Rabat School of Thought: Tradition, Modernity, and Critique from the Edge

This long chapter, a summation of a quarter of a century of intellectual interest, tries to answer this major question: How do contemporary Moroccans think? The chapter provides some answers, in six parts, and locates this thinking within what is referred to here as the "Rabat School"-a geo-cultural nomenclature that is classical in Arabic scholarship and is introduced here to mean the diverse intellectual currents produced especially in Mohammed V University of Rabat since the 1950s and 1960s. Some of these currents have been widely engaged with in the broader Arab and Islamic world, as well as in the West by Muslim minorities and scholars. First, seeing that this type of work is unprecedented in its theme and scope of coverage, important methodological questions are raised and clarified. Second, the place of contemporary Moroccan thought is contextualized within contemporary Arabic scholarship. Third, the distinction between the "moderns"and "contemporaries"is explained by listing some major fields of study and their influential scholars and thinkers. Fourth, these previous parts are further explained by means of an intellectual sketch of Moroccan historiography narratives, to illustrate the classical as well as modern and contemporary genealogies of what is meant by contemporary Moroccan thought and the Rabat School. Critical studies of these narratives are presented, too, from first-hand sources. Fifth, in light of the preceding scholarly narratives and tendencies, the major sources as well as markers of "Moroccanness"are outlined, with a focus on what is termed here "Arabity"and "Amazighity"narratives. Sixth, the chapter introduces a novel typology of Moroccan intellectual history, away from the common distinction of religious vs. secular, traditional vs. modern, or conservative vs. liberal dichotomies. This new typology is the "near-far-other"thought distinction, each of which is first described, then elucidated through the intellectual projects of some of the most prominent philosophers and scholars of contemporary Morocco from different disciplines-with a focus on philosophical and theological thought. Overall, this chapter shows that the contemporary Moroccan thought produced since the 1950s and 1960s has made of its geographical edge a vibrant plural intellectual space and has stirred vital questions not only within Arab-Islamic scholarship but within modern scholarship at large; it examines major themes such as tradition, modernity, space, time, existence, liberty, liberation, freedom, equality, justice, technology, social media, self, other, pluralization, difference, tomorrowness, and the global world order. It is this intellectual movement, diversity, and plurality of the Rabat School that has made it an intellectual edge worth studying, comparatively, and differently here. The chapter ends with some notes on the current challenges facing this School.