Al-Katib al-misri (magazine)

The Egyptian journal al-Katib al-misri (Arabic: الكاتب المصري; DMG: al-Kātib al-miṣrī; English: "The Egyptian Writer") was published in Cairo monthly in the period 1945–1948.[1] It featured articles on literature, arts and science. Although its publisher was Jewish, the magazine did not emphasize this fact.[2] However, Taha Hussein, editor of the magazine, was accused of being part of the Zionist movement due to his post.[2]

Al-Katib al-misri
Cover page of the first issue
EditorTaha Hussein
CategoriesLiterature, Arts, Science
FrequencyMonthly
Founded1945
First issueOctober 1945
Final issueMay 1948
CountryEgypt
Based inCairo
LanguageArabic
Websitenbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:5:1-219240

History and profile

Al-Katib al-misri was founded originally by the Egyptian Press and Publishing House owned by the Jewish Al Harari family who entrusted Taha Hussein with the management.[2][3] The magazine was modelled on the French magazine Les Temps modernes.[4] The first issue appeared in October 1945.[2] The magazine published a total of 32 issues and was available in numerous Arab metropolises.[5] The last issue of al-Katib al-misri was dated May 1948.[2]

The focus of the journal was the publication of international literature and literary criticism, which were translated into Arabic and so helped to reach a broader readership. Both Arabic and non-Arabic art, literature and science were encouraged and a dialogue between Arabic and other languages should be established.[5] As one of the first post-war magazines, al-Katib al-misri also aimed to make its vision of the enlightenment accessible to all and to promote mutual cultural exchange.[6] "Literature should be lifted above all conflicts existing world-wide."[7]

Major contributors included Mahmud Taymur, Tawfiq Al Hakim, Mohammed Mahdi Al Jawahiri, Yahya Haqqi and Luwis Awad.[2] Arabic translations among others, of works by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry or Jean-Paul Sartre,[6] were published, texts of promising new Arab authors[8] as well as literary criticism, which also offered an introduction by Western authors such as James Joyce or Franz Kafka.[9]

Moreover, two other sections also discussed in detail the contents and orientations of Arabic and European periodicals of the time.[8] In 1948, the publication of the magazine was stopped,[4] whereby it is not clear whether this was spontaneous or under governmental pressure.[9]

References
  1. Elisabeth Kendall (July 1997). "The Marginal Voice: Journals and the Avant-garde in Egypt". Journal of Islamic Studies. 8 (2): 226. doi:10.1093/jis/8.2.216.
  2. Reuven Snir (2006). "Arabic in the Service of Regeneration of Jews: The Participation of Jews in Arabic Press and Journalism in the 19th and 20th Centuries". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 59 (3): 301–302. doi:10.1556/AORIENT.59.2006.3.2.
  3. Mohamed El Bendary. (2010). The Egyptian Press and Coverage of Local and International Events. US Lexington Books. Lanham, MD, p. 3. ASIN B009L8ZSRW
  4. Sabry Hafez (2000). "The Novel, Politics and Islam". New Left Review. 5: 127.
  5. May Hawas. (2018). Taha Hussein and the Case for World Literature. Comparative Literature Studies 55(1), pp. 66–92.
  6. Jens Hanssen and Max Weiss. (2018). Arabic Thought against the Authoritarian Age: Towards an Intellectual History of the Present. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 45–46. ISBN 9781108147781
  7. al-Kātib al-Miṣrī (1945). 1(1-3).
  8. Christopher Dwight Micklethwait. (2010). Faits Divers: National Culture and Modernism in Third World Literary Magazines. PhD Thesis. The University of Texas at Austin, pp. 175, 184.
  9. Elisabeth Kendall. (2006). Literature, Journalism and the Avant-Garde: Intersection in Egypt. Routledge, New York; London, pp. 55 ff.
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