Mohammed Jaber Al-Ansari, was a prominent Bahraini philosopher and political thinker, and a proponent of rational thinking in the 20th-century Arab World. He played an active l role in establishing the previously peripheral Persian Gulf region as an integral contributor to modern Arabic thought, on equal footing with other parts of the Arab World. His early work as a literary historian, and critic, instigated wide literary activity in his native Bahrain and in its surrounding Persian Gulf region. Al-Ansari was one of the early Arab intellectuals to delve into studying the East Asian experiences and draw comparisons with the Arab World.
Al-Ansari was born in Bahrain in 1939 (then a British protectorate). Al-Ansari's first philosophical interests were shaped during the Nasserite 1950s, when the Arab World was in the midst of its struggle against colonialism and the fight for the creation of Pan-Arab Unity. Al-Ansari started to publish soon after he obtained his BA from the American University in Beirut in 1962. His early work covered historical and contemporary literary work in his native Bahrain and its neighboring countries. Compiled in one volume titled "Glimpses at the Gulf" (ÃÂàÃÂçê ààçÃÂîÃÂÃÂì), the volume sheds light on previously little known authors in this region because of its distance from the centers of Arab literary activity (essentially Cairo and Beirut were most Arabic publication originated.)
In 1969, Al-Ansari co-founded Bahrain's Literary Association (ãóñé çÃÂãïèçá ÃÂçÃÂÃÂêçè) and became its first President. In the same year, he was appointed to the State Council (Bahrain's first national cabinet) which oversaw the countryâÂÂs transition to independence from Great Britain. In 1971, Al-Ansari gave up his cabinet position to pursue his intellectual and academic career.
Al-Ansari received his Ph.D. in 1979. His dissertation which was published later in a volume titled Arabic Though and the Struggle of Opposites formed the base for his first intellectual project. The volume reveals Al-AnsariâÂÂs strategy of thinking and brings to light the main philosophical themes that he resonated in his later work.
In the following year, he published his major work, Transformation of Thought and Politics in the Arab East 1930-1970 (êÃÂÃÂÃÂçê çÃÂÃÂÃÂñ ÃÂçÃÂóÃÂçóé ÃÂàçÃÂàôñàçÃÂùñèà1930-1970), which won him the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science Award. This significant work had a profound impact on the re-orientation of the Twentieth Century Persian Gulf from a mere receiver of Arab intellectual products into a competent contributor to the philosophical, cultural and political discourse in the wider Arab World.
Al-Ansari moved to Paris in 1981, where he participated in the creation of L'Institut du Monde Arabe (The Arab World Institute). In 1983, Al-Ansari moved back to his Bahrain to become of one of the founders of the Arabian Gulf University where he became the Dean of the Higher Education Faculty until 2005.
In 1984, His Majesty the King of Bahrain (then the Crown Prince) retained Al-Ansari as his Cultural and Scientific Advisor.
Al-Ansari resided in Bahrain with his wife Aysha. He has three daughters and nine grand children. He is currently Professor of Islamic Civilization and Modern Thought at the Arabian Gulf University.
He died on 26 December 2024.
Professor Al-Ansari work encompasses two parallel intellectual projects:
In his criticism of Arabic Thought, Al-Ansari promotes an indigenous methodology to interpret and understand the internal mechanisms adopted by Arab intellectuals in their diagnoses of the issues facing Arab societies throughout history. Al-Ansari coined the term âÂÂArabic Syncretismâ to portray Arab intellectualsâ endeavors to reconcile the dialectical relationships formed between philosophy and religion, faith and reason, East and West etc. He concludes by exposing the inherent instability of this Syncretism because of its tendency to ferment a culture of deferment and âÂÂin-decisionâÂÂ. Throughout his work on this project, Al-Ansari uncovers the inability of Arabic Syncretism to sustain itself in the face of crises. This is further demonstrated through in-depth case studies of the rise and fall of the Nasserite (Egypt) and Ba'ath (Levant) experiments in twentieth century Arab Mashreq.
Al-Ansari's study of the Arab's political reality aims to rise above the rhetorical and ideological clutter prevalent in the Arab World to establish a rational sociological approach to understanding Arab politics. In his rational style, Al-Ansari traces the socio-political history of the Arabs and dissects the compositions and dynamics of the various phases in this history. Al-Ansari, asserts that the Arabsâ political is a major impediment to their overall progress in the modern World as it was in their past. In Al-AnsariâÂÂs view, the Arab peoples despite their long and rich history never had the opportunity to develop a stable, institutionalized State. One reason for this is the constant influence of nomadic (as opposed to the settled) elements of the Arab society, the constant movement of the center of power and the failure to dismantle no-state loyalties (e.g. tribal loyalties) on the continuity of a stable and civil structure of the state. The direct impact of this is the absence of indigenous Arabic political traditions which in turn have an indirect impact on the possibilities for a natural progression to democratic rule.