al-Bawakir
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-Manarah for Publishing and Distribution
al-Bawakir (The Early Works) is a posthumously published collection of early essays and articles written by the Syrian scholar and writer Ali al-Tantawi (1327–1420 AH / 1909–1999 CE) during his youth under the French Mandate in Syria .
Background and Compilation
The essays in the collection were written and published when al-Tantawi was between twenty and twenty-six years of age . All of them date from the period of the French Mandate over the Levant, reflecting the author's youthful tone, patriotic engagement, and outspoken opposition to colonial rule .
Earlier in his career, al-Tantawi had published three short volumes containing parts of his early output: al-Haythamiyyat (1930), Fi Bilad al-Arab (1939), and Min al-Tarikh al-Islami (1940) . Although those early booklets went out of print, more than 110 articles written before the end of 1939 were subsequently integrated into his later collections, such as Min Hadith al-Nafs, Fikar wa-Mabahith, and Qisas min al-Tarikh .
The remaining uncollected material was assembled after his death by his grandson, Mujahid Ma'mun Dayraniyyah . To recover lost articles, Dayraniyyah commissioned a researcher to search the archives of the periodicals department at the Assad National Library in Damascus . The title al-Bawakir was originally suggested by al-Tantawi himself in his autobiographical work Dhikrayat, where he wondered whether someone after him would search the archives of early Damascene newspapers—such as Fata al-Arab, al-Muqtabas, al-Qabas, Alif Ba', al-Jazirah, and al-Naqid—and compile his early writings into a single collection . The book also recovered surviving articles from his daily series Ahadith wa-Mushahadat in Fata al-Arab, which al-Tantawi had once believed were mostly lost .
Scope and Structure
The compiler selected articles of enduring literary and historical interest while deliberately omitting short-lived political pieces tied strictly to transient daily affairs .
Rather than categorizing the essays by topic or by the newspapers in which they originally appeared, the collection is structured strictly in chronological order according to their original publication dates, beginning with the earliest . Each article opens with the name of the newspaper or magazine and the exact date of publication (day, month, and year) to document al-Tantawi's intellectual evolution during those years . The book concludes with a note written by al-Tantawi in Mecca at the end of 1389 AH, reflecting on the vast scope of his journalistic writings .
Publication
The work was first published in a single volume by Dar al-Manarah in Jeddah in 2009 (1430 AH) .
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