{{Short description|Egyptian newspaper (1888–1954)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox newspaper | logo = | logo_size = | logo_border = | logo_alt = | image = | image_size = | image_border = | image_alt = | caption = | motto = | type = | format = | owner = | founder = {{ubl|Faris Nimr|Khalil Thabet|Anton Najib Matar}} | publisher = | president = | chief_editor = Faris Nimr | editor = | founded = 18 April 1888 | political_position = | language = Arabic | ceased_publication = {{ubl|11 November 1952 (last issue) | 26 May 1954 (ban)}} | relaunched = | headquarters = Cairo | publishing_city = | publishing_country = Egypt | circulation = | circulation_date = | circulation_ref = | readership = | sister_newspapers = | issn = | oclc = }} '''''Al Muqattam''''' ({{langx|ar|المقطم}}) was a newspaper which was published in Cairo, Egypt, between 1888 and 1952. It was one of the leading papers until its closure by the Egyptian government in 1954. The title of the paper was a reference to a range of hills outside Cairo.<ref name=rich/>
==History and profile== ''Al Muqattam'' was first published on 18 April 1888.<ref name=ahram>{{cite news|title=133 عامًا على صدور جريدة المقطم.. صوت الاحتلال الإنجليزي في مصر|url=https://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2695392.aspx|access-date=13 February 2022|work=Ahram Online|date=18 April 2021|archive-date=18 April 2021|language=ar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418172355/https://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2695392.aspx}}</ref> The founders were three Christians: Faris Nimr, Khalil Thabet and Anton Najib Matar.<ref name=rich>{{cite journal|author=Richard Hattemer|pages=22, 30 |title=Ataturk and the reforms in Turkey as reflected in the Egyptian press|journal=Journal of Islamic Studies|date=January 2000|volume=11 |issue=1|doi=10.1093/jis/11.1.21}}</ref><ref name=ahram/> The establishment of the paper was supported by Lord Cromer, colonial administrator of the British in Egypt.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Donald M. Reid|title=Farah Antun: The life and times of a Syrian Christian journalist in Egypt|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/302477754|page=119|oclc=49371914|id={{ProQuest|302477754}} |year=1969|location=Princeton University|degree=PhD|isbn=9798658704937}}</ref> It produced only three issues until 14 February 1889 when it became a daily newspaper.<ref name=ahram/> The paper was affiliated with the Al Muqtafa Foundation.<ref name=ahram/> Its publishers were Syrian-origin Christians, Faris Nimr, Yaqub Sarruf and Shahin Makaryus.<ref name=marb/> The latter also published a masonic journal entitled ''Al Lataif'' in Cairo between 1885 and 1896.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Byron D. Cannon|title=Nineteenth-Century Arabic Writings on Women and Society: The Interim Role of the Masonic Press in Cairo - (al-Lataif, 1885-1895)|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |year=1985|volume=17|issue=4|doi=10.1017/S0020743800029433|pages=463–484|s2cid=154672274}}</ref> Fares Nimr served as the editor-in-chief of ''Al Muqattam'' from its start to his death in 1951<ref name=ahram/> and also edited its political content.<ref name=native>{{cite journal |title=The Native Press of Egypt|doi=10.1111/j.1478-1913.1917.tb01575.x|journal=The Muslim World|date=October 1917|volume=7|issue=4|pages=415–416}}</ref> In the early years Yaqub Sarruf edited the science content of the paper.<ref name=native/>
''Al Muqattam'' had 3,000 subscribers in 1893.<ref name=step/> It was nearly six thousands like those of ''Al-Ahram'' and ''Al Mu'ayyad'' in 1897.<ref name=step/> The last issue of the paper was published on 11 November 1952.<ref name=ahram/> It was banned by the Minister of National Guidance led by Salah Salem on 26 May 1954.<ref name=ahram/>
==Content and political stance== The paper initially produced news based on the translations of the telegraph messages sent by the major news agencies such as Reuters and Havas.<ref name=step>{{cite journal|author=Stephen Sheehi|title=Arabic Literary-Scientific Journals: Precedence for Globalization and the Creation of Modernity|journal=Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East|year=2005|volume=25|issue=2|pages=442–443, 445 |doi=10.1215/1089201X-25-2-439|s2cid=143166875 }}</ref> In fact, ''Al Muqattam'' was the first Egyptian paper which obtained these messages from the leading news agencies, and its London correspondent was one of the editorial members of the British daily newspaper ''Daily Mail''.<ref name=native/> Muhammad Al Muwaylihi's work entitled ''Ma Hunalik'' was first published in the paper and serialized between 28 June 1895 and 8 February 1896.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Roger Allen|author-link=Roger Allen (translator)|title=Muhammad Al Muwaylihi's Coterie: The Context of "Ḥdith 'Isa ibn Hisham"|journal=Quaderni di Studi Arabi|year=2000|volume=18|page=53|jstor=25802894}}</ref> During the British occupation of Egypt between 1892 and 1914, ''Al Muqattam'' held a pro-British political stance.<ref>{{cite journal|issue=3 |author=Robert L. Tignor|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/773161|title=Book review|journal=The Middle East Journal|date=Autumn 2020|volume=74 |page=466}}</ref><ref name=aida>{{cite thesis|author=Aida Ali Najjar|id={{ProQuest|288060869}}|title=The Arabic Press and Nationalism in Palestine, 1920-1948|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/288060869|isbn=9781083851468|location=Syracuse University|pages=21,41|degree=PhD |year=1975|author-link=Aida Najjar}}</ref> Therefore, the paper was subject to frequent criticism and allegations that it was financed by the British authorities.