Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-04-16
"ABOU NADDARA."
Comic Paper Printed in the Arabic Lam
guage and Designed for Circulation
Throughout the Orient.

l ~" PSAooAAo 0IC pIoOdOiy dWdEC LIl1l
Egypt has its Punch, or satirical news
paper, respecting which Ihave obtained
some curious particulars. Its name in
Arabic is Abou Naddara, which may be
interpreted as meaning 1.-The man with
the blue spectacles." The individual
thus signifed exists in the person
of an Italian named Sanua, who
lives in Paris, where he prints his jour
nal in Arabic and French for surrepti-
! tious distribution in Egypt and all 9th
| er countries in which the former Ian
guage is spoken indeed, in India and
| any other part of the world where its
| to be translated.
The print had curiously character
/ istic beginning. NJ. SanUa. who was
| a teacher of Arabic and Italian in the
| schools of Cairo. wrote, in 1876, some
simple comedies in Arabic for the
| amusement of the poorest classes, and
obtained the permission of the then
Khedive, Ismail Pasha, to establish a
small open-a:r theater in the gardens
OF Esbekieh. Innocent as the satires
| were at first. they soon became the
means of drawing attention to the
abuses committed by the governing
classes. and especially to the oppres-
sion and extortion practiced upon the
poor Arabs. Fortune smiled upon the
ingen Gus playwright, and he invested
the bulk of his profits in i'm
proving his theater, hoping there
by to secure better audi
ence than that for which his comedies
were written. Unfortunately for him.
the authorities did not appreciate what
he was doing for their convenience, or,
possibly, they objected to paving for
seats at theater where their actions
We're somewhat too freely discussed.
No doubt the shafts of the writer flew
home. The highly popular place of
amusement was soon closed by public
authority, and there was an end of the
theatrical speculat:on-but not by any
means of NJ. Sanua
The stage, humble as it was, had
made him known to fame. and he was
not slow in taking advantage of the
flow of the tide. He took the name
which his humble patrons had be-
slowed upon him, ''rhe Man With the
Blue Spectacles." and used it as the
title of weekly journal. which he i'm
mediately founded, and which was not
larger than a sheet of foolscap. Its
circulation ran up to fifty thousand
soon after it WAS started, revealing the
existence of what might well have been
doubted to eXist-namely, public
opinion, and that against the ruler of
Egypt and his counselors. There was
only too great scope for the detector
of abuses. The question of the sup
preston of the noxious little sheet was
brought before the authorities, who,
however, at first decided to let it alone.
Wiser would it have been to cease to
regard it as dangerous to public tran
guilty, for the abuses to which Abom
Ndddara directed attention were too
notorious to be denied. Some highly
placed officials, however, felt them
selves aggrieved, and a decree for the
suppression of the journal was issued
after it had been in existence for a
twelve-month.
Even after the PRONUNCIATION of the
order of suppression, however. M. Sanua
exercised his ingenuity to evade it.
starting no less than six other newspa-
pers, one after the other, with fresh
titles. but with a similar obiect-the
detection and bringing to light of
abuses in the administration. All his
efforts, nevertheless, were vain. and he
himself, as well as his journals, was
banished from the land of the Pharaohs.
He then threw himself upon the hospi-
tally of France, and Immediately
brought out Abom NdddGrd in more
virulent form. Not only did he attack
the msdoings of officials, but he de-
nounced the then Khedive Ismail and
all his works in the most violent terms,
making odious comparisons between
him and his disinherited brother, the
exiled Hahn. M. Sanua now added
point to his attacks by availing himself
of the French talent for caricature. He
gave pen and ink cartoons of the SUBJ
iects of his diatribes. These were far
behind the brilliant drawings published
by his London confrere; but, being a
novelty in Egypt, whittier the journal
found its way under cover, they formed
an attraction to natives and foregn
alike. 1t continued to be printed in
both Arabic and French.
Abou NdddarG still appears. but, in
consequence of the bad state of affairs,
its circulation has dwindled down to
1000. Its contents are eagerly read
aloud in many a village of Egypt. Its
worst feature, however, at present is
the extremely hostile tone which it is
adopting toward England. The
caricatures as we'll as the let
ter-press are devoted partly to
Mehdi-worship and partly to adj
vocating the substitution of Prince
Hahn for the present Khedive. In
one number Achmet Mohammed is de-
feating General Hicks by sheer force
of brave onslaught, while in another
Abou Naddard is introducing to the
Sultan host of despoiled Egyptians,
who flock to him with their grievances
agai- st their English oppressors.
Again. Bakri Bey is depicted rising. at
a banquet of the chief of the AleXan-
dra police. to drink toast to the de-
liverance of the country on the day
when the fore gner shall have disap-
peared from the land. An unfortu-
nate group of British officers, all pos
sesslng the traditional long whiskers
and prominent teeth with which the
French caricaturist loves to depict En-
gl;shmen, Is in the foreground. Poor
Gordon is also the object of attack, NJ.
Sanua's organ having prophesied long
since that he would fall a prisoner to
the victorious Mahdi.
The latest number I have seen de-
picts England as an unfortunate chit
fonniere, with all the plaques of Egypt
in her basket already, STOPPING to pick
up that of the Soudan in add ton. to
the amusement OF all the European
powers. If the other illustrations
were as much to the point. the journal
would be tolerable. Its general tone,
however, is in the worst taste, the OBJ
iect being to render England ridicu-
lous in the eyes of Orientals. M.
Sanua states that it has certain circu-