Al Arz (Arabic: The Cedar) was an Arabic language newspaper which was published in Jounieh, Ottoman Lebanon. It was in circulation from 1895 to 1916.

Al Arz
Owner(s)Phillipe and Farid Al Khazin
PublisherMatbuat Al Arz
Editor-in-chiefPhillipe and Farid Al Khazin
FoundedOctober 1895 (October 1895)
Political alignmentLebanese nationalism
LanguageArabic
Ceased publicationMay 1916
HeadquartersJounieh
CountryLebanon

History and profile

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Al Arz was first published in October 1895.[1] The paper was owned by brothers Phillipe and Farid Al Khazin, who were also its editors.[1][2] They started the paper shortly after the appointment of Phillipe Al Khazin as an honorary dragoman by the French consul.[2] The headquarters of Al Arz was in Jounieh,[1] and its publisher was Matbuat Al Arz (Arabic: The Cedar Press) owned by the Al Khazin brothers.[3]

Al Arz was a mouthpiece of the Maronite community in Lebanon and supported Lebanese nationalism.[1] It supported the autonomy of Lebanon, and the Al Khazin brothers published articles in Al Arz claiming that Lebanon had historical "sacred rights" which should be protected by France.[2] Some editors of the paper were members of a secret group, the Lebanese Renaissance society, which supported the independence of Lebanon as a state.[4]

On 6 May 1916 both Phillipe and Farid Al Khazin were arrested and tried by the Ottoman authorities led by Jamal Pasha, last Ottoman governor of Syria, due to their support for the French policies.[3][4][5] They were beheaded for treachery in Beirut, and Al Arz was shut down.[3][5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Ami Ayalon (1995). The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 63, 71. ISBN 978-0-19-535857-5.
  2. ^ a b c Dennis Patrick Walker (Summer 2009). "Clericist Catholic Authors and the Crystallization of Historical Memory of World War I in Lebanonist-Particularist Discourse, 1918—1922". Islamic Studies. 48 (2): 236. JSTOR 20839162.
  3. ^ a b c Caesar A. Farah (2010). Arabs and Ottomans. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. p. 67. doi:10.31826/9781463225445-007. ISBN 9781617190896.
  4. ^ a b Hicham Tohme (October 2014). The Press in the Arab World. A Bourdieusian critical alternative to current perspectives on the role of the media in the public sphere (PhD thesis). University of Sheffield. pp. 158, 173.
  5. ^ a b Stacy Fahrenthold (2013). "Transnational Modes and Media: The Syrian Press in the Mahjar and Emigrant Activism During World War I". Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies. 1 (1): 35, 58. doi:10.24847/11i2013.4. S2CID 142875340.