Beirut

Abstract

Modern Beirut’s literature has been intertwined with the city since the nineteenth century. While Beirut is an ancient city, it lacked the stature of the great Arab cities like Damascus, Baghdad, or Cairo. But as the city grew to become a thriving provincial capital in the late 1800s, Beirut also became the home of the Arab world’s first press culture, and many of its intellectuals were foundational figures of the Arab nahḍa, renaissance. In Arabic-language journals like al-Jinān, al-Muqtataf, and al-Mashriq Beiruti intellectuals like Butrus al-Bustani, Sheikh Nassif al-Yaziji, and Father Yusuf Shaykhu debated ideas in passionate editorials and articles. Like many other print publications during the nineteenth century, these journals dedicated a special section to literature, in which writers experimented with new forms of prose and poetic writing, including the realist novel set in the contemporary city.