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Al-Manār (magazine)

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Al-Manār
Cover of the second issue of Al Manār magazine, 1899
Editor-in-chiefRashid Rida
Categories
  • Islamic magazine
  • Political magazine
Frequency
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
Founder
  • Rashid Rida
  • Salih Rida
Founded1898
Final issue1940
CountryEgypt
Based inCairo
LanguageArabic

Al-Manār (Arabic: المنار; 'The Lighthouse'), was an Islamic magazine, written in Arabic, and was founded, published and edited by Rashid Rida from 1898 until his death in 1935 in Cairo, Egypt.[1][2] The magazine championed the superiority of Islamic religious system over other ideologies and was noteworthy for its campaigns for the restoration of a pan-Islamic Caliphate.[3]

History and profile

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Al-Manār was founded by the Sunni scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida in 1898,[2] and his brother, Salih Rida, was also instrumental in the establishment of the magazine.[4] They were both members of the Decentralization Party.[4] Their goal in establishing the magazine was to articulate and disseminate reformist ideas and preserve the unity of the Muslim nations.[5] The magazine was based in Cairo.[1][6] It was started as a weekly, but later its frequency was switched to monthly.[1]

Rashid Rida was the sole editor-in-chief of the magazine.[2] Its content was heavily about Quranic interpretations.[6] Rida published numerous articles in Al-Manār which praised the Wahhabi movement in Arabia.[7] One of the contributors was Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, a scholar from Aleppo, Syria.[8] His book, Umm al-Qura, was serialized in Al-Manār from April 1902 to February 1903 which proposed the establishment of an Arab Caliphate.[9] The magazine also featured articles on politics[6] and covered the coronation of King Hussein as the ruler of Hejaz in October 1916.[10]

In addition to championing the beliefs of the Arabian Muwahhidun movement, Al-Manar also popularised the treatises of major Salafi theologians of Yemen. These included Nayl al-Autar & Irshad al-Fuhul by Al-Shawkani and Subul al-Salam by Ibn al-Amir Al-San’ani. Outlining the religious orientation of his magazine, Rashid Rida wrote:

“since its inception, al-Manar has been preaching the pure oneness [of God] and the views of the early pious generation (madhhab al-salaf) in matters [related to] the dogmas and guidance of Islam. As for matters relating to governance and power, it [i.e., al-Manar, has been advocating] the arts of the age and the laws of nature (funun al-asr wa sunan al-khalq)"[11]

Al-Manār was one of the earliest Arab publications which called attention to the Zionist threat against Palestine.[12] The magazine claimed in 1898 that the Zionists were attempting to occupy Palestine.[12] It repeated the same fears in 1902.[12]

Following the death of Rashid Rida in 1935, Al-Manār was irregularly published until 1940.[8] In October 1939 it was temporarily banned by the Egyptian government.[13] Two issues were published by the heirs of Rida, and from 1939 to 1940 the Association of Muslim Brotherhood was the publisher of Al-Manār.[8]

Employees of the Al-Manar Printing Press, Cairo

Legacy

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Al-Manar advocated for a fundamentalist revival of the methodology and doctrine of the Salaf al-Salih based on the writings of classical Hanbali theologian Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (728 A.H/1263 C.E); communicating these ideas in such a way that mobilised the Muslim masses both culturally and politically.[14] The intellectual heritage of Al-Manār has been adopted and championed by Islamic religious movements and organizations in Arab world, including the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Association of Algerian ‘Ulama’ in Algeria.[8] Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan Al Banna, praised Al-Manar as one of "the greatest influences in the service of Islam for this age in Egypt and in other areas."[15]

Al-Manār inspired various journals, including Shura, a Turkic language magazine published in Orenburg between 1908 and 1918.[16][17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Joseph A. Kéchichian (14 November 2013). "The Islamic reformer: Mohammad Rashid Reda". Gulf News. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (1997). Defining Islam for the Egyptian State: Muftis and Fatwas of the Dār Al-Iftā. Leiden: BRILL. p. 69. ISBN 90-04-10947-1.
  3. ^ Fakhry, Majid (2006). A History of Islamic Philosophy: Third Edition. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 358. ISBN 0-231-13220-4.
  4. ^ a b Eliezer Tauber (1990). "The Press and the Journalist as a Vehicle in Spreading National Ideas in Syria in the Late Ottoman Period". Die Welt des Islams. 30 (1/4): 166. doi:10.2307/1571051. JSTOR 1571051.
  5. ^ "Muhammad Rashid Rida". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  6. ^ a b c "Muhammad Rashid Rida". Encyclopedia of the Middle East.
  7. ^ Ghassan Salamé (Summer 1987). "Islam and politics in Saudi Arabia". Arab Studies Quarterly. 9 (3): 309. JSTOR 41857933.
  8. ^ a b c d Kosugi Yasushi (2006). "Al-Manar revisited: the "lighthouse" of the Islamic revival". In Stéphane A. Dudoignon; Komatsu Hisao; Kosugi Yasushi (eds.). Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World. Transmission, Transformation and Communication (PDF). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 3–39. ISBN 9780415549790. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2021.
  9. ^ Joshua Teitelbaum (1998). "Sharif Husayn ibn Ali and the Hashemite vision of the post-Ottoman order: From chieftaincy to suzerainty". Middle Eastern Studies. 34 (1): 104. doi:10.1080/00263209808701212.
  10. ^ Elie Podeh (April 2010). "The bay'a: Modern Political Uses of Islamic Ritual in the Arab World". Die Welt des Islams. 50 (1): 129. doi:10.1163/157006010X487155.
  11. ^ Samir M. Seikaly (2009). "Appropriating the Past: Twentieth-century Reconstruction of Pre-Modern Islamic Thought". Configuring Identity in the Modern Arab East. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-9953-9019-6-1.
  12. ^ a b c Harold M. Cubord (1995). The PFLP's changing role in the Middle East (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-369-21057-6. ProQuest 1826791595.
  13. ^ Christine Sixta Rinehart (2009). "Volatile Breeding Grounds: The Radicalization of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 32 (11): 961. doi:10.1080/10576100903262773.
  14. ^ Fakhry, Majid (2006). A History of Islamic Philosophy: Third Edition. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 358–359. ISBN 0-231-13220-4.
  15. ^ Richard P. Mitchell (1968). "Conclusion". The Society of the Muslim Brothers. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 322. ISBN 0-19-508437-3.
  16. ^ Roy Bar Sadeh (Summer 2020). "Between Cairo and the Volga-Urals: Al-Manar and Islamic Modernism, 1905-17". Kritika. 21 (3): 525–553. doi:10.1353/kri.2020.0036.
  17. ^ Stéphane A. Dudoignon (2006). "Echoes to Al-Manār among the Muslims of the Russian Empire". In Stéphane A. Dudoignon; Komatsu Hisao; Kosugi Yasushi (eds.). Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World. Transmission, Transformation and Communication (PDF). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 85–116. ISBN 9780415549790. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2021.
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