Thamarāt al Funūn
TypeBiweekly newspaper
Founder(s)Jamʿiyyat al-Funun
Founded20 April 1875
LanguageArabic
Ceased publication20 November 1908
HeadquartersBeirut
CountryLebanon
OCLC number809953261

Thamarāt al Funūn (Arabic: Fruit of the Arts) was a Lebanese biweekly that was published between 1875 and 1908 in Beirut. It was one of the significant publications and the sole media outlet of the Lebanese Muslims during that period.[1] It circulated regionally as part of the rising Arabic-language press of the mid-19th century.[2]

History and profile

Thamarāt al Funūn was launched in 1875, and the first issue appeared on 20 April 1875.[3][4] The founding owner of the biweekly was Jamʿiyyat al-Funun (Arabic: Society of the Arts) led by Saad al Din Hamada.[5][6] The paper was started as a reaction of the educated Muslims to the domination of the publications established by the Christian figures in Beirut.[7] When the society was closed, Abdel Qader Qabbani bought the biweekly.[5] He was also one of the editors-in-chief of the paper, which was a supporter of the Ottoman Empire.[1]

The paper was founded with a social mission, the first issue declaring: "It is not hidden that the newspapers of this age are the cause of progress…because they spread the good deeds of the good people and the bad deeds of the bad people…and it presents to you feasts of useful information."[8]

Another editor-in-chief was Yusuf Al Asir, who also edited Lisan Al Hal.[9] Al Asir attempt to produce a synthesis between the East and West in Thamarāt al Funūn.[10]

The headquarters of Thamarāt al Funūn was in Beirut,[11] but it was also circulated in the Hijaz on the Arabian Peninsula.[12] The paper ended publication in 1908 (the year of the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire),[5][13] and the last issue was dated 20 November 1908.[11]

Contributors and content

In addition to Muslim contributors, some significant Christian authors also published articles in Thamarāt al Funūn, including Adib Ishaq and Yaqub Sarruf.[1]

Thamarāt al Funūn initially produced news based on the translations of the telegraph messages sent by the major news agencies such as Reuters and Havas.[14] Frequent topics featured in the paper included the status of women[13] and education.[3] Contemporary debates about Ottoman politics and 19th century reform also appeared in the paper's editorials.[15] In general, the paper addressed issues of common concern in the Arabic-language press during the Nahda era, which also included questions of modernization, Westernization, comparative culture, national identity, and liberalism.[16] The paper is seen as drawing more from Islamic heritage and politics than other leading secular publications with related readerships at the time.[17][18]

From the 1890s the biweekly adopted a conservative Islamist approach and frequently featured the writings of the leading conservative figures such as Mohammad Abduh and Ahmad Tabbara.[1][14] The latter replaced Abdel Qader Qabbani as the editor-in-chief in 1898.[1] During the editorship of Abdel Qader Qabbani Thamarāt al Funūn covered the Dreyfus affair in detail and argued that this incident was a result of the failure of French politics in realizing its ideal of citizenship.[19]

The paper was subject to censorship exerted by the Ottomans, especially during the Hamidian period.[20] For instance, the biweekly published news on the deaths of leading statesmen of the period such as French President Sadi Carnot, Qajar ruler Nasir al Din Shah and Italian King Umberto who were all assassinated without using the word assassination.[20]

Legacy

Donald J. Cioeta's 1979 PhD thesis at the University of Chicago, Thamarat al funun, Syria's first Islamic newspaper, 1875-1908, provides an analysis of the paper.[21]

