Shibli Shumayyil, Social Darwinism and Zionism

Shibli Shumayyil was the first to introduce Darwin’s theory of evolution to the Arab East. A lesser-known facet of his thought was his alleged sympathy for the Zionist settlement in Palestine in the early twentieth century. Assessing both his articles about Zionism and his literature about evolution, the article proves that Shumayyil was no pro-Zionist, as he himself made clear. Shumayyil adopted the Social Darwinist application of ‘the survival of the fittest’ to societies, and favored the Zionist enterprise in Palestine because it conformed to his Social Darwinist convictions. Comparing the Zionist settlement with the meager achievements of the indigenous Arabs, he considered the Zionists ‘the fittest’ in this struggle for existence. He believed that weak nations had to be under the aegis of strong nations if they wished to survive and therefore advised the Arabs of Palestine to take the Zionists as a role model and cooperate with them.