al-Khatar al-Yahudi: بروتوكولات Hukama Sahyun
- Author died
- 1408 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-Kitab Al-Arabi
al-Khatar al-Yahudi: بروتوكولات Hukama Sahyun (The Jewish Peril: Protocols of the Elders of Zion) is an Arabic translation and analytical study by the Egyptian writer and translator Muhammad Khalifa al-Tunisi (d. 1408 AH / 1988 CE) of the antisemitic text known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Completed in 1951, it is considered the first complete Arabic translation of the work and includes an extensive introduction by al-Tunisi alongside a preface by the literary scholar Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad .
Origin and Composition
Al-Tunisi undertook the translation after reading excerpts and summaries in contemporary journals and being encouraged by the writings of intellectuals such as al-Aqqad and Niqula al-Haddad . Before publishing the complete volume, he serialized parts of the translation in periodicals, including Ahmad Hasan al-Zayyat's journal al-Risala and the journal Minbar al-Sharq . He completed the full work in Kobri al-Qubba, Cairo, in September 1951 .
The translation was based on the fifth English edition published by The Britons, which was rendered from Russian by Victor Marsden, a correspondent for the London Morning Post . Marsden had combined the titles The Jewish Peril and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a convention al-Tunisi retained . In choosing the Arabic title, al-Tunisi adopted the term Hukama (حكماء, "Elders/Wise Men") rather than variants such as shuyukh, uqala', or mashyakha, arguing that it was semantically precise and avoided confusion with Muslim religious scholars .
Structure and Content
The book is organized into two main parts:
- Part One (Analytical Introduction): An introductory study spanning roughly one hundred pages, written by al-Tunisi . It analyzes Zionist congresses—beginning with the first conference organized by Theodor Herzl in Basel in 1897 through the twenty-third congress in Jerusalem in August 1951—and frames the text as a conspiratorial blueprint for global financial and political domination . It is preceded by an appraisal by Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad, originally published in the Egyptian newspaper al-Asas in November 1951 .
- Part Two (Translations): The translated core of the work, comprising four sections :
- The foreword to the fifth English edition by The Britons .
- The Russian introduction by Sergei Nilus, detailing how he purportedly received the manuscript in 1901 from Alexis Nicolaevitch .
- The text of the Protocols .
- An epilogue by Sergei Nilus .
Method and Editions
In his editorial method, al-Tunisi added extensive Arabic explanatory footnotes throughout the text, noting that only five minor annotations were translated directly from the English original . He placed all his own textual additions inside square brackets and consistently glossed the Hebrew term Goyim (or English Gentiles) as ummiyyun (non-Jews) .
Following the exhaustion of the first edition, al-Tunisi issued an expanded second edition with supplementary prefaces addressing the reception of the translation and discussing the history and division of the text . The book subsequently saw multiple printings in Cairo and Beirut, including editions published by Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi .
Answer updated