A full text digital copy of the paper was made available open-access through the American University of Beirut in 2021.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Mohammad Magout. "Secularity in the Syro-Lebanese Press in the 19th Century". Leipzig University. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  2. ↑ Ami Ayalon (2002). "Modern Texts and Their Readers in Late Ottoman Palestine". Middle Eastern Studies. 38 (4): 17–40. doi:10.1080/714004491. JSTOR 4284256. S2CID 143622728.
  3. 1 2 Susanna Ferguson (Spring 2018). ""A Fever for an Education": Pedagogical Thought and Social transformation in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, 1861-1914". Arab Studies Journal. XXVI (1): 63. JSTOR 26528991.
  4. ↑ "Thamarāt al-funūn". Center for Research Libraries. 1875.
  5. 1 2 3 Toufoul Abou-Hodeib (August 2011). "Taste and class in late Ottoman Beirut". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 43 (3): 475–492. doi:10.1017/S0020743811000626. S2CID 163722895.
  6. ↑ Caesar A. Farah (2010). Arabs and Ottomans. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. p. 54. ISBN 9781617190896.
  7. ↑ Lawrence Pintak (2019). "Middle Eastern and North African Journalism". In Tim P. Vos; Folker Hanusch (eds.). The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 2. doi:10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0173. ISBN 9781118841570. S2CID 155248874.
  8. ↑ Najib A. Mozahem (2019). "Paradise of Knowledge: The Emergence of the Lebanese Newspaper Industry, 1851–1879". In Mehmet Hüseyin Bilgin; Hakan Danis; Ender Demir; Ugur Can (eds.). Eurasian Business Perspectives. Vol. 10/1. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 267–289. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11872-3_18. ISBN 978-3-030-11872-3. S2CID 159157333.
  9. ↑ "Tributes to al-Shaykh Yūsuf al-Asir" (PDF). Louaize, Lebanon: Notre Dame University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  10. ↑ Aida Ali Najjar (1975). The Arabic Press and Nationalism in Palestine, 1920-1948 (PhD thesis). Syracuse University. p. 12. ISBN 9781083851468. ProQuest 288060869.
  11. 1 2 "A Chronology of the 19th-century Periodicals in Arabic". Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  12. ↑ William Ochsenwald (1984). Religion, Society and the State in Arabia: The Hijaz under Ottoman control, 1840-1908. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press. p. 79. hdl:1811/24661. ISBN 0814203663.
  13. 1 2 Fruma Zachs; Sharon Halevi (2014). Gendering Culture in Greater Syria: Intellectuals and Ideology in the Late Ottoman Period. London; New York: I. B. Taurus. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-85772-559-2.
  14. 1 2 Stephen Sheehi (2005). "Arabic Literary-Scientific Journals: Precedence for Globalization and the Creation of Modernity". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 25 (2): 443. doi:10.1215/1089201X-25-2-439. S2CID 143166875.
  15. ↑ Hanssen, Jens. Fin de siècle Beirut: the making of an Ottoman provincial capital. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  16. ↑ Adel Beshara, ed. (2011). The Origins of Syrian Nationhood: Histories, Pioneers and Identity. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781138789180.
  17. ↑ Frauma Zachs (2011). ""Under Eastern Eyes": East on West in the Arabic Press of the Nahḍa Period". Studia Islamica. 106 (1): 124–143. doi:10.1163/19585705-12341255.
  18. ↑ Ami Ayalon (2018). "The Dawn of Arab Printing: A view from the fringe: In memory of Bernard Lewis: Mentor, friend, gentleman". The Journal of the Middle East and Africa. 9 (3): 259–274. doi:10.1080/21520844.2018.1509188. S2CID 165737945.
  19. ↑ Orit Bashkin (Winter 2021). "The Colonized Semites and the Infectious Disease: Theorizing and Narrativizing Anti-Semitism in the Levant, 1870–1914". Critical Inquiry. 47 (2): 200–201. doi:10.1086/712116. S2CID 229355188.
  20. 1 2 Donald J. Cioeta (May 1979). "Ottoman Censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876-1908". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 10 (2): 175. doi:10.1017/S0020743800034759. S2CID 163019820.
  21. ↑ Donald J. Cioeta (1979). Thamarat al funun, Syria's first Islamic newspaper, 1875-1908 (PhD thesis). University of Chicago.
  22. ↑ "AUB Libraries received a full text digital copy of the Nahda periodical, Thamarat al-Funun 1875-1908". American University of Beirut. 19 April 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
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