Majallat Lughat al-Arab al-Iraqiyya
- Author died
- 1366 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Information, Iraqi Republic - Directorate of General Culture
Majallat Lughat al-Arab al-Iraqiyya (The Language of the Arabs) was an Iraqi monthly literary, scientific, and historical journal founded in Baghdad in 1329 AH / 1911 CE by Anastas Marie al-Karmali (d. 1366 AH / 1947 CE).
Founding and Publication History
The journal was established in Baghdad in 1911, with the Iraqi poet and scholar Kazim al-Dujayli serving as its managing director. It was originally printed at Matba'at al-Adab in Baghdad and comprised forty pages per issue. Annual subscriptions were offered across the Arab world and abroad, with distribution points including the Arab Library on Faggala Street in Cairo and the English Library on Zaghloul Street in Alexandria.
The periodical was published across two main periods: for three years prior to the First World War, and for six years after it, spanning a total of nine volumes. Publication was interrupted during the war when the Ottoman authorities exiled al-Karmali to Kayseri in Anatolia between 1914 and 1916. It subsequently resumed, reaching its fifth volume in May 1927 and concluding with its ninth volume. A complete modern edition was later issued in nine volumes by the Ministry of Information's Directorate of General Culture in Iraq.
Scope and Methodology
Lughat al-Arab was dedicated to Arabic philology, lexicography, literature, and the history and geography of Iraq. The journal maintained a strictly scholarly focus, avoiding religious controversies. It served as a platform for introducing modern Arabic terminology for contemporary scientific and technical concepts, reviving rare classical Arabic vocabulary, and correcting errors found in major classical lexicons.
A distinctive feature of the journal was its dedicated section for rigorous, impartial book reviews and literary criticism, establishing standards of textual evaluation in Iraq based on direct critical examination rather than partisan praise. The journal also documented modern and pre-modern Iraqi history and published specialized serial studies, such as Kazim al-Dujayli's multi-part study on Iraqi watercraft.
Reception and Special Issues
The journal was praised by contemporary scholars, including Muhammad Kurd Ali in Damascus, as a leading example of rigorous investigative journalism during the era of press freedoms in the Levant and Iraq. It acted as a conduit between Arab scholars and Western Orientalists, who consulted and translated its research.
In early 1928, the opening issue of the journal's seventh volume was published as a special golden jubilee issue commemorating al-Karmali's fifty years of service to Arabic scholarship. This special number compiled poems, speeches, and congratulatory letters delivered at a national celebration organized by a committee chaired by the poet Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi and held at the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Muhsin al-Sa'dun on 7 October 1928.
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