Al-Muqtataf (magazine): Difference between revisions

| image_caption = FirstSecond volume of ''Al Muqtataf''

''Al-Muqtataf'' was founded in 1876 by the [[Arabic Christians]] Yaqʿūb[[Yaqub Sarruf|Yaqūb Ṣarrūf]] (1852-1927) and [[Faris Nimr|Fāris Nimr]] (1856-1951)<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Fruma Zachs|author2=Sharon Halevi|title=From Difāʿ Al-Nisāʾ to Masʾalat Al-Nisāʾ in Greater Syria: Readers and Writers Debate Women and Their Rights, 1858-1900|journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]]|date=November 2009|volume=41|issue=4
|page=621|doi=10.1017/S0020743809990390|doi-access=free}}</ref> at the [[Syrian Protestant College]] (SPC, today [[American University of Beirut]]) in Beirut.<ref name=dagmar04>Dagmar Glaß. (2004): Der al-Muqta?af und seine Öffentlichkeit. Aufklärung, Räsonnement und Meinungsstreit in der frühen arabischen Zeitschriftenkommunikation, 2 Bde., Würzburg: Ergon Verlag., pp. 61, 185ff, 249.</ref> Both of them graduated there with a bachelor of arts degree in science and worked afterwards as lecturers.<ref name=dagmar95>Dagmar Glaß. (1995). Die Masail-Kolumne in al-Muqtataf. Ein Indikator für die Rezeption einer arabischen Wissenschaftszeitschrift der 19. Jahrhunderts?, Herzog, Christoph/Motika, Raoul/Pistor-Hatam, Anja (Eds.), ''Presse und Öffentlichkeit im Nahen Osten, Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag'', pp. 59-82.</ref> Ṣarrūf, who had made a name himself as an important science journalist and promoter of the modern [[Arabic literature]], was interested predominantly in scientific and literary topics. Nimr, on the other hand, dedicated himself additionally to current politics.<ref name=dagmar04/> The third publisher Šāhīn Makāriyūs (1853-1910) who was also a journalist, was responsible for the [[printing technology]], and he developed this already in the production of the journals ''Našra al-Usbūʿīya'' (1871) and ''[[At-Tabib (magazine)|aṭ- Ṭabīb]]'' (1884-1885).<ref name=dagmar04/>

The publishing course was apparently not planned from the beginning since the volumes are not furnished with a date till the fourth year.<ref>cf. al-Muqtataf, 5th volume., 1st issue'''5'''(1), 1880.</ref> The chronology was published until 1885 only according to [[Gregorian calendar]] later the Islamic dating was also added.<ref>cf. ''al-Muqtataf'', 10th volume., 2nd issue, 1885.</ref> Besides [[Syria]] and [[Egypt]] the issues were also distributed in [[Iraq]], [[Iran]], [[Yemen]] and were spread in numerous European countries, in the USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia as well as in [[India]] and [[China]].<ref name=dagmar04/>

In 1882, the journal attracted controversy when it published a speech by an SPC professor named Edwin Lewis. The speech made favorable references to [[Darwinism]], and was opposed by religiously conservative authorities at SPC.<ref name=marwa>{{cite book|author=Marwa Elshakry|title=Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950|dateyear=2013|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago and; London|isbn=978-0-2263-7873-2|pagepages=65-7465–74, 78|doi=10.7208/9780226001449-003|doi-broken-date=23 August 2021|url=https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226001449-003}}</ref> In addition, another Christian journal ''[[Al Bashir]]'''s editor [[Louis Cheikho]] harshly criticised the articles on Darwin published in ''Al-Muqtataf''.<ref name=jwl18>{{cite book|author=John W. Livingston|title=In The Shadows of Glories Past: Jihad for Modern Science in Muslim Societies, 1850 to The Arab Spring|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TCpKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT264|dateyear=1 February 2018|publisher=Taylor & FrancisRoutledge|isbn=978-1-351-58922-2|page=264|location=Abingdon; New York}}</ref> The editors of ''Al-Muqtataf'' were accused of being [[atheists]] by ''Al Bashir''.<ref name=jwl18/> The accusations of two journals each other lasted until 1884, and the incident became known not only in the region, but also in Europe.<ref name=jwl18/> The problem was solved the same year only through the intervention of the Ottomans who asked the editors through the Directorate of Foreign Affairs and Publications in Beirut to stop accusing each other if they did not want to be subject to the bans or penalty.<ref name=jwl18/> Such oppositions led Ṣarrūf and Nimr to migrate to [[Cairo]] in 1884,1883 where they produced the journal in a private printing press owned by Makāriyūs.<ref name=marwa/><ref name=dagmar04/><ref>{{cite Theybook|author=Fawwaz publishedTraboulsi|title=A inHistory Egyptof simultaneouslyModern the daily newspaper ''al-Muqaṭṭam'' (1889-1952), the monthly journal ''al-Laṭāʾif'' (1886-1896) and ''Ǧarīdat as-Sūdān'' (''The Sudan Times'', 1903).<ref nameLebanon|year=dagmar04/>2012

The publishers' aim was to inform the reader in the [[Arab world]] about the Western scientific progress of that time and how to use that knowledge in one's daily life.<ref name=dagmar95/> The scientific and literary topics of the journal were varied. Articles on modern sciences were published, from [[anatomy]] to [[astronomy]] and from [[physics]] to [[veterinary medicine]] as well as [[agriculture]] and [[handicraft]].<ref>Ayalon, Ami (1995):. The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 53.</ref> [[Evolutionary theory]] and [[Darwinism]] obtained great significance in the first years of publication and resulted in excited discussions among the authors and readers.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Nadia Farag|title=The Lewis Affair and the Fortunes of al-Muqtataf|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|date=January 1972|volume=8|issue=1|page=74ff |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4282400|jstor=4282400}}</ref> Cultural and social topics as well as literature gained over the time more relevance, and translations of [[European literature]] were increasingly published.<ref name=dagmar04/>

[[Category:Defunct Arabic-language magazines]]

[[Category:Defunct magazines published in EgyptCairo]]

[[Category:EducationDefunct education magazines]]