1. al-hayʔaẗ al-iǧtimāʕiyyaẗ – the Nahḍa’s standard term for the concept of ‘society’. It reflects the efendiyya’s look at society as a body, a structure, a kind of mechanism or organism that, if necessary, can be approached – and treated – as such, i.e., from the perspective of the ‘social engineers’, the ‘doctors’ who, after the dissection (tašrīḥ) of this body, will have found the defect and be able to remedy it.