Adib Ishaq

Adib Ishaq (Arabic: اديب اسحق, ALA-LC: Adīb Isḥāq; 21 January 1856 – 12 June 1885)^[1] was an important Syrian literary figure of nineteenth-century Arab Nahda.^[2]

Key Information

Adib Ishaq
Born	21 January 1856 Damascus, Ottoman Syria
Died	12 June 1884 (aged 28) al-Hadath
Occupation	Journalist
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Born in Damascus (then a city of the Ottoman Empire, and the present-day capital of Syria), he was enrolled at a Lazarists' school, where he studied Arabic and French.^[3] He left school before he was even twelve years old to meet his family's needs by working at the customs house.^[4] This experience would make him proficient in Turkish as well.^[4] At the age of fifteen, Ishaq joined his father in Beirut to work for the postal office.^[4] He later found work in the Beirut customs house, but his passion for writing pushed him towards journalism; he contributed to Al-Taqaddum (Progress).^[4] He moved to Egypt in 1876.^[4] He became a disciple of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani after meeting him in Cairo.^[4]

In 1879, he founded the Parisian journal Misr al-Qahira (Egypt the Victorious) with the help of Abdallah Marrash.^[5]

He died at his summer estate in al-Hadath^[6] (in present-day Lebanon). A collection of his works in Arabic was published under the title Al-Durar (The Pearls) by Jirjis Mikha'il Nahhas in Alexandria in 1886; another edition of Al-Durar, edited by Adib's brother Awni, was published in Beirut in 1909.

• Fakkar, Rouchdi; Fakkār, Rushdī (1972). Aux origines des relations culturelles contemporaines entre la France et le monde arabe (in French). ISBN 9782705316815.
• Ayalon, Ami (1995). The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195087802.
• Génériques [in French] (1990). Presse et mémoire : France des étrangers, France des libertés (in French). Éditions de l'Atelier. ISBN 978-2908833003.
• Khayati, Mustapha. "Un disciple libre penseur de Al-Afghani : Adib Ishaq". Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée (in French).

• Media related to Adib Ishaq at Wikimedia Commons
• Al-Durar at Open Library