With a major contribution from Philip Sadgrove
and contributions from Hala Auji, Philippe Chevrant, Lamia Eid, Till Grallert, Rana Issa, Adam Mestyan, Christian Meier, Daniel Newman, Geoffrey Roper, Ola Seif, and Rogier Visser
Prepared and supervised by Adam Mestyan
TEI XML-Markup, digital publication, concept and design of the website by Till Grallert
This website provides a chronology of nineteenth-century periodicals in Arabic.
Although it is meant to include all periodicals published in Arabic or in Arabic and in another language (like the usual pair of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish) or in Arabic written in a different script (like Judeo-Arabic) during the period from 1800 to 1900, this chronology is certainly incomplete. Furthermore, there remain numerous problems with dating and locating individual publications as well as identifying their owners, editors, or publishers. A common problem is that journals with different editors used the same title or the same editors published periodicals under different titles.
Thus, at the moment we consciously publish a working draft with the purpose of making our information available to the scholarly community. We welcome all readers to submit any comment, corrections, and new data via the email addresses provided in the "Submit comments" section. We would like to ask all contributors to always refer to the ID at the end of each row – in case of comments on existing entries – and cite their sources, as otherwise we cannot consider the submission for being included in the table. Every contribution will be acknowledged.
We chose to present the core data as a table containing information on titles, dates of first and last issue published, place(s) of publication, names of publishers and editors, language(s) of publication, and available collections. In addition, we provide various indexes of publishers and locations, as well as a bibliography of the most important secondary sources and available union catalogues. To search any part of the website, the browser's search function should be invoked (Ctrl-F for Windows, Cmd-F for Mac OSX). Please keep in mind that unicode symbols adhering to the IJMES transliteration must be used.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without permission in writing from the Zentrum Moderner Orient.
While preparing the final version of this list, Adam Mestyan was a 2011/2012 EUME-Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. The Zentrum Moderner Orient, its director Ulrike Freitag and vice-director Sonja Hegasy, generously supported and hosted the online publication. Finally, all our thanks should go to those librarians who facilitated our research and to those future contributors who will enrich and correct our data.
Currently we provide transliterations only, following the IJMES-standard. At a future point, this site will be translated into Arabic. For this vision to become true, we welcome any suggestions of possible funding opportunities.
The choice for a limited period was arbitrary and due to constrains in resources. We used the Gregorian calendar out of convenience. At a later point, we plan to insert the dates according to the calendars indicated by the mastheads of the respective periodical (Hijrī, Coptic, Rūmī, Armenian, Greek, Jewish etc.).
A periodical here means a printed product that was established with the conscious aim to distribute it to the reading public on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). We did not make a distinction between newspaper (jarīda or ṣaḥīfa) and magazine (majalla), which were often both called simply jūrnāl during the period covered.
We could not check all periodicals in the indicated collections. The authors of this list do not hold any responsibility for the actual holdings or the accessibility of the indicated copies.
We will continuously update the data and await the valuable corrections of readers.
[+] = crosschecked with Hartmann
[+!] = only found in Hartmann and not in the Dār al-Kutub catalogue (Fihris al-dawriyyāt al-ʿArabiyya allatī taqtinī-hā al-Dār).
ʿAbd = Ibrāhīm ʿAbduh, Taṭawwur al-ṣiḥāfa al-Miṣriyya: 1798–1981 (Cairo: Muʾassasat Sijill al-ʿArab, 1982)
Fak = Rouchdi Fakkar, L’Influence française sur la formation de la presse litteraire en Egypte au XIX siècle (Paris, 1973).
S = Sadgrove’s data (his contribution, based on his own research)
Ṭ = Ṭarrāzī’s data (from his book)
1. Maḥmūd Ismāʿīl ʿAbd Allāh, Fihris al-dawriyyāt al-ʿArabiyya allatī taqtinī-hā al-Dār, 2 vols. (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1996), vol. 1.
2. Catalogue of Ottoman periodicals (Osmanlı Gazeteler), Atatürk Milli Kütüphanesi, Istanbul, Turkey.
3. Fīlīp dī Ṭarrāzī (Philip de Tarrazi), Tāʾrīkh al-Ṣiḥāfa al-ʿArabiyya, 2 vols. (Beirut: Maṭbaʿat al-Adabiyya, 1913, 1933).
4. Abdelghani Ahmed-Bioud, Hasan Hanafi, and Habib Feki, 3200 revues et journaux arabes: de 1800 à 1965, titres arabes et titres translittérés (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1969).
5. Ibrāhīm ʿAbduh, Taṭawwur al-ṣiḥāfa al-Miṣriyya: 1798–1981 (Cairo: Muʾassasat Sijill al-ʿArab, 1982) and other works by the same author.
6. Martin Hartmann, The Arabic Press in Egypt (London: Luzac, 1899).
7. Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition, art. “djarīda” (Eds., Ph.K. Hitti, H. Massé, V.Günyol, A. Mango, Ch. Quelquejay, R. Loewenthal, J. Carnochan).
8. Ami Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East - A History (New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
9. Shmuel Moreh and Philip Sadgrove, Jewish Contributions to Nineteenth Century Arabic Theatre (Suppl. of Journal of Semitic Studies 6; Oxford University Press, 1996).
Fatḥī al-Ibyārī, Ṣiḥāfatunā al-iqlīmiyya wa’l-Iskandariyya (Cairo: al-Ḥayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma li’l-Kitāb, 1977).
Iḥsān ʿAskar, Nashʾat al-ṣiḥāfa al-Sūriyya. ʿArḍ li’l-qawmiyya fī ṭaur al-nashʾa min al-ʿahd al-ʿuthmānī ḥattā qiyām al-dawla al-ʿArabiyya (Cairo: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya, 1972).
