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Al-Jinan (magazine)

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Political and literary magazine in Beirut (1870–1886)

Al-Jinan
Categories
  • Political magazine
  • Literary magazine
FrequencyBi-weekly
FounderButrus al-Bustani
First issueJanuary 1870
Final issue1886
CountryOttoman Empire
Based inBeirut
LanguageArabic

Al-Jinan (Arabic: الجنان, romanized: al-Jinān, lit. 'The Gardens') was an Arabic-language political and literary biweekly magazine established in Beirut by Butrus al-Bustani and active between 1870 and 1886. Its first issue appeared in January 1870. Written largely by Butrus' son Salim, who became its editor-in-chief in 1871, the magazine finally ceased to appear because of the growing difficulties of writing freely in the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Sultan Abdülhamid.

Profile

Al-Jinan had a pan-Arab political stance. It was the first significant example of the kind of literary and scientific periodicals which began to appear in the 1870s in Arabic alongside the independent political newspapers. The magazine was also one of the earliest Arabic magazines which covered narrative fiction such as novels, novellas and short stories. One of the novels serialized in the magazine was Salim Butrus' historical novel Passion during the Conquests of Syria (Arabic: الهيام في فتوح الشام, romanized: Al-Ḥayām fī Futūḥ al-Shām, 1884), which is about the 634–8 Muslim conquest of the Levant.

Al-Jinan was issued by subscription only, and was not sold in bookstores. In the initial phase the readers sent their subscriptions by post to Beirut. Following its success local agents were employed to collect subscriptions in the cities, including Baghdad, Basra, Cairo, Alexandria, Aleppo, Assiut, Casablanca, Tangier, London, Paris and Berlin. Three years after its start Al-Jinan had nearly 1500 subscribers. The magazine's readers included the leading Muslim merchant families in Beirut. It also had readers in Palestine.

The issues of Al-Jinan are archived at Al-Aqsa Library in Jerusalem.

References

  1. Dagmar Glass (2002). "'An Ounce of Example is better than a Pound of Instruction'. Biographies in Early Arabic Magazine Journalism". In Christop Herzog; et al. (eds.). Querelles privées et contestations publiques. Le rôle de la presse dans la formation de l'opinion publique au Proche Orient (in French). Istanbul: Les Éditions Isis. p. 13. ISBN 9789754282344.
  2. ^ Ami Ayalon (2010). Reading Palestine: Printing and Literacy, 1900-1948. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 49, 88. ISBN 978-0-292-78281-5.
  3. ^ Ashraf A. Eissa (2000). "Majallat Al Jinan: Arabic Narrative Discourse in the Making". Quaderni di Studi Arabi. 18: 42. JSTOR 25802893.
  4. ^ Albert Hourani (1983). Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 245. ISBN 978-0-521-27423-4.
  5. ^ Fruma Zachs (2011). "Text and Context: The Image of the Merchant in Early Nahda Fiction". Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. 101: 481, 488. JSTOR 23861931.
  6. "Al-Huyām fī jinān al-shām novel by Al Bustānī". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  7. Krystyna Matusiak; Qasem Abu Harb (24 August 2009). "Digitizing the Historical Periodical Collection at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in East Jerusalem" (Conference Paper). rclis.org. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
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