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Al Adab

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Al Adab
Editor-in-chiefSuhayl Idris
CategoriesLiterary magazine
Frequency
  • Monthly
  • Five times annual
  • Four times annual
Founder
  • Suhayl Idris
  • Mahij Uthman
  • Munir Al Baalbecki
Founded1953
First issueJanuary 1953
Final issueAutumn 2012 (print)
CountryLebanon
Based inBeirut
LanguageArabic
WebsiteAl Adab
ISSN0258-3925
OCLC230709971

Al Adab (Arabic: مجلة الأداب; Majalla al ʾādāb; "literary magazine") was an Arabic avant-garde existentialist literary print magazine published in Beirut, Lebanon, in the period 1953–2012. It was restarted in 2015 as an online-only publication. Encyclopædia Britannica describes it as one of the leading publications founded in the Arab countries in the latter half of the 20th century.[1] Although the magazine was headquartered in Beirut, it was distributed all over the Arabic-speaking regions.[2][3]

History and profile

Al Adab was launched by Suhayl Idris, Mahij Uthman and Munir Al Baalbecki in Beirut in 1953.[4][5] The publisher was Dar Al Adab which was also established by Suhayl Idris who was the editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1956 to 1992.[5] Al Adab was inspired from Les Temps modernes and has a pan-Arab political stance.[3][6]

The influence and popularity of Al Adab continued until the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975.[2] The frequency of the magazine changed over time. It was started as a monthly and published on a monthly basis until 1980.[7] Between 1980 and 2011 Al Adab appeared five times per year.[7] The magazine was published four times in 2012 when it ceased its print version in Autumn 2012 after producing 60 volumes.[7] Al Adab was relaunched as an online literary magazine in 2015.[7]

Content and contributors

Al Adab was under the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism adhering to the concept of commitment literature (al-adab al-multazim) which is also termed as the literary commitment (iltizam al-adab).[4] The commitment of the magazine was the encouragement of literary outcomes focusing on the Arab world-related politics and social causes.[8] Therefore, it argued that the literary work produced in Arabic should function as a medium for the liberation of Arabs.[2] The magazine was also a follower of the free verse approach in poetry.[8]

The magazine featured articles on politics, poetry, short stories, film criticism, theater, and culture with a special reference to the Arab world.[9] It also frequently contained literary criticism.[6] As an avant-garde publication Al Adab covered all forms of novice literary techniques which were applied to all literary genres.[4]

The contributors of Al Adab were from different political origins, but all were the supporters of the approaches given above. Some of them were Raif Khoury, Salama Moussa, Nazik Al Malaika and Taha Hussein.[2] In the Spring 1968 issue of Al Adab the manifesto of Adunis, a Syrian poet, dated 5 June 1967 was published.[10]

Although both were avant-garde publications and supported free verse movement, Al Adab was the main adversary of Shi'r, a poetry magazine started in Beirut in 1968.[10] Because the latter was an ardent opponent of the commitment literature.[11] Al Adab was also critical of the cultural elites of the period due to their inactiveness in regard to the achievement of the liberation of the Arab countries.[12]

The issues of Al Adab were archived by the American University of Beirut.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Al-Ādāb. Lebanese literary journal". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. ^ a b c d Verena Klemm (2000). "Different Notions of Commitment (Iltizām) and Committed Literature (al-adab al-multazim) in the Literary Circles of the Mashriq". Arabic & Middle Eastern Literature. 3 (1): 51–62. doi:10.1080/13666160008718229.
  3. ^ a b Sabry Hafez (2000). "The Novel, Politics and Islam". New Left Review. 5: 127.
  4. ^ a b c Mark D. Luce (2018). "Al Adab (1953–2013)". Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. doi:10.4324/9781135000356-REM1954-1.
  5. ^ a b Imad Khashan (Spring 2008). "Suhail Idriss". Banipal. 31.
  6. ^ a b H. Abi-Fares (2017). The Modern Arabic Book: Design as Agent of Cultural Progress (PhD thesis). Leiden University. p. 117. hdl:1887/45414.
  7. ^ a b c d e Basma Chebani; Elie Kahale. "Al-Ādāb Magazine Archives: Digitization, Preservation and Access" (PDF). Leipzig University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  8. ^ a b Khalid A. Sulaiman (1984). Palestine and Modern Arab Poetry. London: Zed. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-86232-238-0.
  9. ^ "Collections. Al Adab". American University of Beirut. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  10. ^ a b Yvonne Albers (26 July 2018). "Start, stop, begin again. The journal 'Mawaqif' and Arab intellectual positions since 1968". Eurozine. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  11. ^ Mark D. Luce (2017). "Shi'r". Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. doi:10.4324/9781135000356-REM1626-1.
  12. ^ Omnia El Shakry (June 2015). ""History without Documents". The Vexed Archives of Decolonization in the Middle East". The American Historical Review. 120 (3): 928. doi:10.1093/ahr/120.3.920.

Official website

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Al_Adab&oldid=1119009656"