Hasan Hanafi and ‘The Indissoluble Bond’ between Heritage and Renewal

Abstract

Hassan Hanafi, (1935-2021), graduated in 1956 from Cairo University and in October of the same year he started his doctoral studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. This was the beginning of his lifelong project on ‘Heritage and Renewal’ aiming at renewing Islam by means of reworking its legacy. This article analyses the milestones of his project, represented by an prolific intellectual production, and organized in a triangular form. The base of the triangle is the science of Koranic exegesis, and the two sides are the analysis of the Ancient Muslim heritage and that of the Western impact.