Levant Herald

Levant Herald
TypeDaily newspaper
Founder(s)James Carlile McCoan
Editor
  • James Carlile McCoan
  • Edgar Whitaker
Founded1856
Language
Ceased publication1914
HeadquartersConstantinople
CountryOttoman Empire
Sister newspapersConstantinople Messenger
OCLC number556630285

Levant Herald was a bilingual newspaper which existed in the period 1856–1914 in Constantinople. It was founded by British subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The paper had English and French language editions.[1] Published more than fifty years it was one of the long-lived publications in the Empire.[2] However, it was banned from time to time during its run.

History and profile

Levant Herald was started in 1856 under the title Galata Courier.[3][4] Its founder was James Carlile McCoan who also edited it.[5] The paper was temporarily closed down in the period between 29 May and 24 July 1878.[6] The weekly edition of the paper was Constantinople Messenger which was first published on 24 July 1878.[7] Constantinople Messenger was an eight-page publication which was published on Wednesdays.[8] From 1890 to its closure in 1914 the paper was published under the title The Levant Herald and Eastern Express.[9]

Edgar Whitaker was one of the editors of the paper which covered all significant events of the period, including Ottoman-Russian relations, the Bulgarian issue, tensions in the Balkans and the Russo-Ottoman War.[7] Najib Al Hajj was the Cairo correspondent of the paper.[10] It was one of the supporters of Ottoman Sultan Murad V[7] and received financial aid from Khedive Ismail of Egypt in the 1870s.[4] The paper also played a role in the formation of the opposition against Abdulhamit, another Ottoman ruler.[7]

Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad includes references to Levant Herald in Chapter 34.[8] In the book it is stated that due to its frequent reports about the rebels in Crete the paper was often censored by the Ottoman authorities in the late 1860s.[8] Levant Herald sold 5,200 copies in 1907.[11] It ceased publication in 1914.[3]

References

  1. ^ Burhan Çağlar; Ömer Faruk Can; Hacer Kılıçarslan (2021). Living in the Ottoman Lands: Identities Administration and Warfare. İstanbul: Kronik.
  2. ^ Burhan Çağlar. "Anglophone Press in Constantinople: The Levant Herald & Eastern Express (1859-1878)". Libra Kitap. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b Burhan Çağlar (2017). Brief History of an English-Language Journal in the Ottoman Empire: The Levant Herald and Constantinople Messenger (1859-1878) (MA thesis). University of Toronto. pp. 28, 50. ProQuest 1884214693.
  4. ^ a b Adam Mestyan (2017). Arab Patriotism: The Ideology and Culture of Power in Late Ottoman Egypt. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780691172644.
  5. ^ Sibel Zandi Sayek (2013). "Ambiguities of Sovereignty: Property Rights and Spectacles of Statehood in Tanzimat Izmir". In Sahar Bazzaz; et al. (eds.). Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space. Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-674-06662-5.
  6. ^ "The Levant herald". Library of Congress. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d Burhan Çağlar (April 2021). "Turmoil in the Capital: British Publication Alarmed the Hamidian Regime". Belleten. 85 (302): 138, 141, 147. doi:10.37879/belleten.2021.133. S2CID 234801722.
  8. ^ a b c John Lockwood (Spring 2015). "Mark Twain and the Levant Herald". Mark Twain Journal. 53 (1): 112–113. JSTOR 24612781.
  9. ^ "Levant Herald". SALT Research. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  10. ^ Orit Bashkin (Winter 2021). "The Colonized Semites and the Infectious Disease: Theorizing and Narrativizing Anti-Semitism in the Levant, 1870–1914". Critical Inquiry. 47 (2): 197. doi:10.1086/712116.
  11. ^ Ateş Uslu (2015). "The Levantine Press of Istanbul and the Outbreak of the Great War (1914" (PDF). In István Majoros (ed.). Sorsok, frontok, eszmék. Tanulmányok az első világháború 100. évfordulójára. Budapest: ELTE BTK. p. 248. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2021.