Farah Antun
Farah Antun (
Bibliography
Early family life and educational background
Farah Antun was born in 1874
When the school closed, Antun's father brought him into the lumber trade as an
Life in Egypt and entrance into journalism
In 1897, Farah Antun and Rashid Rida left Syria to move to Egypt. Antun arrived in Alexandria to study journalism, upholding a secular identity, while Rida, a Muslim, became a disciple of Muhammad Abduh.[15] However, historian Fawaz Gerges characterizes Antun as 'both a friend and an intellectual adversary" of both Abduh and Rida.[16] Soon after Antun left for Egypt, his father died because of gangrene[6] and it is also reported that his younger brother died by typhoid fever, though it is unclear when.[4] Antun's mother and sisters came to live with him in Alexandria after Ilyas's death, where he was the sole provider for the family until Rose began to teach.[4] Interested in journalism, he began to write articles for Al-Ahram under different names as well as translating materials in French to Arabic for Rida.[17] Antun continued to work for Al-Ahram, and when it was moved to Cairo in 1899, he was given the position of editor of the branch in Alexandria; however, it was closed only a few months later.[18] He started a magazine called Al-Jami'ah while in Alexandria and eventually moved to New York, only to move back to Cairo in 1909.[19]
Antun never married and his mother outlived him when he died in 1922 at the age of 48 of heart trouble.[20]
Publications
Phases of Al-Jami'ah
Al-Jami'ah was created by Antun in 1899 in Alexandria, after the Alexandria branch of Al-Ahram closed, and disappeared around 1910 in Cairo.[19] The magazine began as a bi-monthly publication and was originally called Al-Jami'ah al-Uthmaniyah (Arabic: The Ottoman Community).[19] In the second year it became a monthly publication, and from then on it was inconsistently published, as seen in the fact that only five issues were published in 1902, six in 1903, and two in 1904.[19] Then, after a year of no publications, he moved to New York and again irregularly published issues of Al-Jami'ah from 1906 to 1909.[19] While in New York he also published a daily called Al-Jami'ah al-Yawmiyah (The Daily Community) for six months and then a weekly called Al-Jami'ah al-Usbu'iyah (Arabic: The Weekly Community) from 1907 to 1909. He returned to Egypt in 1909 and published two more issues of Al-Jami'ah before it disappeared in the next year.[19]
Behind the scenes of Al-Jami'ah
Farah Antun was the sole contributor to Al-Jami'ah except for occasional other writers and his nephew Mikha'il Karam who worked with Antun for two years in Egypt.[21] Possible reasons for the irregularity of his publications was that Antun wrote, edited, printed and even mailed out his magazines all on his own, in addition to keeping track of the financial records with no assistant.[22] New York was the exception to this, as Antun had the full-time help of his brother-in-law, Niqula Haddad.
Other publications
Farah and his sister Rose also published a women's magazine called al-Sayyidat wa al-Banat (Arabic The Ladies and Girls) between 1903 and 1906 in Alexandria.[19]
Political views
Saladin
The great Muslim hero of the Crusades was a Kurd, Saladin (1138–93). Having defeated the crusaders in 1187, and become sovereign and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt and Syria, Salah al-Din (Saladin) has been for a century the object of an intense glorification in the Arab world. Farah Antun's play Sultan Saladin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1914) illustrates how the historical figure of Saladin came to be presented as a prophet of Arab nationalism. Antun was a Syrian Christian who presents Saladin as the champion of a just jihad against the Crusaders and as a faithful upholder of the virtues of wisdom, determination, and frankness, calling on the peoples of all Arab countries to unite against Western imperialists. The refusal of Antun's Saladin to become embroiled in quarrels within Europe had obvious echoes in World War I and caused the play to be censored by the British authorities in Egypt.[23]
Secularism and Western influence
A distinct view of Farah Antun is that one is great in spite of their education, not because of it. In examples of this, he brings up men such as
Antun largely rejected Arabic heritage, whether Muslim or Christian, as they seemed irrelevant to his interests and needs.[25] He believed that the East was once the place to turn to for knowledge and research, but now the West was taking that over and so it became necessary to use it.[26]
Antun's only foreign language was French and his experience in French was limited to 18th- and 19th-century literature.
Through translations, Antun was also exposed to literature of English,
Regional background
Because he was a Christian living during the late Ottoman Empire, his family was subjected to dhimmi restrictions, such as extra taxes, legal disadvantages,[30] and sometimes limited job opportunities.[31] Many Orthodox Christians in Syria desired to live among Muslims in a secular state, and with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, this opened the door to Syrian intellectuals calling for exactly that.[3]
Debate with Abduh
Antun's debate with Muhammad Abduh in 1902 to 1903 was the high point of his career, yet may have been considered only a small event in the life of the Mufti of Egypt, Muhammad Abduh.
References
- ^ Donald M. Reid, The Odyssey of Farah Antun (Minneapolis & Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica, Inc., 1975), p. xi.
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 3.
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 6.
- ^ a b c Reid, Odyssey. p. 11.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 9.
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 10.
- ^ a b c Reid, Odyssey. p. 13.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 15.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 13, 15.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 14.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 14, 15.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 16.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 17.
- ^ a b c Reid, Odyssey. p. 18.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 23.
- ^ OCLC 1022845920.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 33.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 39.
- ^ a b c d e f g Reid, Odyssey. p. 42.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 11, 122, 128.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 58.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 59.
- ISSN 0395-2649
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 64.
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 64, 65.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 65, 66.
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 66.
- ^ a b c Reid, Odyssey. p. 68.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 67.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p.3, 4.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 7.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 81,
- ^ a b c d Reid, Odyssey. p. 82.
- Journal of Levantine Studies. 3 (2). Archived from the originalon 19 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 81.
- ^ a b Reid, Odyssey. p. 83.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 84.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 84, 85.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 85.
- ^ a b c d Reid, Odyssey. p. 86.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 87.
- ^ Reid, Odyssey. p. 89.
- ^ Stephen Sheehi, Foundations of Modern Arab Identity, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004, pp. 135-158