Al Liwa (newspaper)
| Founder(s) | Mustafa Kamil Pasha |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2 January 1910 |
| Political alignment | Nationalist (1900–1908) Pan-Islamist (1908–1910) |
| Language | Arabic |
| Ceased publication | 31 August 1912 |
| Headquarters | Cairo |
| Country | Egypt |
Al Liwa (The Standard in English) was an Arabic language newspaper which was published in Cairo, Egypt, in the period 1900–1912. The paper was founded by Mustafa Kamil Pasha. From its start in 1900 to the death of its founder in 1908 it adopted a nationalist political stance. Between 1907 and 1910 it was the official organ of the Watani party which was also established by Mustafa Kamil Pasha. The paper adopted a pan-Islamist political stance between 1908 and 1910. Al Liwa was not affiliated with the Watani Party from 1910 to August 1912 when it was closed down.
History and profile
Mustafa Kamil Pasha launched Al Liwa in 1900 when Al Muayyad, a newspaper in which he published articles, was shut down by the British.[1] The first issue of Al Liwa appeared on 2 January that year.[2][3] The paper published a biweekly supplement entitled Majallat Al Liwa.[2] Al Liwa became popular among young men and one of the most read newspapers in the country.[4]
Mustafa Kamil's articles published in the paper mostly contained his call to resist British existence in Egypt.[2] In March 2007 the French and English language editions of Al Liwa were launched, namely L'Etendard Egyptien and The Standard Egyptian, respectively.[2] Mustafa Kamil Pasha established a political party, al-Hizb al-Watani party (mostly known as Watani party; The Patriotic Party in English), in Alexandria on 22 October 1907, and Al Liwa became its official organ.[1] Following the death of Mustafa Kamil on 10 February 1908 Mohammad Farid took over the leadership of the party which reshaped the ideological approach of the paper.[5] Farid fired Mahmud Izzat who had been the executive director of Al Liwa and who was close to Ali Fahmi Kamil, brother of the Mustafa Kamil.[6] In addition, Farid appointed a new editor-in-chief to the paper, Abdulaziz Jawish who was a religious conservative figure.[5][6] In 1909 The French and English editions of Al Liwa ceased publication.[2]
Jawish published articles in the paper which contained radical conservative views which led to his arrest and imprisonment in 1909.[5] However, Jawish's actions produced much more significant consequences for both Muslims and Copts, and Coptic Prime Minister Boutros Ghali was assassinated by Ibrahim Al Wardani on 21 February 1910.[5] Wardani was close to the Watani party.[7][8] The British authorities demanded that the paper should change its editorial stance, but Farid did not obey their request.[6] Instead, he announced that Al Liwa was not affiliated to the Watani party anymore.[6] Farid and other party members established another paper, Al Alam, which was made the official organ of the Watani party.[6] The last issue Al Liwa was published on 31 August 1912.[2]
References
- ^ a b Haggai Erlich (2011). "Kamil, Mustafa (1874–1908)". In Henry Louis Gates; Emmanuel Akyeampong; Steven J. Niven (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001. ISBN 9780199857258.
- ^ a b c d e f Majid Salman Hussain (2020). British Policy and the Nationalist Movement in Egypt, 1914-1924: A political study. De Gruyter. pp. 82, 84. ISBN 978-3-11-220916-5.
- ^ Nadia Fahmi (1976). Mustafa Kamil. Nationalism and Pan Islamism (MA thesis). McGill University. p. 32. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021.
- ^ Michael Laffan (1999). "Mustafa and the Mikado: A Francophile Egyptian's turn to Meiji Japan". Japanese Studies. 19 (3): 278. doi:10.1080/10371399908727682.
- ^ a b c d Ziad Fahmy (2011). Ordinary Egyptians. Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 101, 103, 105–106. doi:10.1515/9780804777742-007. ISBN 978-0-8047-7774-2.
- ^ a b c d e Eliezer Tauber (2006). "Egyptian Secret Societies, 1911". Middle Eastern Studies. 42 (4): 606, 608. doi:10.1080/00263200600642290. JSTOR 4284478.
- ^ Malak Badrawi (2014). Political Violence in Egypt 1910-1925: Secret Societies, Plots and Assassinations. Taylor & Francis. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-136-83229-1.
- ^ Beth Baron (2000). "The making of the Egyptian nation". In Ida Blom; Karen Hagemann; Catherine Hall (eds.). Gendered Nations. Nationalisms and Gender Order in the Long Nineteenth Century. Oxford; New York: Berg Publishers. p. 147. ISBN 978-1859732649.