Abou Naddara

By; Joseph Rossano

Prepared on 8/29/2013 by Joseph Rossano from various sources on the Internet and Wikipedia.

A recent article in the New Yorker on June 06, 2016  about Abou Naddara, there wasn’t much said about him.

For those who haven’t seen it, and interested to know more about Abou Naddara, here’s a piece I prepared on 8/29/13

For those unfamiliar with James Sanua, known as Abou Naddara, more properly as Yaqub Rufail Sanu (1839-1912). In 1877 he founded the first Arabic language satirical magazine Abou Naddara (father of spectacles) to feauture cartoons. A la fin de cet article, vous trouverez 2 segments sur James Sanua en Francais

 

 

 

 

Yaqub Sanu (1839-1912) also known as James Sanua, was a Jewish journalist, Egyptian nationalist and playwright. He was also a polyglot, writing in French, English, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew, and Italian as well as both literary Arabic and Egyptian Arabic.

 

In 1884, Sanua married a French Jewish lady, Zélie Blumenthal with whom he had two children, Hilmi and Louli

 

Sanua was an Egyptian Jew born to an Egyptian mother and an Italian father. His father worked for Prince Yaken the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. When Yaqub was thirteen he wrote an Arabic poem and recited it in front of the prince who was fascinated by the young boy's talents. The prince later sent him to be educated in Livorno, Italy in 1853, where he studied Arts and Literature. When he returned to Egypt in 1855 he worked as a tutor for the prince children before he became a teacher in the Arts and Crafts School in Cairo.

 

Coming from a family of Sephardic Jews, and partly educated in Italy, James Sanua, known as Abou Naddara ('father of spectacles'), became one of the major intellectual figures in late 19th-century Egypt. A sharp political commentator and a great renovator of Arabic drama, he founded the satirical magazine Abou Naddara in 1877. Although it was quickly suppressed and its author banned, Abou Naddara enjoyed great popularity and its circulation was considerable though it was by nature ephemeral. This rare set is a complete run issued between 1880 and 1882, reproduced lithographically from original drawings and handwriting in both Arabic and French. This was the first Arabic magazine to feature cartoons, the captions for these being given in French and Arabic, as well as being the first to use in the press a form of colloquial Arabic -- a language radically different from the literary form.

 

Sanua became active as a journalist in Egypt, writing in a number of languages including Arabic and French. He played an important role in the development of Egyptian theatre in the 1870s, both as a writer of original plays in Arabic and with his adaptations of French plays, but it was as a satirical nationalist journalist that he became famous in his day, a thorn in the side of both the Khedive and the British interlopers.

Early in 1877, Sanua founded the satirical magazine Abou Naddara, which had an immediate appeal to both those who could read and those who had it read to them. It was quickly suppressed as being liberal and revolutionary, and its author banished. In March and April 1877 fifteen issues appeared, and of these no copies are known. Sanua went into exile on June 22, 1878 sailing on the ship Freycinet from Alexandria to Marseilles. Exile in France simply redoubled his journalistic efforts, and his celebrated journal, reproduced lithographically from handwriting in both Arabic and French, continued to appear, printed at a shop aptly located in the Passage du Caire in the second arrondissement. Like many such journals it frequently changed its name, although the title which remained most constant was Rehlat Abou Naddara Zar'a (Travels of the Man in the Blue Glasses from Egypt to Paris).

This was the first Arabic-language magazine to feature cartoons, the captions for these being given in French and Arabic, as well as being the first to use Egyptian Arabic - a language radically different from literary Arabic.

Its circulation was considerable in Egypt, where it was smuggled inside other larger newspapers (its format is small and each issue consisted only of two leaves.) There is clear evidence of its presence, even in the highest circles, in Egypt - and each issue may well have been printed in some 3300 copies. The magazine concentrated on both political and financial difficulties in Egypt, and Sanua probably had privy information from friends and well-wishers within the administration. Certainly his magazine was well-known: the Saturday Review in London printed in July 1879 a highly favourable notice, and many European memoirs of the period refer to it.

Two among the listed items on one of Sotheby’s auction catalogue: Wonderful old issues that were printed and published in Paris in 1878 and a personal letter by "Abu -Naddara" to one of his friend

- Lot 117 : A collections of issues of the famous Egyptian Satirical magazine "Abu Naddara" , which was one of Egypt's early satirical political comic magazines from th 19th century , the magazine was found by the famous "James Sanua" or in Arabic "Ya'qub Rufa'il Sanu'" better known as "Abu Naddara" or the man with the Glasses.He founded the the magazine in year 1877 ,and despite the facts that few could read and buy the magazine and also the obstacles of printing it , it was huge success that made the authorities back then stop its publishing as it was liberal and revolutionary the thing that made the Khedive back then "Ismail" order to send "Abu Naddara" to exile in Paris , where the man continued to publish his magazine in both Arabic and French. It was the first Arabic magazine to contain comics,   The prices are between 10-000 -15,000 GBP

 

   

 

The following two issues at Christie’s auction. Sale 7470 Lot 44

 

Price Realized

Price Realized is hammer price plus buyer’s premium and does not reflect costs, financing fees or application of buyer’s or seller’s credits.

