Nafir Suriyya in Arab Historiography

Early Arabic historiography of the Nahda focused largely on alBustani as a pioneer of the Arab language reform and revival movement and paid more attention to his literary and scientific output than the less polished and more political Nafir Suriyya.1 The latter’s pamphlet format has also made it an outlier in the historiography on early Arabic newspapers and journalism. But Arabicand European-language literature did recognize the importance of Nafir Suriyya. Its interpretation has shifted over the course of the twentieth century. George Antonius’s foundational study-turned-manifesto of Arab nationalism identified the pamphlets as the “the first germ of the national idea” in Syria: