Abdullah al-Nadim

Abdullah al-Nadim (1845 – October 1896) was an Egyptian writer, poet and orator, known above all as the voice of the Urabi revolt. Self-taught after a childhood of poverty in Alexandria, he turned journalism and public speech into instruments of nationalist mobilisation, founded the newspapers al-Tankit wa-l-Tabkit and al-Ta'if and the magazine al-Ustadh, and spent his last years in exile, dying at Istanbul. ^{1 2}

He was born in Alexandria, the son of Mesbah bin Ibrahim; the year of his birth is given variously in the sources — the English article gives 1843, while the Arabic article's text gives 1845, the year followed here. ^{1 2 3} Poverty shaped his schooling: he memorised the Qur'an by the age of nine at a neighbourhood kuttab, then studied fiqh, logic and grammar at the al-Nur mosque school after his family could not send him to al-Azhar. ¹ Dissatisfied with mosque schooling, he dropped out and educated himself in Alexandria's cafés and literary gatherings, where his command of language made him a local celebrity. ¹ At seventeen he learned Morse code and worked as a telegraph operator at Banha and then at the Qasr al-Ali palace in Cairo. ¹

In Cairo he fell under the influence of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, whose lectures on the reform of Islam and resistance to foreign intervention he attended; al-Afghani recognised his talent and tutored him privately, and his palace post was terminated because of these visits. ¹ The Arabic article adds that he founded the Islamic Charitable Society in these years. ²

Returning to Alexandria, he wrote for the newspapers Misr and al-Tijara, joined the secret movement Misr al-Fatah in 1879, and founded his first newspaper, the satirical al-Tankit wa-l-Tabkit, replacing it with the more serious al-Ta'if. ¹ When the officers' movement under Ahmed Urabi took shape, al-Nadim joined it as writer, speaker and adviser to Urabi himself; his speeches summoned crowds to the movement, and he took part in the demonstration at Abdeen Palace that forced the fall of Riyad Pasha's government. ¹

After the British victory in 1882 al-Nadim went into hiding for some ten years before his arrest; he was exiled to Jaffa in September 1891, allowed back under Abbas II, and in May 1893 founded the magazine al-Ustadh, whose attacks on the occupation led Lord Cromer to demand his exile again. ¹ His final exile took him to Istanbul, where he worked at the Sultan's information bureau — the Arabic article says as an inspector of publications at the Sublime Porte. ^{1 2} He died at Istanbul in October 1896; he was given an official funeral and buried in the Yahya Efendi cemetery in Besiktas. ¹

Of his books, the articles name Kan wa-yakun, al-Sa'iq 'ala al-Sa'iq fi Mukabadat al-Mashaq, al-Nahla fi al-Rihla and a work on synonyms; much of his output was lost through his years of flight and suppression, and late in life he asked friends to return his manuscripts and burned many of them. ^{1 2}