Al-Asma'i (magazine)
Editor | Hanna El-Issa |
---|---|
Editor | Khalil Sakakini |
Editor | Issaf Nashashibi |
Categories | Literary and political |
Frequency | Biweekly |
Founder | Hanna El-Issa |
First issue | 1 September 1908 |
Final issue Number | 1 February 1909 11 |
Country | Ottoman Empire |
Based in | Edited in Jaffa, printed and distributed in Jerusalem |
Language | Arabic |
Al-Asma'i (
The magazine was established by Hanna El-Issa, an
Al-Asma'i presented issues facing Palestinian society, describing its difficulties and hardships, as well as conveying its demands.[6] From the start, Al-Asma'i was opposed to and fearful of Zionism, and opposed Jewish immigration to Palestine from a perspective of local patriotism and Arab nationalism.[7] The magazine frequently criticized the Zionist settlers and accused them of unfair competition with Arab craftsmen and traders, resenting the privileges they enjoyed from foreign powers, and considered them a threat to the local population.[7][8][9]
It also focused on the Arab laity struggle's against the Greek clergy dominating the
Background
Prior to 1908, the Palestine region of the Ottoman Empire had no Arabic-language press, except for an official gazette published in Jerusalem in both Arabic and Turkish.[12] But after the Young Turk Revolution that year, which lifted press censorship in the empire, fifteen publications emerged in Palestine.[13] Many of these leading publications were edited or published by prominent figures from the Palestinian Arab Christian community, particularly members of the Orthodox Church.[12][14] Al-Asma'i and the newspaper Al-Quds were one of the first two publications to have emerged in Palestine in 1908.[15][16][17][18]
Al-Asma'i's founder and editor was Hanna El-Issa, an
Its first issue was published on 1 September 1908 and the last one was on 1 February 1909.
Political positions
Arab Orthodox Movement
The Arab Orthodox Movement is a political and social movement dating since the late 19th century that aims for the Arabization of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction over the Orthodox communities of the regions of Palestine, and Transjordan, to which most Christians there belong.[23] Both editors Hanna El-Issa and Khalil Sakakini were Arab Christian members of the Orthodox Church and active figures in the movement, which they frequently wrote about in the magazine.[24]
Opposition to Zionism
From the start, Al-Asma'i was opposed to and fearful of
The magazine frequently criticized the Zionist settlers and accused them of unfair competition with Arab craftsmen and traders, resenting the privileges they enjoyed from foreign powers, and considered them a threat to the local population.[8][9][7][27] It cited how their foreign citizenships entailed them exemptions from certain taxes, and how their European skills and culture gave them other advantages.[28][29] To oppose them, Al-Asma'i proposed various policies, including preference for buying locally produced goods, instead of "foreign", i.e. Jewish ones; and the promotion of industry and commerce by wealthy Arabs.[30] In one article, the magazine lamented about the Jewish immigrants:[30]
They harm the local population and wrong them, by relying on the special rights accorded to foreign powers in the Ottoman Empire and on the corruption and treachery of the local administration. Moreover, they are free from most of the taxes and heavy impositions on Ottoman subjects. Their labour competes with the local population and creates their own means of sustenance. The local population cannot stand up to their competition.
In another article in Al-Asma'i written by Arab Muslim writer Isaaf Nashashibi criticized the unwillingness and failure of the European Jewish immigrants to integrate in their new surroundings or to bother learning Arabic, which was a common theme in the Arab anti-Zionist press of the time.[31] Nashashibi wrote that Jews "should help in reviving this [Arabic] language after its destruction," and urged that they “rid their hearts of those empty aspirations like the question of Zionism or governing Palestine,” arguing that there was no chance of reaching such hopes. “If the Jews want to live a good life with us, they should unite with us in respecting this beautiful language... They should imitate our brothers, the Christians, who are founding schools and teaching this beautiful language.”[31]
Al-Asma'i's attacks on Zionism led to a number of complaints by Zionists to the district attorney, Yusuf Al-Hakim, representing the Ottoman Empire in Jaffa. The complaints were mainly initiated by Shimon Moyal and his wife Esther, Jews of Moroccan origin, as well as by Nissim Malul, a Jew of Tunisian origin.[19]
Other topics
The magazine also was concerned with agricultural affairs, and the state of Arab
Discontinuation
The magazine's last edition appeared on 1 February 1909, as its owner Hanna El-Issa was preoccupied with the Arab Orthodox Movement and was representing Jaffa as part of an Orthodox delegation sent to the Ottoman government in Istanbul to negotiate for the establishment of a mixed council in the Jerusalem Church that would represent the Palestinian Arab community in addition to the Greek clergy; and for the provision of thirty thousand Ottoman gold pounds annually by the church for educational and social projects. Having returned from Istanbul to undergo surgery, Hanna died shortly afterwards on 12 September 1909 in Jerusalem.[24]
The provisions negotiated by the Orthodox delegation were not realized, which triggered a series of demonstrations and protests among the Arab laity demanding their implementation. It was at this point that
See also
References
- ^ a b Mandel 1976, p. 127.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kabha 2007, p. xvi.
