Kurd ʿAlī, Muḥammad 1876-1953

Muhammad Kurd Ali was a Syrian scholar, journalist and educator. He established the monthly cultural and literary magazine al-Muqtabas in Cairo in 1906. In 1908 he transferred the magazine to Damascus, where it was published until 1917. Following this, Kurd Ali established a daily newspaper, also called al-Muqtabas.

Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the separate Syrian state, Muhammad Kurd Ali left the management of the paper to his brother, and devoted his career to scholarly and educational work. He was involved in founding the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1919, and eventually became its Director. In 1928 he became Syrian minister for education. Finding his government under attack from the paper he had established, he ordered it to be closed indefinitely.

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