<ref name=marb>{{cite book|author=Marilyn Booth|author-link=Marilyn Booth|editor1=Hans Harder|editor2=Barbara Mittler |title=Asian Punches|year=2013|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin; Heidelberg|isbn=978-3-642-28606-3|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-28607-0_12|pages=271–275|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28607-0_12|chapter=What’s in a Name? Branding Punch in Cairo, 1908|series=Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context }}</ref> Due to these criticisms there were tensions between ''Al Muqattam'' and another Cairo-based newspaper ''Al Muayyad'' which supported the independence of Egypt.<ref name=marb/> A group led by ''Al Muayyad'' contributor Mustafa Kamil attacked the offices of ''Al Muqattam''.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Kristin Shawn Tassin|title=Egyptian nationalism, 1882-1919: Elite competition, transnational networks, empire, and independence|page=65|degree=PhD |year=2014|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2152/28411|location=University of Texas at Austin|hdl=2152/28411}}</ref> In addition, the publishers of ''Al Muqattam'' were frequently mocked by the political satire magazine ''Al Siyassa Al Musawwara''.<ref name=marb/> ''Al Muqattam'' and ''Al Ahram'' which had a pro-Ottoman stance also became opponents from 1889.<ref name=aida/>
''Al Muqattam'' supported another event which also caused criticisms: migration of Jews to Palestine.<ref name=emab>{{cite journal|author=Emanuel Beška|journal=Asian and African Studies|title=Anti-Zionist Journalistic Works of Najīb al-Khūrī Naṣṣār in the Newspaper al-Karmal in 1914|year=2011|volume=20|issue=2|url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/091911221_Be%C5%A1ka.pdf|pages=167–190|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020415/https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/091911221_Be%C5%A1ka.pdf|archive-date=12 November 2020}}</ref> In 1911 Nissim Malul, a Zionist activist, began to work as the correspondent of ''Al Muqattam'' in Haifa.<ref name=emab/><ref>{{cite journal|author=Eliezer Tauber|title=Jewish‐non‐Palestinian‐Arab negotiations: The first phase|journal=Israel Affairs|year=2000|volume=6|issue=3–4 |page=165|doi=10.1080/13537120008719577|s2cid=144487385}}</ref> The paper had a regular column on Palestine of which the editor was anonymous, and the articles were signed as “senior Zionist”.<ref name=salim>{{cite journal|author=Salim Tamari|title=Issa al Issa's Unorthodox Orthodoxy: Banned in Jerusalem, Permitted in Jaffa|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/e4f79aca31c1906ebeadd14644c6ab7d/1?cbl=616497&pq-origsite=gscholar |journal=Jerusalem Quarterly|year=2014|volume=59|page=30}}</ref> Salim Tamari, a Palestinian sociologist and writer, argues that the editor of the column was possibly Shimon Moyal, a Jaffa-born writer and Zionist.<ref name=salim/> Following the end of the British rule in Egypt in 1914, ''Al Muqattam'' became known for its high-quality journalism and reformist stance.<ref name=rich/> It was the first Arabic newspaper which published the text of the Balfour Declaration on 10 November 1917 which had been signed on 2 November.<ref name=aida/>
In the early 1920s, ''Al Muqattam'' frequently attacked Saudi ruler Ibn Saud.<ref name=spress>{{cite book|editor1=Noureddine Miladi |editor2=Noha Mellor|title=Routledge Handbook on Arab Media|publisher=Routledge|year=2021|isbn=978-0-429-76292-5|location=London; New York |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kg0HEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA328|author=Noha Mellor|page=328|chapter=The Saudi Press: The Combined Power of Wealth and Religion}}</ref> These attacks had significant effects on Ibn Saud that he established a paper, ''Umm Al Qura'', in Mecca in 1924 to counterweigh the negative propaganda of ''Al Muqattam''.<ref name=spress/> Nimr's son-in-law and British embassy official Sir Walter Smart published many pan-Arabist articles in the paper from the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Meir Zamir |title=The Secret Anglo-French War in the Middle East. Intelligence and Decolonization, 1940-1948|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|page=39 |location=London; New York|isbn=978-1-315-76542-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BVfqoAEACAAJ}}</ref> The paper was among the publications which celebrated the termination of the construction of the Suez Canal Zone Barracks in March 1939 which had been demanded by the British authorities.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Fouad Fahmy Shafik|title=The Press and Politics of Modern Egypt: 1798-1970. A Comparative Analysis of Causal Relationships|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303021068|location=New York University|degree=PhD|year=1981|id={{ProQuest|303021068}} |isbn=9798661819062|pages=195–196}}</ref> Towards the end of its lifetime ''Al Muqattam'' had a relatively independent editorial approach.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Helen A. Kitchen|title="Al-Ahram": The "Times" of the Arab World|journal=The Middle East Journal|issue=2|date=April 1950|volume=4|page=168|jstor=4322163}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{Portal|Egypt|Journalism}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muqattam}} Category:1888 establishments in Egypt Category:1954 disestablishments in Egypt Category:Defunct Arabic-language newspapers Category:Defunct newspapers published in Egypt Category:Banned newspapers Category:Censorship in Egypt Category:Daily newspapers published in Egypt Category:Newspapers established in 1888 Category:Newspapers published in Cairo Category:Publications disestablished in 1954 Category:Defunct daily newspapers