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

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]

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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 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. 1 2 Sabry Hafez (2000). "The Novel, Politics and Islam". New Left Review. 5: 127.
  5. 1 2 May Hawas. (2018). Taha Hussein and the Case for World Literature. Comparative Literature Studies 55(1), pp. 66–92.
  6. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 Elisabeth Kendall. (2006). Literature, Journalism and the Avant-Garde: Intersection in Egypt. Routledge, New York; London, pp. 55 ff.
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