Umm Al-Qura (newspaper)

Umm Al-Qura (Arabic: أُم القُرى, The Mother of Villages) was the first Arabic language Saudi Arabian daily newspaper based in Mecca,[1] and the official gazette of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The paper has been in circulation since 1924.

Umm Al-Qura
TypeWeekly newspaper
PublisherMinistry of Media
Founded12 December 1924 (1924-12-12)
LanguageArabic
HeadquartersMecca, Saudi Arabia
Websitehttp://www.uqn.gov.sa/

History and profile

Umm Al-Qura was established by Ibn Saud, the Kingdom’s founder, and the first issue was published on 12 December 1924.[2][3] In fact, the paper was a successor of Al Qibla which was the official gazette of the Kingdom of Hejaz.[4] One of the reasons behind the establishment of Umm Al-Qura was the harsh criticisms of an Egyptian newspaper, Al Muqattam, against Ibn Saud.[5] He started the paper to counterweigh this negative propaganda of Al Muqattam through the paper.[5]

Umm Al-Qura was initially a weekly newspaper issued in four hand-printed pages before it had turned into a government gazette – an announcer of royal decrees and other state-related news.[6][7] Shortly after its start Umm Al-Qura frequently featured articles supporting Wahhabi doctrine which was given as a branch of Sunni Islam.[8] The paper called Ibn Saud as the Caeser of the Arabs following the annexation of Hejaz.[9]

The founding editor-in-chief of the paper was Yusuf Yasin, an advisor to Ibn Saud.[10][11] Ghalib Hamza Abulfaraj, a Saudi businessman, also served as the editor-in-chief of the paper.[12] One of its early contributors was St John Philby.[13]

Umm Al-Qura is published by the Ministry of Culture and Information.[14]

Significant events covered by the paper

Financial crisis

During World War II all newspapers at that time, Sawt Al Hijaz, Al-Madina Al manawara, and Umm Al Qura experienced financial crises, leading to the suspension of them from 1941-1946 except Umm Al Qura which continued to be issued.[15]

References
  1. Mark J. R. Sedgwick (November 1997). "Saudi Sufis: Compromise in the Hijaz, 1925-40". Die Welt des Islams. 37 (3): 360. doi:10.1163/1570060972597039. JSTOR 1570657.
  2. "Umm al-Qurá, Number 1131, 1 November 1946". www.wdl.org. 1 November 1946. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  3. "Leading monitor of crucial events in the Saudi Arabia for 100 years: Umm Al-Qura newspaper". Arab News. 21 May 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  4. Joshua Teitelbaum (2020). "Hashemites, Egyptians and Saudis: the tripartite struggle for the pilgrimage in the shadow of Ottoman defeat". Middle Eastern Studies. 56 (1): 43. doi:10.1080/00263206.2019.1650349. S2CID 202264793.
  5. Noha Mellor (2021). "The Saudi Press: The Combined Power of Wealth and Religion". In Noureddine Miladi; Noha Mellor (eds.). Routledge Handbook on Arab Media. London; New York: Routledge. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-429-76292-5.
  6. Joseph A. Kechichian (21 January 2011). "Nationalist adviser". Gulf News. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  7. Sebastian Maisel and John A. Shoup. (2009). Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p.329. ISBN 978-0-313-34442-8.
  8. David Commins (2015). "From Wahhabi to Salafi". In Bernard Haykel; Thomas Hegghammer; Stéphane Lacroix (eds.). Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 159. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139047586. ISBN 9781139047586. S2CID 126609426.
  9. Adam Mestyan (2023). Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 190. doi:10.1353/book.113384. ISBN 9780691249353.
  10. C. C. Lewis (July 1933). "Ibn Sa'ūd and the Future of Arabia". International Affairs. 12 (4): 523. doi:10.2307/2603605. JSTOR 2603605.
  11. Abdulrahman Saleh Shobaili (1971). An Historical and Analytical Study of Broadcasting and Press in Saudi Arabia (PhD thesis). Ohio State University. p. 56. ISBN 9798658527567. ProQuest 302622210.
  12. Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008 (18th ed.). Beirut: Publitec Publications. 2007. p. 48. doi:10.1515/9783110930047. ISBN 9783598077357.
  13. Daniel Silverfarb (1982). "Great Britain, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia: The Revolt of the Ikhwan, 1927-1930". The International History Review. 4 (2): 241. doi:10.1080/07075332.1982.9640276.
  14. Terki Awad (2010). The Saudi press and the Internet: how Saudi journalists and media decision makers at the Ministry of Culture and Information evaluate censorship in the presence of the Internet as a news and information medium (PhD thesis). University of Sheffield. p. 25.
  15. William A. Rugh (2004). Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-275-98212-6.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.