{{Short description|Literary magazine in Lebanon (1953–2012)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}} {{Infobox magazine | image_file = | image_size = | image_caption = | editor = | editor_title = | previous_editor = {{ubl|Suhayl Idris| Samah Idris}} | frequency = {{ubl|Monthly | Five times annual | Four times annual}} | circulation = | category = Literary magazine | company = | publisher = | founder = {{ubl|Suhayl Idris | Mahij Uthman | Munir Al Baalbecki}} | founded = 1953 | firstdate = January 1953 | finaldate = Autumn 2012 (print) | based = Beirut | country = Lebanon | language = Arabic | issn = 0258-3925 | oclc = 230709971 | website = [https://al-adab.com/index ''Al Adab''] }} '''''Al Adab''''' ({{langx|ar|مجلة الأداب|Majalla Al ʾĀdāb|Literary magazine}}) was an Arabic avant-garde existentialist literary print magazine published in Beirut, Lebanon, in the period 1953–2012. It was restarted in 2015 as an online-only publication. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' describes it as one of the leading publications founded in the Arab countries in the latter half of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Al-Ādāb. Lebanese literary journal|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Al-Adab}}</ref> Although the magazine was headquartered in Beirut, it was distributed all over the Arabic-speaking regions.<ref name=verk>{{cite journal|author=Verena Klemm|title=Different Notions of Commitment (Iltizām) and Committed Literature (al-adab al-multazim) in the Literary Circles of the Mashriq|year=2000|journal=Arabic & Middle Eastern Literature|volume=3|pages=51–62 |issue=1|doi=10.1080/13666160008718229|s2cid=161815428}}</ref><ref name=sab>{{cite journal|author=Sabry Hafez|title=The Novel, Politics and Islam|journal=New Left Review|year=2000|volume=5|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/1627|page=127}}</ref>
==History and profile== ''Al Adab'' was launched by Suhayl Idris, Mahij Uthman and Munir Al Baalbecki in Beirut in 1953.<ref name=mdl18>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Mark D. Luce|title=Al Adab (1953–2013)|url=https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/al-adab-1953-2013|year=2018|encyclopedia=Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism|doi=10.4324/9781135000356-REM1954-1|isbn=9781135000356 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=imad8/> The publisher was Dar Al Adab which was also established by Suhayl Idris who was the editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1956 to 1992.<ref name=imad8>{{cite journal|volume=31 |author=Imad Khashan|title=Suhail Idriss|url=https://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/544/suhail-idriss/|journal=Banipal|date=Spring 2008}}</ref> He was succeeded by his son Samah Idris who was a writer in both posts.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Kaleem Hawa|title=Palestinian Literary Criticism in Ghassan Kanafani's ''On Zionist Literature''|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=52|issue=3|year=2023|page=92| doi=10.1080/0377919x.2023.2254104|doi-access=free}}</ref>
''Al Adab'' was inspired from ''Les Temps modernes'' and has a pan-Arab political stance.<ref name=sab/><ref name=abifares>{{cite thesis |author=H. Abi-Fares|title=The Modern Arabic Book: Design as Agent of Cultural Progress|url=https://hdl.handle.net/1887/45414|page=117 |location=Leiden University|degree=PhD|year=2017|hdl=1887/45414}}</ref> The magazine was popular in all major intellectual centers of the Arab world such as Cairo and Baghdad.<ref name=dica>{{cite journal|author=Yoav Di-Capua|title=Arab Existentialism: An Invisible Chapter in the Intellectual History of Decolonization|journal=The American Historical Review|volume=117|issue=4|year=2012|doi=10.1093/ahr/117.4.1061 |pages=1074,1077|doi-access=free}}</ref> Its influence and popularity continued until the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975.<ref name=verk/> The frequency of the magazine changed over time. It was started as a monthly and published on a monthly basis until 1980.<ref name=basel/> Between 1980 and 2011 ''Al Adab'' appeared five times per year.<ref name=basel/> The magazine was published four times in 2012 when it ceased its print version in Autumn 2012 after producing 60 volumes.<ref name=basel/> ''Al Adab'' was relaunched as an online literary magazine in 2015.<ref name=basel/>
The issues of ''Al Adab'' were archived by the American University of Beirut.<ref name=basel>{{cite web|author1=Basma Chebani|author2=Elie Kahale|title=Al-Ādāb Magazine Archives: Digitization, Preservation and Access|publisher=Leipzig University|url=http://www.dh.uni-leipzig.de/wo/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kahale-Chebani.pdf|access-date=10 February 2022|archive-date=10 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220210155148/http://www.dh.uni-leipzig.de/wo/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kahale-Chebani.pdf}}</ref>
