Al Qibla

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Al Qibla
TypeOfficial newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Founder(s)Mohib Al Deen Al Khatib
Fuad Al Khatib
PublisherWilāya Press
Editor-in-chiefMohib Al Deen Al Khatib
Tayeb Al Sassi
Sharif Hussein (from 1919)
Founded1916
LanguageArabic
Ceased publicationSeptember 1924
HeadquartersMecca
CountryKingdom of Hejaz

Al Qibla (meaning direction of Mecca in English) was the Arabic official gazette of the Kingdom of Hejaz.[1] It was in circulation between 1916 and 1924 and headquartered in Mecca.[2] The paper was a four-page broadsheet and published twice a week, on Mondays and on Thursdays.[3]

The slogan of Al Qibla was the following verse taken from Quran:[4]

And We did not make the qibla which you used to face except that We might make evident who would follow the Messenger from those who would turn on their heels.

History and profile[]

Al Qibla was first published on 15 August 1916, five weeks after the capture of Mecca by Sharif Hussein.[5] The publisher was Wilāya Press in Mecca.[5] The founders of the paper were Mohib Al Deen Al Khatib and Fuad Al Khatib.[6] The former and Tayeb Al Sassi served as the editor-in-chief of the paper.[3] Sharif Hussein was closely interested in the design of the paper and the language used in the news.[3] He also published several articles in the paper[7] which was supported by the British authorities.[6] From 1919 his name appeared as the editor-in-chief of the paper in the masthead.[5] British agents in the region helped in distributing the paper.[8]

Al Qibla had an Arabist and Islamist ideology.[6] The goal of the paper was to strengthen the awareness of the Arabs and Muslims in regard to the threats of Wahhabism against Islam.[6] In addition, Sharif Hussein employed the publication to justify his revolt against the Ottoman Empire.[6]

Following capture of Hejaz by Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, founder and later king of Saudi Arabia, Al Qibla was replaced by Umm al Qura.[1] The last issue of Al Qibla appeared in September 1924.[5]

In the anniversary of the foundation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz several issues of Al Qibla were reprinted and distributed as a supplement of the Jordanian daily newspapers, including The Jordan Times, in 2016.[9]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Joshua Teitelbaum (2020). "Hashemites, Egyptians and Saudis: the tripartite struggle for the pilgrimage in the shadow of Ottoman defeat". Middle Eastern Studies. 56 (1): 43. doi:10.1080/00263206.2019.1650349. S2CID 202264793.
  2. ^ "Eight volumes of Al Qibla newspaper launched". The Jordan Times. 21 December 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "Al Qibla — The First Arab Hashemite Newspaper". Arab Revolt. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  4. ^ Farah Al Sherif (10 January 2018). "Jerusalem: The Moral Qibla". The Maydan. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d Thomas Aplin (2015). Ambivalence and the National Imaginary: Nation and Canon Formation in the Emergence of the Saudi Novel (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh. pp. 66–67. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 December 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e M. Talha Çiçek (2014). "Visions of Islamic Unity: A Comparison of Djemal Pasha's al-Sharq and Sharīf Ḥusayn's al-Qibla Periodicals". Die Welt des Islams. 54 (3–4): 467–468, 473. doi:10.1163/15700607-05434P07. Archived from the original on 15 March 2021.
  7. ^ Ronen Yitzhak (2021). "Unwritten treaty: The historical background to Jordanian–Israeli relations, 1921–1951". Middle Eastern Studies. 57 (3): 416. doi:10.1080/00263206.2021.1898383. S2CID 233302672.
  8. ^ James Renton (2017). "The End of the Semites". In James Renton; Ben Gidley (eds.). Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe. A Shared Story? (PDF). London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-137-41299-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Al Qibla's 43rd issue reprinted". The Jordan Times. 25 September 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
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