ABSTRACT
By the end of the nineteenth century, nearly all of the major political units of Islam, from Indonesia to northern Nigeria, were under some form of European control. European expansionism was not the only inspiration for Islamic revivalism. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an increase in doctrinally based Islamic movements occurred among the rural populations in various Islamic regions. The growing concern for the continued survival of the Islamic ummah in a world increasingly dominated by Europe also found expression in the urban milieu of high Islam. Al-Afghani's pronounced influence on Islamic opinion was due less to the originality of his theological formulations than to the appeal of his call for direct action in the name of Islamic solidarity. The influence of al-Bustani and others who shared his enthusiasm for blending the Arabic cultural heritage with contemporary political and scientific thought generated a lively intellectual atmosphere among the growing numbers of educated Arabs concentrated in Beirut.
