Ahmad Fāris al-Shidyāq was a Lebanese-born Ottoman writer, scholar and journalist. Considered one of the founding fathers of modern Arabic literature, al-Shidyāq was Maronite by birth, but converted to Protestantism and eventually Islam as he travelled throughout Africa and Europe, at last settling in Istanbul where he would publish the first widely circulated newspaper in Arabic.

Articles Available Online

Leg over Leg

fiction

January 2014

Ahmad Fāris al-Shidyāq

TR. Humphrey Davies

fiction

January 2014

First published in 1855, Leg over Leg recounts the life, from birth to middle age, of ‘the Fāriyāq,’ alter ego of Ahmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, a pivotal...