Lisan al-Hal or Lissan ul-Hal ( Arabic: لسان الحال / ALA-LC: Lisān al-Ḥāl) was a Lebanese Arabic language daily newspaper established by Khalil Sarkis in 1877 ^{[1] [2]} and is the oldest Lebanese publication still published in Lebanon. ^[3]

History

Khalil Khattar Sarkis (also known as Khalil Zayniyya) ^[4] had established his own printing house called Al-Adabiyya through which he printed his newspaper, Lisan al-Hal, and a magazine entitled Al-Mishkat. ^[1] Said Aql also took part in the establishment of these papers. ^[4] Khalil Khattar Sarkis was part of the Reform Society of Beirut and the society of the Lebanese Revival whereas Said Aql was a member of the latter. ^[4] The former was a secret group promoting the independence of Lebanese as a state. ^[5] During the Ottoman era, the paper was censored several times. ^[6]

Lisan al-Hal was published twice per week for a long time until the 1900s. ^[7] One of the early editors of the paper was Salim Sarkis. ^[6] Yūsuf al-Asir was also one of the early editors. ^[8] Khalil Khattar Sarkis continued as editor until his death in 1915. Then his son Ramez Khalil Sarkis took over the task until 1941 when he was elected as a member of Parliament from Beirut and was assigned as minister of education. Khalil Ramez Sarkis was also a literary figure and had a series of literary works published. After Khalil Ramez Sarkis, editing and publishing was taken over by Gebran Hayek. ^{[9] [10]}

Jean Obeid began to write for the paper in 1960. ^[11] Bishop George Khodr wrote for the daily in his column called Hadith al-Ahad (The Sunday Talk) from 11 March 1962 to 25 January 1970. ^[12] The newspaper stopped publication during the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s.

The daily was disestablished in 1999. ^[13] The circulation of the paper just before its closing was 33,000. ^[14] The name and the licence of the paper was acquired by the Lebanese National Congress that resumed its publication as a weekly newspaper. ^[3]

References