Renan saw Semites and Aryans as white twins who jointly built civilisation.

Evidence

One sees that in all things the Semitic race appears to us to be an incomplete race, by virtue of its simplicity. This race—if I dare use the analogy—is to the Indo-European family what a pencil sketch is to painting; it lacks that variety, that amplitude, that abundance of life which is the condition of perfectibility. Like those individuals who possess so little fecundity that, after a gracious childhood, they attain only the most mediocre virility, the Semitic nations experienced their fullest flowering in their first age and have never been able to achieve true maturity. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 382 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Renan made sweeping generalizations about the “narrow minds” of people who live in the East and in Africa, who because of their adherence to Islam are an intellectually barren race. What we see here are not only racist assertions about Muslims but also the idea that Islam has stunted scientific growth. When challenged to explain the flourishing of science in Islamic empires in the Middle Ages, Renan replied that the Arabs, like other “Semites,” were incapable of science. The Abbasid caliphate, he added, was essentially Greek and Persian, even if it used Arabic. Thus, it was the “Aryans” who were responsible for this flowering of science. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 179 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Renan was clear that he was concerned with making ‘judgements about races’. Yet as Robert D. Priest has argued, Renan’s understanding of race was much more nuanced and difficult to pin down than many scholars have given credit. In his Histoire générale, Renan argued for the limitations of the influence of race, and pointed to the example of contemporary ‘Israelites’ who had surpassed their Semitic heritage thanks to the effects of ‘civilisation’: [T]he primordial influence of race, as immense a part that it plays in the dynamics of human affairs, is offset by a crowd of other influences, which sometimes seem to overcome or even smother [étouffer] entirely that of blood. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 643 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Renan attributed medieval Islamic science to Aryans, not Arabs, to preserve his racial hierarchy. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 347; Renan saw assimilation into civilisation as capable of erasing racial character — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 644; Renan’s racial theory held that civilisation could override race — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 643 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Renan ranked Semites as an eternally immature, incomplete race versus Indo-Europeans. #contradicts (0.92) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 382
• Nineteenth-century racial theorist Renan attributed Islamic science to Aryans, not Arabs. #complicates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 179
• Renan saw assimilation into civilisation as capable of erasing racial character #complicates (0.78) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 644
• Renan’s racial theory held that civilisation could override race #complicates (0.78) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 643
• Some early Zionists imagined Zionism as unifying all Semitic peoples against Aryans #complicates (0.75) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 141