | ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Thaʿalibī |
Abdelaziz Thâalbi (عبد العزيز الثعالبي, September 5, 1876 – October 1, 1944) was a Tunisian politician. He was one of the founding members of Destour.
Abdelaziz Thâalbi's father was a notary whose family moved to Tunis after the 1830 French occupation of Algeria. Thâalbi studied at the University of Ez-Zitouna, where he became learned in Salafiyyah. After he graduated in 1895, Thâalbi began publishing a religious journal, Sabil al-Rashid ("the proper path"). In 1897, journal was suspended by the French, and Thâalbi left Tunisia, travelling in Libya, Egypt, and India. He spent at least two years in Egypt, allegedly moving with disciples of Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh.
Returning to Tunis in 1901, he began to openly criticize maraboutism and advocate a rationalistic reading of the Quran. In 1904 he was taken to court, accused of cursing Abdul-Qadir Gilani and calling the Quran an "obsolete book out of step with the progress of our age". He was largely defended by the French newspapers and condemned by the Arabic ones, and was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to two months in prison.
In 1905 Thâalbi published L'esprit libéral du Coran ("the liberal spirit of the Quran") with César Benattar (who had been his defense lawyer) and el-Hadi Sebai. It was pro-French, in contrast with Sabil al-Rashid and his later writings. It claimed that
through a literal, rational, scientific, liberal, and faithful interpretation of the Quran and hadiths the Muslim people will recover their past intellectual greatness, and with the civilizing influence of the French, the descendants of those that proclaimed the principles of the French Revolution, Muslims minds, freed at last of all superstitions and prejudices, will be able to one day contribute, in collaboration with their Protectors, to the global civilization.
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