Iḥsān ʿAskar, Taṭawwur al-ṣiḥāfa al-Sūriyya. ʿArḍ li’l-qawmiyya fī ṭaur al-taṭawwur min al-ʿahd al-Faransī ḥattā qiyām dawlat al-waḥda (Cairo: Dār al-Nahḍa al- ‘Arabiyya, 1973).
Iḥsān ʿAskar, Al-ṣiḥāfa al-ʿArabiyya fī Filasṭīn, al-Urdunn, Sūriyā wa-Lubnān (Cairo: Muʾassasat Sijill al-ʿArab, 1982).
Salaheddine Boustany, “The Press During the French Expedition in Egypt 1798-1801,” Cahiers d’histoire egyptienne (1954): 1-30.
Donald J. Cioeta, “Thamarāt al-Funūn – Syria’s First Islamic Newspaper,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Chicago, 1979).
Yūsuf Asʿad Dāghir, Qāmūs al-Ṣiḥāfa al-Lubnāniyya, 1858-1974 (Beirut: Al-Maktaba al-Sharqiyya, 1978).
Ziad Fahmy, Ordinary Egyptians - Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture (Standford University Press, 2011).
Rouchdi Fakkar, L’influence française sur la formation de la presse litteraire en Egypte au XIX siècle (Paris, 1973).
Jūzīf Ilyās, Al-ṣiḥāfa al-Lubnāniyya - al-qāmūs al-muṣawwar: 1858–1958 (Beirut: Dār al-Niḍāl, 1997).
Jūzīf Ilyās, Taṭawwur al-ṣiḥāfa al-Sūriyya fī miʾat ʿām (1865–1965), 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Niḍāl, 1982-1983).
Anwar al-Jundī, Taṭawwur al-ṣiḥāfa al-ʿArabiyya wa-atharu-hā fi’l-adab al-ʿArabī al-muʾāṣir, 2 vols. (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Risāla, 1962-1967).
Mihyār ʿAdnān al-Mallūḥī, Muʿjam al-jarāʾid al-Sūriyya 1865-1965 (Dimashq: al-Ūlā li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawsīʿ, 2002).
Ahmed Muddathir, Die arabische Presse in den Maghreb-Staaten, Hamburger Beiträge zur Afrikakunde (3) (Hamburg, Pfaffenhofen: Deutsches Institut für Afrika-Forschung/Afrika Verlag, 1966).
Aḥmad al-Mujāzī, Dirāsāt fi’l-iʿlām al-fannī wa’l-ṣiḥāfa al-mutakhaṣṣiṣa, 3 vols. (Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma li’l-Kitāb, 1978-1984).
Adīb Muruwwah, Al-ṣiḥāfa al-ʿarabiyya. Nashʾatu-hā wa-taṭawwuru-hā (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāt, 1961).
Nadwa Taʾrīkh al-ṭibāʿa al-ʿArabiyya ḥattā intihāʾ al-qarn al-tāsiʿ ʿashar (Abu Dhabi, 1996).
Joseph Nasrallah, L’Imprimerie au Liban (Harissa: Imprimerie de S. Paul, 1949).
Shams al-Dīn al-Rifāʿī, Taʾrīkh al-ṣiḥāfa al-Sūriyya (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1969)
Philip C. Sadgrove, “The Development of the Arabic periodical press and its role in the literary life of Egypt (1798–1882),” unpublished Ph.D. thesis (University of Edinburgh, 1983).
Philip C. Sadgrove, “The European Press in Khedive Ismāʿīl’s Egypt (1863-66): A Neglected Field,” Supplement of Semitic Studies, 24 (2008): 109-128.
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sharaf, Al-waḥda wa’l-tanawwuʿ fī tārīkh al-ṣiḥāfa al-ʿArabiyya, (Cairo: Al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma li’l-Kitāb, 2002).
Hilāl al-Shāyijī, Al-ṣiḥāfa fi’l-Kuwayt wa’l-Baḥrayn mundhū nashʾati-hā ḥattā ʿahd al-istiqlāl (Al-Manāma: Maṭbūʿāt Bānūrāmā al-Khalīj, 1989).
Atabaki, Touraj and Solmaz Rustămova-Tohidi. Baku Documents: Union Catalogue of Persian, Azerbaijani, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic Serials and Newspapers in the Libraries of the Republic of Azerbaijan. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1995.
Auchterlonie, James Paul Crawford and Yasin Hamid Safadi. Union Catalogue of Arabic Serials and Newspapers in British Libraries. London: Mansell Information Publishing, 1977.
De Jong, Fred. "Arabic Periodicals Published in Syria Before 1946: The Holdings of Zahiriyya Library in Damascus." Bibliotheca Orientalis 36 (1979): 292-300.
Duman, Hasan. Baslangicindan Harf Devrimine Kadar Osmanli-Türk Süreli Yayinlar Ve Gazeteler Bibliyografyasi Ve Toplu Katalogu, 1828-1928. 3 vols. Ankara: Enformasyon ve Dokümantasyon Hizmetleri Vakfi, 2000.
Duman, Hazirlayan Hasan and Onsöiz Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Istambul Kütüphaneleri Arap Harfli Süreli Yayinlar Toplu Katalogu: 1828-1928 = Union Catalogue of the Periodicals in Arabic Script in the Libraries of Istambul. Istambul: The Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1986.
El-Hadi, Mohamed M. Union List of Arabic Serials in the United States: The Arabic Serial Holdings of Seventeen Libraries. Vol.75 of Occasional papers. Urbana: University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1965.
Hopwood, Derek. Arabic Periodicals in Oxford: A Union List. Oxford: St. Antony's College, 1970.