Khalil al-Khuri | |
|---|---|
| خليل الخوري | |
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| Born | October 28, 1836 |
| Died | October 26, 1907 (aged 70) |
| Citizenship | Ottoman |
| Occupation | newspaper owner |
Khalīl al-Khūrī (Arabic: خليل الخوري; 28 October 1836, Choueifat[1] — 26 October 1907[2]) was a central figure of the Nahda.[3] He was the owner of Hadiqat al-Akhbar ('The News Garden', 1858–1911), the first Arabic newspaper in Beirut, the origins of which may be pinpointed to a group of Syrians assembled at the forgotten Médawar Literary Circle.[4] Quoting Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine, he "was the first to popularize a sense of Syrian identity."[5]
In the words of Basiliyus Bawardi, he "believed that an adoption of a new Western literary genre into the traditional Arabic literary tradition would provide the Arab culture with tools for reviving the Arabic language and create new styles of expression."[3] Hadiqat al-Akhbar "was the first Arabic newspaper to publish translations from Western narrative fiction, especially from the French Romance stories."[3] Khuri also published a fictional narrative of his own, Wayy, Idhan Lastu bi-Ifranji ('Alas, I Am Not a Foreigner'), in Hadiqat al-Akhbar (1859–61). The literary activity of the newspaper "played a substantial role in changing the aesthetic literary taste, and paved the way for the birth of an authentic Arabic narrative fiction."[3]
