AḤMAD FĀRIS AL-SHIDYĀQ IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: AL-JAWĀ’IB NEWSPAPER (1861-1884)

Abstract

This study explores the prominent 19th century Arabic newspaper al-Jawāʾib (1861-1884). It attempts to retrace the later career of it founder Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, and re-inscribe him as a journalist and a public intellectual. It also reads through the early years of al-Jawāʾib to formulate a preliminary understanding of the content of this primary source, its major themes, and its main ideas. Then, the study proposes Europe as a central subject in the newspaper - which mainly translated news from European sources. By focusing on tamaddun as a key concept invoked by al-Shidyāq to generate a conversation between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, the thesis revisits al-Jawāʾib as a cultural and political response to European modernity and Orientalist claims of Arab or Islamic incompatibility with it. This work considers how the newspaper constructed its own perception of time and space in selecting to translate various aspects of Western tamaddun with the purpose of revitalizing a contemporaneous Arabic language and enticing the Muslim ummah to play its part in international affairs. In the conclusion, it re-narrates the last episode of al-Jawāʾib’s story.