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Hiwar (magazine)

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Hiwar
EditorTawfiq Sayigh
CategoriesLiterary magazine
FrequencyMonthly
FounderTawfiq Sayigh
Founded1962
First issueOctober 1962
Final issueMarch/April 1967
CountryLebanon
Based inBeirut
LanguageArabic

Hiwar (Arabic: حوار, lit. 'Discussion') was an Arabic magazine published in Beirut between 1962 and 1967.[1][2] The magazine was established and financed by the CIA during the cultural Cold War, under the cover of a front organization, the Congress for Cultural Freedom.[3][4]

History

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The first issue of Hiwar appeared in October 1962 (but was dated November 1962), and its final issue was dated March/April 1967.[5] Generous funding was provided by the CIA with the stipulation that it publish articles on the situation of Soviet Muslims.[6] Tawfiq Sayigh, a Palestinian poet based in Beirut, accepted an offer to edit the magazine, which he did for the duration of its existence.

A foreword in the inaugural issue of Hiwar laid out the magazine's putative mission, stressing its Arab identity and falsely claiming that "it is not a foreign magazine published in an Arab country, but rather an Arab magazine at its core." The foreword went on to emphasize the importance Hiwar would place on freedom of speech and cultural freedoms in the Arab world, and claimed that it would pay its contributors well.[7] In the same issue an article by Albert Hourani on Taha Hussein was featured which was later published in the magazines Cuadernos and Preuves.[1]

Hiwar was originally designed as a publication to improve modern Arabic poetry.[8] Hiwar frequently published works by prominent Arab authors, including a serialization of Tayeb Salih's classic novella Season of Migration to the North in 1966. Although Salih's book was banned in Egypt, copies of Hiwar were likely smuggled into Cairo, where critic Raja' al-Naqqash, after reading it, described Salih as a "genius of the Arabic novel."[9] Hiwar, like other magazines funded by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, republished interviews originally appearing in The Paris Review, whose co-founder Peter Matthiessen was a CIA operative as well as a novelist. For example, the May-June 1963 issue of Hiwar printed an interview with Henry Miller that was previously published in the September 1961 issue of The Paris Review.[10]

According to Issa J. Boullata, Hiwar raised suspicions in the Arab world about its provenance, due to the "generous payments to its contributing writers and its relatively low price despite excellent production and slick appearance." In light of these rumors, Egyptian novelist Yusuf Idris declined to accept a prize that Hiwar had awarded him in November 1965, in the amount of 10,000 Lebanese lira.[11] Hiwar drew skepticism even before it launched; Sayigh recounted that Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani attacked the planned magazine because of its foreign funding.[1]

The financial support of the magazine by the CIA was uncovered by The New York Times in April 1966, prompting the magazine to stop publishing the following year.[1] Sayigh left Lebanon as a result of this event, and moved to Berkeley, California.

In addition to Hiwar, the Congress for Cultural Freedom also targeted the Arab literary world by hosting conferences. In 1961, CCF sponsored a conference called "The Arab Writer and the Modern World" in Rome. The attendees included Syrian poets Adunis and Yusuf al-Khal as well as other luminaries such as Stephen Spender and Ignazio Silone.[12]

Prominent contributors

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Elizabeth M. Holt (2013). "'Bread or Freedom': The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA, and the Arabic Literary Journal Ḥiwār (1962-67)" (PDF). Journal of Arabic Literature. 44: 83–102. doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341257. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021.
  2. ^ Timothy Mitchell (2002). Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA; London: University of California Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-520-92825-1.
  3. ^ Ursula Lindsey (24 July 2018). "Arab Magazines: A Neglected History Resurfaces". Al Fanar Media. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  4. ^ Juliana Spahr (2018). Du Bois's Telegram. Literary Resistance and State Containment. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press. p. 85. doi:10.4159/9780674988835-003. ISBN 9780674986961. S2CID 239225354.
  5. ^ Frances Stonor Saunders (2001). The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. New York: The New Press. p. 210. doi:10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim140150101. ISBN 978-1565846647.
  6. ^ Joseph Massad (2015). Islam in liberalism. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-226-20622-6. OCLC 871670666.
  7. ^ ""حوار"". Hiwar (in Arabic): 3–4. November 1962.
  8. ^ Hanan Toukan (2015). "Whatever Happened to Iltizām? Words in Arab Art after the Cold War". Perspectivia: 333–349.
  9. ^ Holt, Elizabeth M. (Fall 2019). "Al-Tayyib Salih's Season of Migration to the North, the CIA, and the Cultural Cold War after Bandung". Research in African Literatures. 50 (3). doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.50.3.07. S2CID 216711624.
  10. ^ Miller, Henry (May–June 1963). "يتحدث عن فنه الروائي". Hiwar (in Arabic): 77–88.
  11. ^ Boullata, Issa J. (1973). "The Beleaguered Unicorn: A Study of Tawfīq Ṣāyigh". Journal of Arabic Literature. 4: 69–93. doi:10.1163/157006473X00052.
  12. ^ Della Subin, Anna (7 November 2019). "How Arabic Made It New". New York Review of Books.
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