History of Middle Eastern newspaper publishing
The history of Middle Eastern newspaper publishing goes back to the 19th century. The Nahda was an important period for the development of newspaper publishing in the Middle East. During this period, a shift from government and missionary publishing to private publishing occurred. Especially in Egypt and Lebanon, newspapers became intertwined with daily life. Consequently, the rise of newspaper publishing impacted nationalism in Arab countries.
Moreover, many Middle-Eastern editors were not only journalists but also writers, philosophers and politicians. With unofficial journals, these intellectuals encouraged public discourse on politics in the Ottoman and Persian Empires. Literary works of all genres were serialized and published in the press as well.
Ottoman Empire
European influences
The first newspapers in the Ottoman Empire were owned by foreigners living there who wanted to make propaganda about the Western world.
In 1800, during the
In 1828,
The first official gazette of the Ottoman State was published in 1831, on the order of
The first non-official Turkish newspaper, Ceride-i Havadis (Register of Events), was published by an Englishman, William Churchill, in 1840. The first private newspaper to be published by Turkish journalists, Tercüman-ı Ahvâl (Interpreter of Events), was founded by
Women
One of the earliest women to sign her articles in the Arabic-language press was the female medical practitioner Galila Tamarhan, who contributed articles to the medical magazine Ya'sub al-Tibb (Leader in Medicine) in the 1860s.[7] The Syrian writer and poet Maryana Marrash seems to have been the first woman to write in the Arabic-language daily newspapers.[8] Marrash was the first woman who published without a pseudonym in the newspaper.[9] She was also known for her poetry; in 1893 she published a poetry bundle named Bint Fikr.[9] In 1892, the Lebanese journalist Hind Nawfal published the first monthly journal for women, Al Fatat (The Young Girl), in Alexandria, Egypt.[10]
Iran
The first newspaper in Iran, Kaghaz-i Akhbar (The Newspaper), was created for the government by Mirza Saleh Shirazi in 1837.[11] Shirazi had been sent to study in England by the crown prince Abbas Mirza in 1815. It was during his stay that Shirazi became interested in the printing press, which he imported to Iran.
The periodical
Arabian Peninsula
The first journals in the
The Nahda
Newspaper publishing in the Middle East experienced much development during the Nahda, as literacy increased in the Arab countries. This development did not occur in the same way nor at the same time throughout the region. The two countries in which newspaper publishing developed itself quickly are Egypt and Lebanon.[15] Though this does not mean newspaper publishing did not reach other Arab countries. Eventually, countries such as Iraq and Syria followed.[15]
The amount of newspapers in Egypt and Lebanon increased rapidly during the Nahda. Between the half of the 19th century up until the end, there were 394 Egyptian periodicals and fifty-five in Lebanon.[15] The years following this period, the amount of periodicals kept increasing in both countries; in 1914 Egypt gained 216 new periodicals and Lebanon experienced an increase of 197 periodicals.[15] Other regions in the Middle East stayed a bit more behind; from 1858-1908, there were eleven periodicals circulating in the regions of Palestine, Syria, Hejaz and Iraq.[16]
Corresponding with the innovative spirit of the Nahda, the rise of newspaper publishing in the Middle East resulted in other developments. Newspapers offered an innovative way of publicity; ads began to be incorporated into the papers.[15] Newspaper publishing during the Arabic Nahda also resulted in the emergence of new occupations such as proofreaders and newspaper vendors.[15]
Newspaper publishing developed itself due to the shift from government publishing to private publishing during the Nahda. Previously, printing was mainly performed by governments and missionaries.[9] Around the 1850s, a shift occurred; publishing became a more private domain, due to the interest in publishing by merchants and the bourgeoisie.[9]
Relationship with nationalism
The press has been used as a medium of expression.[17] The press played an important role during the rise of nationalism in the Middle East.[17] As a participant in political debates, the press sometimes got repressed by the regimes and in other times benefited from the political transformation as it gave them the freedom to debate.[18][17] For the national regimes, the press was a way to communicate to the people and form a new cultural identity.[17]
