Al Siyassa Al Musawwara Explained

Category:Political satire magazine
Founded:1907
Firstdate:December 1907
Finaldate:1923

Al Siyassa Al Musawwara was a multilingual magazine. The magazine was also referred to as the Cairo Punch. It was started in 1907 in Cairo, Egypt, but when its publisher Abdul Hamit Zaki exiled into Italy, it was published in Bologna until 1923.

History and profile

Al Siyassa Al Musawwara was launched on 15 December 1907 and edited and published by Abdul Hamit Zaki who would leave Egypt for Italy.[1] [2] On the masthead of the magazine there was another title in addition to Arabic title, namely Cairo Punch.[2]

Al Siyassa Al Musawwara featured colour political caricatures and satire[1] and had a nationalist political stance.[2] Its content was published in three languages, Arabic, English and French, and it covered political affairs in Egypt and in other countries, including the British occupation and European imperialism.[2] Textual materials were written by Hafiz Ibrahim.[2] The magazine frequently mocked the publishers of the pro-British newspaper, Al Muqattam, who were Syrian-origin Christians, namely Faris Nimr, Yaqub Sarruf and Shahin Makaryus.[2]

Following the exile of Abdul Hamit Zaki Al Siyassa Al Musawwara was published until 1923 in Bologna.[3] [4] [5]

The first thirty-seven issues of Al Siyassa Al Musawwara are archived in the Hoover Institution Library of Stanford University.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Anthony Gorman. Sarah Irving. Cultural Entanglement in the Pre-Independence Arab World. Arts, Thought and Literature. London. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2020. 978-0-7556-0632-0. Sarah H. Awad. 168. https://books.google.com/books?id=L6ECEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168. Political caricatures in colonial Egypt: Visual representations of the people and the nation.
  2. Book: Marilyn Booth. Marilyn Booth. Hans Harder. Barbara Mittler. Asian Punches. 2013. Springer. Berlin; Heidelberg. 978-3-642-28606-3. 271–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28607-0_12. What’s in a Name? Branding Punch in Cairo, 1908. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. 10.1007/978-3-642-28607-0_12. 3 May 2024 .
  3. Eliane Ursula Ettmüller. Caricature and Egypt's Revolution of 25 January 2011. Studies in Contemporary History. 2012. 9. 10.14765/zzf.dok-1605.
  4. Web site: Cairo Punch. Library of Congress. 3 December 2021.
  5. Barbara De Poli. Dal dissenso alla rivoluzione: satira e potere nel mondo arabo contemporaneo. Diacronie. 2012. 11. 3. 10.4000/diacronie.2739. it. free. 10278/35575. free.