Contemporary Arab critical discourse is witnessing a noticeable shift from a preoccupation with classical literary approaches toward an openness to cultural questions, within a context marked by the growing influence of Western cultural criticism and its expanding presence in Arab universities. However, this transformation has not proceeded as smoothly as some might imagine; rather, this project has encountered several obstacles. Accordingly, this study, entitled “Arab Cultural Criticism between the Dilemma of Importing and Translating Terminology and the Possibility of Establishing an Indigenous Framework: Towards the Elaboration of Epistemological Values from within the Civilizational Context: A Reading of the Maghrebi Experience,” seeks to examine what are generally known as the foundations of cultural criticism in the Arab world, with particular emphasis on the efforts of critics in the Maghreb and their precedence over Mashriqi critics in this field, taking the efforts of Abdelkebir Khatibi as a model. This is achieved by deconstructing the relationship between the importation and translation of terminology and the possibility of establishing an indigenous critical framework. While translation has served as a channel for circulating Western concepts such as system, hegemony, discourse, and representation, Arab theorization and foundational work have remained absent or deferred. The paper seeks to reconsider the possibility of developing an Arab cultural criticism rooted in our own epistemological and symbolic particularities, by returning to the Arab rhetorical and intellectual heritage, not as a static legacy, but rather as a semantic reservoir capable of providing the foundations for an Arab cultural criticism with its own distinctive premises. Accordingly, the study revolves around a number of problematic questions, including: To what extent has the ready-made importation and translation of concepts affected the establishment of an Arab cultural criticism characterized by its own specificity and epistemological framework? Have Arab scholars succeeded in drawing upon their intellectual heritage to construct a distinctive form of cultural criticism? Furthermore, what is the position of Maghrebi critics within this new critical field, and can they be credited with precedence over their Mashriqi counterparts? We will attempt to answer these and other questions throughout the different sections of the study, based on a premise that has been established in our thinking from the outset: namely, that most modern critical studies, including cultural criticism, continue to face an epistemological dilemma in terms of both usage and theoretical grounding. Overcoming this dilemma requires a transition from conceptual consumption to foundational creativity; that is, transforming the imported concept into a critical analytical tool that emerges from our own cultural reality.