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During the Arab Revival (Nahdah) era (19th–early 20th), the formation of a new Arab identity began. The most apparent indication of this modernization is the initial stage in the transformation of the Arabic language from its traditional to its contemporary form. Modern Arab identity and the literary Arabic of the Nahdah are the object of this dissertation, focusing on two prominent figures of the first generation of the Arab Revival: Egyptian writer Rifaah al-Tahtawi (1801–1873) and Syrian writer Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1805–1887). Their works are the subject of the dissertation. The present study aims to examine two interrelated aspects: firstly, the role of the Arabic language in the formation of modern Arab cultural identity in the early stages of the Nahdah, and secondly, the impact of this new identity on the modernisation of the literary Arabic language. The evolution of literary Arabic during the period of the first generation of revivalists is investigated through the works of Rifaah al-Tahtawi and Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, with a focus on the lexical and grammatical aspects of the modern Arabic language. Additionally, attention is paid to innovations in the literary domain. The analysis of Arab cultural identity draws upon the model of the elements of culture put forth by Dutch sociologist and culturologist Geert Hofstede (1928–2020), in which cultural elements are distinguished as external, manifest in practices, and internal, namely values.