Historical Newspapers and Periodicals
The Library has an extensive collection of the first newspapers and periodicals published in Arabic in the United States, but also offers access to titles held by Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard universities. This list summarizes some of the most prominent materials and is updated periodically. Titles are organized chronologically. A digital option is noted when available.
Historical Newspapers in Arabic
Al-Hudā, الهدى [The Guidance] is one of the earliest Arabic newspapers published in the United States. It was founded in 1898 by Naoum Antoun Mokarzel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was moved to New York City in 1902, where it lasted until 1972.
Microfilm: Hudá (1901-1971)
Digital Resource: Hudá (1903-1904; Jan-Jun 1908)
Jurāb al-Kurdī, جراب الكردي [The Kurd’s Pocket] is a thrice-weekly Arabic newspaper founded by Antoine Anastas Zraick (1879-1916) in New York City in the early 1900s. According to the Moise Khayrallah Center, the periodical served 1,500 Syrians in Boston and 20,000 Syrians overall across the United States and in Europe.
Print: Jurāb al-Kurdī (1908-1913)
Digital Resource: Jurāb al-Kurdī (1907-1913)
Mir'āt al-Gharb, مرآة الغرب [Mirror of the West] was one of the longest-running Arabic newspapers in the United States, founded by Najeeb Diab (1870-1936) and owned by his family from 1899 to 1961. Diab used the paper as a platform to engage in international politics as well as to champion the cause of Syrian immigrants in the United States and contributed, for example, to national discussions surrounding Arab-American citizenship during the 1910s.
Microfilm: Mir'āt al-Gharb (Sep 1910-Nov 1961)
Digital Resource: Mir'āt al-Gharb (1899-1961) (North Carolina State University Khayrallah Center Archive)
Al-Bayān, البيان [The Manifesto] is a political daily, founded by Suleiman Baddur, gathering both Druze and Sunni Muslim contributors, with an Arab nationalist viewpoint. The publication was mainly intended for the non-Christian immigrant population in the United States and those who opposed the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon.
Microfilm: al-Bayān (1912-1915)
Historical Newspapers in English and other languages
Al-Jamyat was a "Scientific and literary monthly Syrian review" in English published in New York City in 1908.
Print: Al-Jamyat (Oct-Dec 1908)
The Syrian Review was an English-language newspaper published in New York City in 1917. The Library only has the December 1917 issue, which appears to be the only one that was ever issued.
Microfilm: The Syrian Review (1917)
Ḥuyḍa, or al-Ittiḥād [The Union] is a periodical published by the Assyro-Chaldean National Unity of America in New York in Syriac, Arabic, or English.
Microfilm: Ḥuyḍa (1921-1922)
The Syrian World was founded in 1926 by a Lebanese American Salloum Mokarzel, the brother of Naoum Mokarzel, the publisher of Al-Hoda. The Syrian World was published in English as it aimed at documenting the culture and history of "Syria" towards second-generation children of immigrants and the general American public. It was first published monthly as a journal between 1926 and 1932, when the format changed to a weekly newspaper until it ceased publication in 1935.
Microfilm: The Syrian World (1926-1935)
Digital Resource: The Syrian World (1926-1935)
Journals
Al-ʻĀlam al-jadīd, العالم الجديد [The New World] is a journal founded by Salloum A. Mokarzel, and published in New York City from 1909 to 1926. It later evolved to Al-Majallah al-Tijariyya (The Syrian American Commercial Magazine).
Print: Al-ʻĀlam al-jadīd (1912, no. 3-12)
Al-Majallah al-Tijariyya, المجلة التجارية [The Syrian American Commercial Magazine] was an Arabic-language monthly journal published by Salloum A. Mokarzel from 1918 to 1926.
Print: Al-Majallah al-Tijariyya (1918-1926)
Digital Resource: Al-Majallah al-Tijariyya (1918-1926)
Al-Funūn was an "Arabic Review of Literature and Art” founded by Nasib Arida and Mikhail Naimy. Published in New York City from 1913 to 1918, it aimed to promote new forms of literature for the Arabic-speaking world. The magazine was of critical importance for The Pen League, formed in 1915, as the first formal reference to the literary society appears in an issue of al-Funūn from September 1916. It features contributions by Gibran Khalil Gibran and Ameen Rihani, alongside translations of literary works of Russian and Eastern European writers into Arabic, including Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, Maxim Gorky, and Polish Symbolist writer, Stanisław Przybyszewski.
Majallat al-Kalimah was an Orthodox Eastern Church monthly periodical published by Imānwāʼīl Abū Ḥaṭab in New York City from at least 1931.
Print: Majallat al-Kalimah (1931-1933)