·       £3,250 (Set Currency)

·       ($6,575)

Estimate

·       £5,000 - £8,000

·       ($10,115 - $16,184)

Sale Information

·       Sale 7470 —

·       Exploration and Travel

·       26 - 27 September 2007

·       London, King Street

Le Charmeur (Al-Hawi)

Abou-Naddara [Organe de la Jeunesse d'Egypte]. Paris: 1880-82. A run of 41 issues, 4° (270 x 216mm), comprising: Le Flûtiste, nos. 1-3, each of 2 leaves, 4 June-20 June 1880, in Arabic; La Clarinette (Aby Zammara), nos. 1-3, each of 2 leaves, 12 July-27 August 1880, in Arabic; Le Charmeur (Al-Hawi), nos. 1-4, each of 2 leaves, 5 February-25 March 1881, in Arabic; Abou Naddara 5è année [1881], nos. 1-15, each of 2 leaves except nos. 6, 7 and 8 each of 4 leaves, in Arabic; Abou Naddara - Abou Naddara Zarka 6è année [1882], nos. 1-16, each of 2 leaves, in Arabic, nos. 8-16 including translations in French.

Coming from a family of Sephardic Jews, and partly educated in Italy, James Sanua, known as Abou Naddara ('father of spectacles'), became one of the major intellectual figures in late 19th-century Egypt. A sharp political commentator and a great renovator of Arabic drama, he founded the satirical magazine Abou Naddara in 1877. Although it was quickly suppressed and its author banned, Abou Naddara enjoyed great popularity and its circulation was considerable though it was by nature ephemeral. This rare set is a complete run issued between 1880 and 1882, reproduced lithographically from original drawings and handwriting in both Arabic and French. This was the first Arabic magazine to feature cartoons, the captions for these being given in French and Arabic, as well as being the first to use in the press a form of colloquial Arabic -- a language radically different from the literary form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/History/PRIMEMINISTERS08appendix.html

 

Le journal d'Abou Naddara de l'écrivain Egyptien James Sanua pour l'année 1896

 

In the “past,” China was asleep and mired in tradition, as can be seen by the clothing. In the “present” it is just waking up. In the “future,” however, reading Puck will give China a fresh perspective, enabling it to understand foreign cartoons and their texts, while wearing “modern”, foreign garb, including hat and tie.

The metaphor also surfaced in Egypt when the bilingual French-Arabic satirical journal Abou Naddara, published by an Egyptian in Paris, used it in 1882.

Fig. 14: First act of the people of Egypt … The punishment…. The genius of Egypt awakens from its long sleep and drives out the evil government officials, Tewfik and his courtiers flee, Paris, 1882.

The “genius of Egypt” is embodied by the members of the Chamber of Delegates on the right, which was installed after British-sponsored reforms. The Tewfik Pasha (1852-1892) government is sent to exile (and an effort is made to install Hakim Pasha, who had been sidelined). The Abbu Naddara, sometimes with the subtitle “Organe de la Jeunesse d’Egypte” (Organ of Young Egypt), was a bilingual Arab-French satirical journal published in Paris by James Sanua (Ṣannū’, Ya’qūb ibn Rāfā’īl, 1839-1912).  The circumstances of this cartoon reflect the same process as our initial examples from China: from the bilingualism of the cultural broker, to the import of the cartoon form, to the place of publication outside of the country, to the publication’s audience of exiles and citizens within the country.

In Turkey, international perceptions had made use of the metaphor as early as the 1850s. By the late 1890s, the country’s dismemberment had become a warning to Chinese reformers about the possible fate of China. During the “Hundred Days” in 1898, Kang Youwei wrote that while England’s “steamships, railways, electrical lines and gas bulbs swept the globe, and the Europeans used them to envelop the world and cover the universe without a place being left out,” Turkey “trusted its size and snored in sleep for centuries right next door.” In 1920, the Eastern Miscellany (Dongfang zazhi) the leading Chinese opinion journal of the time, reproduced a Western cartoon entitled “Turkey Today.” Here, the sleep metaphor is pushed towards the extreme of disease, debility, and old age.

Eine Karrikatur mit Versen im Dialekt versehen in einer Zeitschrift des Yaqub Sanu. Sie kritisiert den Khediven, der immer fetter wird, auf Kosten der Landbevölkerung, die nichts mehr zu essen hat. Cartoon: “ Khedive Ismail’s  Corruption.”

Article  by Victor D. Sanua, Ph.D  http://www.sephardicstudies.org/naddara.html 

 

Jewish Encyclopedia  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13186-sanua-james 

 

En Francais http://www.generiques.org/db/biographie/?do=findall&row=573  (Erreur dans l’article: il est mentione que son pere etait musulman?. Son pere Raphael etait Juif Italien)

 

Louli Sanua, naît à Paris, le 4 juillet 1886, fille de James Sanua et Zélie Blumenthal,

 

http://www.afmeg.info/squelettes/dicofemmesjuives/pages/notice/sanua.htm

JOJO

 

 

 

 

 

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