Khalil al-Khuri

Khalīl al-Khūrī (Arabic: خليل الخوري; 28 October 1836, Choueifat[1] — 26 October 1907[2]) was a central figure of the Nahda.[3] He was the owner of Hadiqat Al Akhbar ('The News Garden', 1858–1911), the first Arabic newspaper in Beirut, the origins of which may be pinpointed to a group of Syrians assembled at the forgotten Médawar Literary Circle.[4] Quoting Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine, he "was the first to popularize a sense of Syrian identity."[5]

Khalil al-Khuri
خليل الخوري
Born	(1836-10-28)October 28, 1836 Choueifat
Died	October 26, 1907(1907-10-26) (aged 70)
Citizenship	Ottoman
Occupation	newspaper owner

In the words of Basiliyus Bawardi, he "believed that an adoption of a new Western literary genre into the traditional Arabic literary tradition would provide the Arab culture with tools for reviving the Arabic language and create new styles of expression."[3] Hadiqat al-Akhbar "was the first Arabic newspaper to publish translations from Western narrative fiction, especially from the French Romance stories."[3] Khuri also published a fictional narrative of his own, Wayy, Idhan Lastu bi-Ifranji ('Alas, I Am Not a Foreigner'), in Hadiqat Al Akhbar (1859–61). The literary activity of the newspaper "played a substantial role in changing the aesthetic literary taste, and paved the way for the birth of an authentic Arabic narrative fiction."[3]