Yaqub Sanu (Abu Naddara)

Yaqub b. Rafa'il Sanu, known as Abu Naddara (James Sanua), was a prolific Jewish Egyptian playwright (1839-1912). The unsigned Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry says that he influenced the 'Urabi revolt indirectly, through teaching, lecturing, writing and performing short satirical plays. ¹

He began the publication of Abu Naddara Zarqa, "the man with green spectacles", an anonymous lithographed sheet enlivened by cartoons and written in the Egyptian fellahin dialect. Because he had criticised the Khedive and his counsellors, he had to leave Egypt in 1878. He continued to publish the paper in Paris, intermittently, in Arabic and French, and smuggled it into Egypt under various names. Copies reached North Africa and Syria. ²