- ^ a b Morris 2011, p. 106.
- ^ Ben-Bassat 2011, p. 225.
- ^ a b c Toksoz 2014, p. 104.
- ^ Kabha 2007, p. 127.
- ^ a b c Muslih 1988, p. 80.
- ^ a b c Khalaf 2009, p. 56.
- ^ a b c d Mandel 1976, p. 80.
- ^ a b "الصحف الأدبية في الحارات المقدسية في العهد العثماني". Al-Quds Al-Arabi (in Arabic). 27 August 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ a b c Salim Tamari (25 October 2020). "The Vagabond Café and Jerusalem's Prince of Idleness" (PDF). Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ a b Tamari 2017, p. 97.
- ^ Dowty 2019, p. 184.
- ^ Dowty 2019, p. 126.
- ^ Mandel 1976, p. 127: "Immediately after the Revolution, two small papers began to appear in the Mutasariflik: Al-Quds in Jerusalem and al-Asma'i in Jaffa."
- ^ Emmanuel Beska (1 January 2018). "Yusuf al-'Isa: A Founder of Modern Journalism in Palestine". Retrieved 26 March 2024.
- Falastinand al-Asma'i (1908) in Jaffa.
- ^ Ayalon 2010, p. 49.
- ^ a b Tamari 2017, p. 113.
- ^ Khalaf 2009, p. 55.
- ^ Tamari 2017, p. 101.
- ^ Ayalon 2010, p. 120.
- S2CID 159569868. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
- ^ a b Emmanuel Beska. "Khalil al-Sakakini and Zionism before WWI" (PDF). Institute of Palestine Studies. p. 49.
- ^ Muslih 1988, p. 80: "In Palestine and elsewhere, the Arabic newspapers reflected strong aversion to and fear of Zionism, particularly after the counterrevolution of April 13, 1909, which deposed Sultan Abdulhamid and brought to power a government controlled by the CUP. Four newspapers—al-Asma'i and al-Karmil of Palestine, al-Muqtabas of Damascus, and al-Mufid of Beirut—are good representatives of the four trends outlined above."
- ^ Dowty 2019, p. 126: "From the outset, these newspapers (and nearly all Arab publications) actively opposed Zionism. Al-Asma’i, already in its early days, leveled a searing indictment of European Jewish settlers in Palestine."
- ^ Abdelal 2012, p. 46: "The Al-Asmai frequently criticised the Zionist settlers and showed resentment, in particular, of the privileges that foreign immigrants enjoyed under legal concessions granted by the Ottoman Empire."
- ^ Morris 2011, pp. 106–107: "Al Asma'i, founded by a Jaffa businessman, Hanna 'Abdallah al-Isa, accused the Zionists of unfair competition with Arab traders and craftsmen, as, due to their foreign citizenship, they were exempt from certain taxes; and their European culture and skills gave them other advantages."
- ^ Abdelal 2012, p. 46.
- ^ a b c Mandel 1976, p. 81.
- ^ a b Dowty 2019, p. 127.
- ^ Bracy 2011, pp. 25–26.
Bibliography
- Abdelal, Wael (1 March 2012). From the Mosque to Satellite Broadcasting: A Historical Perspective of Hamas Media Strategy (PhD in Politics thesis). University of Exeter. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
- Ayalon, Ami (2010). Reading Palestine: Printing and Literacy, 1900-1948. University of Texas Press.
- Ben-Bassat, Yuval (2011). Late Ottoman Palestine: The Period of Young Turk Rule. I.B. Tauris.
- Bracy, R. Michael (2011). Printing Class: 'Isa Al-'Isa, Filastin, and the Textual Construction of National Identity, 1911-1931. University Press of America.
- Dowty, Alan (2019). Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide. Indiana University Press.
- Kabha, Mustafa (2007). The Palestinian Press as Shaper of Public Opinion 1929-39. Vallentine Mitchell.
- Khalaf, Noha (2009). Les Mémoires de 'Issa al-'Issa - Journaliste et intellectuel palestinien (1878-1950) (in French). KARTHALA Editions.
- Mandel, Neville J. (1976). The Arabs and Zionism Before World War I. University of California Press.
- Morris, Benny (2011). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1998. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
- Muslih, Muhammad Y. (1988). The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism. Columbia University Press.
- Tamari, Salim (2017). The Great War and the Remaking of Palestine. University of California Press.
- Toksoz, Meltem (2014). Cities of the Mediterranean: From the Ottomans to the Present Day. Bloomsbury publishing.
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