==Content and contributors== ''Al Adab'' was under the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism adhering to the concept of commitment literature (al-adab al-multazim) which is also termed as the literary commitment (iltizam al-adab).<ref name=mdl18/><ref>{{cite journal|page=92 |author=Ed de Moor|title=The Rise and Fall of the Review "Shi'r"|journal=Quaderni di Studi Arabi|year=2000|volume=18|jstor=25802897}}</ref> The commitment of the magazine was the encouragement of literary outcomes focusing on the Arab world-related politics and social causes.<ref name=khalid/> Therefore, it argued that the literary work produced in Arabic should function as a medium for the liberation of Arabs,<ref name=verk/> particularly of Palestinians and Algerians.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Jabra I. Jabra|title=Modern Arabic Literature and the West|journal=Journal of Arabic Literature|year=1971|volume=2|issue=1|page=88|doi=10.1163/157006471X00054|author-link=Jabra Ibrahim Jabra}}</ref> The magazine was also a follower of the free verse approach in poetry.<ref name=khalid>{{cite book|author=Khalid A. Sulaiman|page=98 |title=Palestine and Modern Arab Poetry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnNbmfiz3KIC&pg=PA98|publisher=Zed|location=London|year=1984 |isbn=978-0-86232-238-0}}</ref>
''Al Adab'' featured articles on politics, poetry, short stories, film criticism, theater, and culture with a special reference to the Arab world.<ref>{{cite web|title=Collections. Al Adab|publisher=American University of Beirut|url=https://libraries.aub.edu.lb/digital-collections/collection/aladab|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503233318/https://libraries.aub.edu.lb/digital-collections/collection/aladab|archive-date=3 May 2021|access-date=10 February 2022}}</ref> It also frequently contained literary criticism.<ref name=abifares/> As an avant-garde publication ''Al Adab'' covered all forms of novice literary techniques which were applied to all literary genres.<ref name=mdl18/> It published translations of the Vietnamese literary work.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Rebecca C. Johnson |issue=3|title=Cross-Revolutionary Reading: Visions of Vietnam in the Transnational Arab Avant-Garde|year=2021|doi=10.1215/00104124-8993990 |volume=73|journal=Comparative Literature|page=361}}</ref>
The contributors of ''Al Adab'' were from different political origins, but all were the supporters of the approaches given above. Its notable contributors included Raif Khoury, Salama Moussa, Nazik Al Malaika and Taha Hussein.<ref name=verk/> Abdel Rahman Badawi, an Egyptian poet, published articles on existentialism in the magazine.<ref name=dica/> Iraqi authors also contributed to the magazine.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Orit Bashkin|title=Representations of Women in the Writings of the Intelligentsia in Hashemite Iraq, 1921–1958|doi=10.2979/MEW.2008.4.1.53|journal=Journal of Middle East Women's Studies|year=2008|volume=4|issue=1|page=65|s2cid=144290320}}</ref> Palestinian writer Tawfiq Sayigh published two articles on English literature in 1955.<ref>{{cite journal|issue=74|author=Mahmoud Chreih |journal=Banipal|url=https://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/1345/tawfiq-sayigh-1923-1971/|title=Tawfiq Sayigh (1923-1971)|year=2022}}</ref> In the Spring 1968 issue of ''Al Adab'' the manifesto of Adunis, a Syrian poet, dated 5 June 1967 was published.<ref name=yal/>
Although both were avant-garde publications and supported free verse movement, ''Al Adab'' was the main adversary of ''Shi'r'', a poetry magazine started in Beirut in 1968.<ref name=yal>{{cite web|author=Yvonne Albers|title=Start, stop, begin again. The journal 'Mawaqif' and Arab intellectual positions since 1968|date=26 July 2018|url=https://www.eurozine.com/start-stop-begin-2/|publisher=Eurozine|access-date=10 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417210141/https://www.eurozine.com/start-stop-begin-2/|archive-date=17 April 2021}}</ref> Because the latter was an ardent opponent of the commitment literature.<ref name=rob>{{cite book|author=Robyn Creswell|title=City of Beginnings. Poetic Modernism in Beirut|year=2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691185149|page=119|author-link=Robyn Creswell |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691182186/city-of-beginnings|location=Princeton, NJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Mark D. Luce|year=2017|title=Shi'r|encyclopedia=Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism|doi=10.4324/9781135000356-REM1626-1 |isbn=9781135000356|url=https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/shir|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Al Adab'' was also critical of the cultural elites of the period due to their inactiveness in regard to the achievement of the liberation of the Arab countries.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Omnia El Shakry |title="History without Documents". The Vexed Archives of Decolonization in the Middle East|journal=The American Historical Review|date=June 2015|volume=120|issue=3|page=928|doi=10.1093/ahr/120.3.920}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Official website|https://al-adab.com/index}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adab}} Category:1953 establishments in Lebanon Category:2012 disestablishments in Lebanon Category:Avant-garde magazines Category:Defunct literary magazines published in Lebanon Category:Existentialist works Category:Magazines published in Beirut Category:Magazines established in 1953 Category:Magazines disestablished in 2012 Category:Monthly magazines published in Lebanon Category:Online literary magazines Category:Online magazines with defunct print editions Category:Pan-Arabist media Category:Defunct poetry magazines published in Lebanon Category:Quarterly magazines Category:Defunct Arabic-language magazines