Literary commitment (iltizām) became a central concept in literary discussions during the decades of nation-building in the postcolonial Arab world. The demand that writers and poets take responsibility for their people had already been expressed in the 1920s by socialist authors and critics, such as Salāma Mūsā (1887–1959) and Luwīs ʿAwaḍ (1915–90) in Egypt and ʿUmar Fākhūrī (1895–1946) and Raʾīf Khūrī (1912–67) in Syro-Lebanon.

The origins of this concept can be traced to the complex sociocultural changes that occurred during the nahḍa (lit., renaissance), the movement of …