Khalil al-Khuri

Khalil al-Khuri
خليل الخوري
Born	(1836-10-28)October 28, 1836 Choueifat, Mount Lebanon Emirate
Died	October 26, 1907(1907-10-26) (aged 70)
Citizenship	Ottoman
Occupation	newspaper owner

Khalīl al-Khūrī (Arabic: خليل الخوري; 28 October 1836, Choueifat — 26 October 1907) was a central figure of the Nahda. He was the owner of Hadiqat al-Akhbar ('The News Garden', 1858–1911), the first Arabic newspaper in Beirut, the origins of which may be pinpointed to a group of Syrians assembled at the forgotten Médawar Literary Circle. Quoting Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine, he "was the first to popularize a sense of Syrian identity."

In the words of Basiliyus Bawardi, he "believed that an adoption of a new Western literary genre into the traditional Arabic literary tradition would provide the Arab culture with tools for reviving the Arabic language and create new styles of expression." Hadiqat al-Akhbar "was the first Arabic newspaper to publish translations from Western narrative fiction, especially from the French Romance stories." Khuri also published a fictional narrative of his own, Wayy, Idhan Lastu bi-Ifranji ('Alas, I Am Not a Foreigner'), in Hadiqat al-Akhbar (1859–61). The literary activity of the newspaper "played a substantial role in changing the aesthetic literary taste, and paved the way for the birth of an authentic Arabic narrative fiction."

Sources

• Bawardi, Basiliyus (2008). "First Steps in Writing Arabic Narrative Fiction". Die Welt des Islams. 48 (2). doi:10.1163/157006008X335921.
• Edwards, Anthony (2020). "Serializing protestantism: the missionary Miscellany and the Arabic press in 1850s Beirut". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 49: 86–103. doi:10.1080/13530194.2020.1765141. S2CID 219498842.
• Hanssen, Jens; Safieddine, Hicham (2019). "Butrus al-Bustani: From Protestant Convert to Ottoman Patriot and Arab Reformer". The Clarion of Syria: A Patriot's Call against the Civil War of 1860.
• Ṭarrāzī, Fīlīb dī (1913). Tārīkh al-Ṣiḥāfah al-ʻArabīyah تاريخ الصحافة العربية (in Arabic). Vol. 1. Al-Maṭbaʻah al-Adabīyah. OCLC 31793402.

Further reading

• Zachs, Fruma (2011). "Pioneers of Syrian patriotism and identity: A re-evaluation of Khalil al-Khuri's contribution". In Beshara, Adel (ed.). The Origins of Syrian Nationhood.