Al Majalla Al Jadida was established by Salama Moussa in Cairo in 1929.[1][3] The magazine was closed down in 1931, but its publication was restarted in 1933.[3] In 1942 Moussa's ownership of the title ended, and his friend artist and art critic Ramses Younan became its owner and publisher to save it from the censorship.[4][5] However, the magazine ceased publication in 1944 when it was banned by the Egyptian authorities due to its leftist political stance.[3][4]
Al Majalla Al Jadida was published on a monthly basis.[4][6] The magazine consisted of 30 pages which were printed on an A5-sized paper.[3] It acted as a platform to reproduce and transmit the Western cultural elements in Egyptian society.[7] It adopted the rational secular thinking and socialism in developing a future projection for Egypt.[1] The readers of the magazine were presented the Fabian socialism, Marxism, Darwinism, psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, modernist literature and abstract painting in detail.[1]
Al Majalla Al Jadida featured scientific discussions, philosophical and avant-garde literary and artistic writings.[1] Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfuz published his work for the first time in the magazine.[1][8] As of 1930 Husayn Fawzi was one of the contributors who published articles on the discussions about Westernization, East and West, Egyptianism and Arabism.[9]
Al Tatawwur, which was published for a short time in 1940, was modelled on Al Majalla Al Jadida.[10]