Periodical Al-Zaura. No. 422, February 28, 1874

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About this Item

Title

  • Al-Zaura.

Summary

  • Al-Zaura was the brainchild of the pro-Western, progressive Ottoman wali (governor) of Iraq, Midhat Pasha (reigned 1869--72). He established the newspaper when he brought with him from Paris a printing press, the first in Iraq, upon his assignment to Baghdad in 1869. Al-Zaura's name was taken from a nickname for Baghdad, literally meaning a bend or curve, as the city sits within a wide bend of the Tigris River. The paper is arguably the most important source on Iraq's history during the last 50 years of the Ottoman Empire, from Al-Zaura's inception in 1869 until Baghdad fell to the British in 1917. The paper's reformist slant, especially during Midhat Pasha's short reign, reflected his vision for modernizing Iraq, both as a country and as a society. It was a comprehensive paper, published twice weekly on Saturdays and Tuesdays, which employed some of Iraqi's leading writers and intellectuals of the time. With content in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic, it covered a wide range of domestic issues, including official decrees and appointments, health, education, crime and the courts, transportation and communication, urban development, taxation, and literature. In all, the paper appeared 2,607 times, from its first issue on Tuesday, June 15, 1869, to its last, on Tuesday, March 13, 1917. The issues have the Hijra dates on the right and the Rumi (Ottoman) calendar dates on the left. Occasional date discrepancies occur.

Names

  • Midhat Paşa, 1822-1884 Editor.

Created / Published

  • Baghdad, Iraq : [publisher not identified], 1874.

Headings

  • -  Iraq

Notes

  • -  No. 422 (February 28, 1874)-No. 471 (August 18, 1874). Dates of digitized numbers from World Digital Library.
  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource at: Iraqi National Library and Archives.
  • -  Content in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish (1500-1928).
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Source Collection

  • Al-Zaura Newspaper Collection

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2020741458

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Midhat Paşa, Editor. Al-Zaura. [Baghdad, Iraq: publisher not identified, 1869] Periodical. https://www.loc.gov/item/2020741458/.

APA citation style:

Midhat Paşa, E. (1869) Al-Zaura. [Baghdad, Iraq: publisher not identified] [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2020741458/.

MLA citation style:

Midhat Paşa, Editor. Al-Zaura. [Baghdad, Iraq: publisher not identified, 1869] Periodical. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2020741458/>.