Al Nafais Al Asriyyah

Al Nafais Al Asriyyah was launched by Khalil Beidas in 1908.^[3][4] The magazine was headquartered in Haifa, but it was moved to Jerusalem in 1910.^[5] It was modeled on other Arabic magazines, including Al Muqtataf and Al Hilal,^[6] but Beidas also designed Al Nafais using the features of the Russian literary journals such as Sovremennik and Russkii Vestnik.^[5][7] Throughout its lifetime the publication frequency of Al Nafais changed from weekly to biweekly and then to monthly.^[4]

In the early years it was a literary magazine which covered the translations of Russian literary works into Arabic.^[3] Beidas and Iskandar Al Khuri Al Beitjali translated these texts which were published in the magazine.^[6] The texts translated by Beidas included the stories by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy in which there was a clear opposition against the Orthodox church establishment.^[3] In 1919 Beidas also published his only novel entitled Al Warith (Arabic: The Heir) in Al Nafais.^[6] In addition, the magazine supported the novice literary genres and attempted to relate them with the Arab culture.^[8] Palestinian poet Khalil Al Sakakini and Isaf Al Nashashibi were among its regular contributors.^[2]

Al Nafais temporarily ceased publication in 1914 when World War I broke out and was restarted in Jerusalem on 26 July 1919.^[2][9] In this second phase it began to contain political materials partly due to the Russian revolution.^[3] It also contained articles on linguistics and history.^[9] The magazine folded in 1923 after producing 117 issues.^[3][4] Its successor was Al Ikha which was established by Salim Qub'ayn in Cairo.^[3]