Some scholars claim Arab society’s prime mover is religion, not class.

Evidence

‘I have attributed primacy to the ideologicalreligious factor because in Arab society, which is built completely on the basis of religion, the modes and means of production did not develop in a manner leading to the rise of class consciousness. The religious factor remains its prime mover. Consequently, its movement cannot be explained by means of such categories as class, class consciousness, economics, let alone economism. This means that the struggle within Arab society has been in the main of an ideological-religious nature.’ — Sadik Jalal al-‘Azm, Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse, 158

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that Arab modes of production never developed toward class consciousness is empirically dubious — worth checking against the historical record of labor movements, land reform, and socialist parties in the region.
• XREF: Echoes and reverses classical orientalist essentialism of the kind Gibb articulated, which al-‘Azm is exposing.