''Al Nafais Al Asriyyah'' ⁨ (Arabic: النفائس العصرية; ''al-Nafais al-'Asriyya''; ''The Modern Treasures''), simply ''Al Nafais'', was a literary and political magazine which was published between 1908 and 1923 with an interruption during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was founded, published and edited by the Palestinian writer

Khalil Beidas Khalil Beidas ( ar, خليل بيدس, also transliterated Khalil Bedas, Khalil Baydas, Khalil Beydas) (1874–1949), was a Palestinian scholar, educator, translator and novelist. Beidas was the father of Palestinian Lebanese banker Yousef Beida ...

and was the most read literary periodical published in Palestine under the Ottomans. Its subtitle was ''Majalla adabiyya tarikhiyya fukahiyya'' (Arabic: ''A recreational and historical literary magazine'').

History and profile

''Al Nafais Al Asriyyah'' was launched by Khalil Beidas in 1908. The magazine was headquartered in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, but it was moved to Jerusalem in 1910. It was modeled on other Arabic magazines, including '' Al Muqtataf'' and '' Al Hilal'', but Beidas also designed ''Al Nafais'' using the features of the Russian literary journals such as ''

Sovremennik ''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...

'' and '' Russkii Vestnik''. Throughout its lifetime the publication frequency of ''Al Nafais'' changed from weekly to biweekly and then to monthly. In the early years it was a literary magazine which covered the translations of Russian literary works into Arabic. Beidas and Iskandar Al Khuri Al Beitjali translated these texts which were published in the magazine. The texts translated by Beidas included the stories by the Russian author

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

in which there was a clear opposition against the Orthodox church establishment. In 1919 Beidas also published his only novel entitled ''Al Warith'' (Arabic: ''The Heir'') in ''Al Nafais''. In addition, the magazine supported the novice literary genres and attempted to relate them with the Arab culture. Palestinian poet Khalil Al Sakakini and Isaf Al Nashashibi were among its regular contributors. ''Al Nafais'' temporarily ceased publication in 1914 when World War I broke out and was restarted on 26 July 1919. In this second phase it began to contain political materials partly due to the

Russian revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

. The magazine folded in 1923 after producing 117 issues. Its successor was ''Al Ikha'' which was established by Salim Qub'ayn in Cairo.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nafais Asriyyah Arabic-language magazines Biweekly magazines Defunct literary magazines Defunct political magazines Magazines established in 1908 Magazines disestablished in 1923 Mass media in Jerusalem Literary translation magazines 1923 disestablishments in Mandatory Palestine 1908 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Mass media in Haifa Weekly magazines Monthly magazines