Adib Ishaq (, ; 21 January 1856 – 12 June 1885) was an important Syrian literary figure of nineteenth-century Arab

Nahda The Nahda (, meaning 'the Awakening'), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Arab Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabs, Arab-populated regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia, ...

. Born in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

(then a city of the

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, and the present-day capital of Syria), he was enrolled at a

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' school, where he studied Arabic and French. He left school before he was even twelve years old to meet his family's needs by working at the customs house.. This experience would make him proficient in Turkish as well. At the age of fifteen, Ishaq joined his father in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

to work for the postal office. He later found work in the Beirut customs house, but his passion for writing pushed him towards journalism; he contributed to '' Al-Taqaddum'' (Progress). He moved to Egypt in 1876. He became a disciple of

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī (Pashto/), also known as Jamāl ad-Dīn Asadābādī () and commonly known as Al-Afghani (1838/1839 – 9 March 1897), was an Iranian political activist and Islamic ideologist who travelled throughout the Mus ...

after meeting him in

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. In 1879, he founded the

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ian journal '' Misr al-Qahira'' (Egypt the Victorious) with the help of Abdallah Marrash. He died at his summer estate in al-Hadath. (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.

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishaq, Adib 19th-century Syrian writers 1856 births 1884 deaths Syrian magazine founders Writers from Damascus Writers from the Ottoman Empire