Egypt
After the first world war, the Ottoman empire disintegrated, Egypt was occupied by the British and new political rules had to be implanted where the press played a big part in.[19][18] The Western ideas and institutions that formed the previous political community undermined the traditional Islamic ideology that used to be the political community before the British occupation.[20] The anti British feelings and demand for British withdraw was a thriving topic amongst political leaders in the Middle East.[18] The newspapers would often publish political debates and opinions and thereby enhancing public interests.[18] Plus, with the rapid technological developments, the press developed quickly.[18] After Egypt gained independence from Britain in 1922, the political leaders started their own news papers, discussing issues such as the search for a national/cultural identity, opposing British domination and conflicts within and among other political parties.[18] A new political system had to be created whereby a combination of the traditional Islamic ideology had to be readjust.[20] Therefore, the dynamic press became an open forum for national and political issues.[18]
Language standardization
With the rise of new foreign ideas, linguistic change appeared during the development of the press.[21][18][22] The growing nationalist movement challenged the journalist to adapt the language to a broader audience.[21][18][22] To propagate a national ideology, a negotiation over language standardization was necessary to reach all.[21][18][22] It had a big effect on the transmission of ideas and knowledge as the public level of literacy rose and had the desire to consume news.[17] For the public, the language standardization created a sense of belonging to the nation.[23] They could express their identity in the social, cultural and political aspects of the press.[17]
Notes
- Bulaq in 1821, so as to support his educational programme by producing books for the newly opened government schools. The printing press which the French had brought with them for their own use two decades earlier had left no traces.[4]
References
- ^ Stavrianos, p. 211.
- ^ Groc & Çağlar, p. 6.
- ^ Wendell, p. 143.
- ^ E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, p. 952.
- ^ Tripp (ed.), p. 2; Amin, Fortna & Frierson, p. 99; Hill, p. 172.
- ^ a b Ágoston & Masters, p. 433.
- ^ Sakr, p. 40.
- ^ Bosworth, van Donzel, Lewis & Pellat (ed.), p. 598.
- ^ S2CID 194510916.
- ^ Zeidan, p. 46.
- ^ Tavakoli-Targhi, p. 44.
- ^ cf. Pistor-Hatam, Anja: Nachrichtenblatt, Informationsbörse und Diskussionsforum: Aḫtar-e Estānbūl (1876-1896) – Anstöße zur frühen persischen Moderne, Münster 1999.
- ^ cf. Pistor-Hatam, Anja: Iran und die Reformbewegung im Osmanischen Reich. Persische Staatsmänner, Reisende und Oppositionelle unter dem Einfluss der Tanẓīmāt, Berlin 1992.
- ^ Long, pp. 83–84.
- ^ S2CID 162416226.
- S2CID 165737945.
- ^ OCLC 1055758044.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link - ^ OCLC 72566372.
- ISBN 978-0-19-967253-0– via Oxford Handbooks Online.
- ^ S2CID 145358722.
- ^ S2CID 154503308.
- ^ .
- )
Sources
- Ágoston, Gábor; Masters, Bruce Alan (2008). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0816062591.
- Amin, Camron Michael; Fortna, Benjamin C.; Frierson, Elizabeth B. (2007). The Modern Middle East: a Sourcebook for History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199236312.
- Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300072716.
- ISBN 978-9004081123.
- E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936. 1987.
- Groc, Gérard; Çağlar, İbrahim (1985). La presse française de Turquie de 1795 à nos jours : histoire et catalogue (in French).
- Hill, Richard Leslie (1959). Egypt in the Sudan, 1820–1881. Oxford University Press.
- Long, David E. (2005). Culture and Customs of Saudi Arabia. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0313320217.
- ISBN 978-1850435457.
- Stavrianos, Leften Stavros (2000) [first published 1958]. The Balkans since 1453. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-0814797662.
- Tavakoli-Targhi, Mohamad. Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Historiography. Palgrave.
- Tripp, Charles, ed. (1993). Contemporary Egypt: Through Egyptian Eyes. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415061032.
- Wendell, Charles (January 1972). The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520021112.
- Zeidan, Joseph T. (1995). Arab Women Novelists: the Formative Years and Beyond. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791421727.