Letters to the editor as a source of information on turn-of-the-century readership: The case of the journal aḍ-Ḍiyā’ of Ibrahīm al-Yāzijī
Abstract
The reading public of the 19th century is an ever-elusive subject of study. Who read what and how is very difficult to assess and the various resources that are available for shedding light on reading practices inevitably illuminate only parts of this complex phenomena. In the Arab world and in Egypt and Syria specifically, the 19th century witnessed the emergence and a significant growth not only of printed book production but also of the periodical press. While major theories have been put forward emphasising the role of the periodical press in forming modern societies with its changing meaning of the "public sphere" (Habermas 1991) and the creation the "imagined communities" of the nation (Anderson 2016), it is the more precise deliberation of who actually constituted these societies that still needs to be undertaken. This is in line with the current interest in microhistories (Burke 1992) and the turn toward reception in literary studies.
While there is a significant body of literature on the history of the press in the Middle East, it however concentrates from the most part (with some notable exceptions e.g., Ayalon 1995; 2004; 2002; Glass 2004; Fahmy 2011) on the production side of periodicals' publishing. By focusing on the Questions and Answers (أسئلة وأجوبتها) column in one turn-of-the century journal based in Egypt, this paper will argue that a detailed focus on individual journals and their contributors in different sections, including the letters to the editor, helps us imagine who exactly specific readers were and what they expected to read about in the journal they subscribed to. While being a limited resource, these letters shed light on distribution networks and circulation, readers' attitudes and interests and democratize our view of the intellectual exchange on the pages of cultural journals of the period.
The journal aḍ-Ḍiyā' (Illumination) was published by the famous linguist and journalist Ibrahīm al-Yāzijī in Cairo between 1898 and 1906. With its influential editor, good print quality, interesting contemporary topics and ten-page translated stories from world literature, it was one of the smaller but important cultural and literary periodicals of the times. Its relevance to the Nahda cultural revivalist project is attested by the fact that it was referenced in other journals of the period repeatedly, even after it ceased publication (Grallert 2021). It was also apparently read by Arabs all over the world who sent their questions for the editor from places as diverse as Sao Paolo, California, or Manilla. Apart from the obvious characteristics like the place of residence of its readers, their gender, language, or class, the way these letters are written and sent hint at how the audience read and interacted with their reading material. The contents of the letters then point to what was deemed important or appropriate to discuss in a public forum or at the pages of the one particular journal. The letters to aḍ-Ḍiyā' under scrutiny reveal the contemporary authority ascribed to al-Yāzijī as a linguist and a lay scientist as well as the hostile competition between him and the editor of the Jesuit cultural journal al-Mashreq (The East, 1898), Louis Sheikho. The self-positioning of the journal as a highly intellectual arena for didactic guidance with a special regard for linguistics then comes to light.
The paper thus aims to first discuss the possible sources for the investigation of the identities of individual readers of 19th century periodicals and justify on the theoretical level the use of letters to the editor as a source while allowing for its limitations. Secondly, it presents the microhistory of the 6 years of the journal aḍ-Ḍiyā' as viewed from the perspective of its active readers, who engaged with it, critiqued its articles and reviews and posed questions which fuelled the animosity toward al-Mashreq. The case of al-Yāzijī's aḍ-Ḍiyā' then serves as an example of a particularly productive type of investigation of the late 19th century and early 20th century readership.