Al Bashir

Al Bashir (Arabic: The Messenger) was a Catholic magazine published in Beirut, Lebanon, by Jesuit.[1] It was published triweekly from 1870 and 1947 and supported the Catholic religious cause in the region.[2]

For the former head of state of Sudan, see Omar al-Bashir. For other people with the name, see Bashir.

Al Bashir
Editor
CategoriesCatholic magazine
FrequencyTriweekly
PublisherJesuit
FounderAmbroise Monnot, S.J.
Founded1870
First issueJanuary 1870
Final issue1947
CountryOttoman Syria
Based inBeirut
LanguageArabic

History and profile

It was launched by Ambroise Monnot, S.J. in Beirut with the name Concile du Vatican in 1870 as an eight-page weekly Arabic publication.[2][3] The founding objective was to protect the Vatican Council (1869–1870) from the harsh criticisms exerted by the Protestant journals published in Beirut.[2] In 1871 the publication was renamed as Al Bashir and became a comprehensive journal.[2] In the early period the editor was Father Louis Cheikho who later founded and edited another Jesuit magazine, Al Machriq.[4] Al Bashir was a supporter of the Decentralization Party.[5]

The rival of Al Bashir was Al Muqtataf, and there were frequent hot debates between them concerning various topics.[6] One of these debates took place in 1883 when Al Muqtataf published articles about the evolution-related views developed by Charles Darwin.[4] The most serious attacks came from the editor of Al Bashir, Cheikho, who argued that Darwin's ideas were totally absurd.[4] The editors of Al Muqtataf who were Protestants were accused of being atheists by Al Bashir.[6] The accusations of the editors and contributors of two journals lasted until 1884, and the incident became known not only in the region but also in Europe.[6] The problem was solved the same year only through the intervention of the Ottomans who asked the editors through the Directorate of Foreign Affairs and Publications in Beirut to stop accusing each other if they did not want to be subject to the bans or penalty.[6] Partly due to this event the journal was censored by the Ottoman in Constantinople.[2]

In 1888 the journal was given a certificate of honor and a silver medal from the Roman jubilee committee of Pope Leo XIII.[2] A Belgian-born Jesuit and Orientalist Henri Lammens was one of the editors, and Philippe Cuche, an Arabic writer, was among the contributors and directors of the journal.[2] Lammens served in the post twice, briefly in 1894 and then from 1900 to 1903.[7]

Al Bashir ceased publication in 1914.[8] The paper reemerged in 1924 and was again published by the Jesuit under the editorship of Lahad Khater.[9] It was one of the critics of Antoun Saadeh's Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) in the late 1930s.[10] For Al Bashir the SSNP was financed by Italy and Germany which were ruled by the Fascist parties and was attempting to create internal troubles in Lebanon and in Syria.[10] Al Bashir was in circulation until 1947 when it was permanently closed.[9]

References
  1. Donald J. Cioeta (May 1979). "Ottoman Censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876-1908". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 10 (2): 170. doi:10.1017/S0020743800034759. JSTOR 162125. S2CID 163019820.
  2. Rafael Herzstein (April 2015). "The Oriental Library and the Catholic Press at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut". Journal of Jesuit Studies. 2 (2): 248–264. doi:10.1163/22141332-00202005. ISSN 2214-1324.
  3. Deanna Ferree Womack (2019). Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-4744-3673-1.
  4. Marwa Elshakry (2013). Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press. p. 63. doi:10.1080/00033790.2016.1158864. ISBN 978-0-2263-7873-2.
  5. Eliezer Tauber (1990). "The Press and the Journalist as a Vehicle in Spreading National Ideas in Syria in the Late Ottoman Period". Die Welt des Islams. 30 (1–4): 165. doi:10.2307/1571051. JSTOR 1571051.
  6. John W. Livingston (2018). In The Shadows of Glories Past: Jihad for Modern Science in Muslim Societies, 1850 to The Arab Spring. Abingdon; New York: Routledge. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-351-58922-2.
  7. D.R. Woolf, ed. (2014). A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing. New York; London: Garland Publishing. p. 531. ISBN 978-1-134-81998-0.
  8. Till Grallert (2016). "Documenting Ottoman Damascus through News Reports: A Practical Approach". In Elias Muhanna (ed.). The Digital Humanities and Islamic & Middle East Studies. Berlin; Boston, MA: De Gruyter. p. 178. ISBN 978-3-11-037651-7.
  9. Amaya Martin Fernandez (April 2009). National, linguistic, and religious identity of Lebanese Maronite Christians through their Arabic fictional texts during the period of the French Mandate in Lebanon (PhD thesis). Georgetown University. p. 75. hdl:10822/552831. ISBN 978-1-1090-8507-5. OCLC 451013418.
  10. Carl C. Yonker (2021). The Rise and Fall of Greater Syria: A Political History of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. p. 100. ISBN 978-3-11-072914-6.
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