Translation and Bilingualism in the al-Waqā’i‘al-Miṣriyya Newspaper: the Development of Arab Press in Ottoman Egypt

Abstract

The newspaper al-Waqā’i‘al-Miṣriyya is considered the forerunner of the Arab press in general and of the Egyptian-Ottoman press in particular. It was originally printed in Ottoman Turkish and in Arabic, in two columns: the main one on the right in Turkish, and the secondary one on the left in Arabic. As time went by, the position of the two would change in line with the political situation of Ottoman Egypt under the rule of the dynasty of M. ‘Alī. In this framework, the aim is to analyze the factors that contributed to the emergence of this bilingualism, emphasizing the role played by translation. Special attention is paid to the journalistic context of the time to determine how al-Waqā’i‘al-Miṣriyya managed to shape its own journalistic career on the one hand, and respond to the demands of the official press on the other. As a result of the study, it will be reaffirmed that the interdependence between the press and translation accelerated and strengthened the Arab journalistic project that was becoming established in the Ottoman Egypt of the nineteenth century.