Ahmed El Shamsy
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691174563
- eISBN:
- 9780691201245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174563.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter examines the role of the editor in Arabo-Islamic book culture. The challenges of publishing a classical work in the early twentieth century included locating and procuring a manuscript ...
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This chapter examines the role of the editor in Arabo-Islamic book culture. The challenges of publishing a classical work in the early twentieth century included locating and procuring a manuscript of the work, producing a sufficiently accurate version of the text to serve as the basis of the published book, and securing the funds to cover the costs of printing. These challenges are vividly illustrated in the career of Aḥmad Zakī Pasha (1867–1934), who, like Aḥmad Taymūr and Aḥmad al-Ḥusaynī, straddled the worlds of bureaucracy and scholarship. Zakī's efforts to raise the standards of Arabic scholarly publication inaugurated a host of enduring institutional and methodological developments. Most importantly, he established the model for a new, enormously significant cultural agent: the editor, muḥaqqiq.Less
This chapter examines the role of the editor in Arabo-Islamic book culture. The challenges of publishing a classical work in the early twentieth century included locating and procuring a manuscript of the work, producing a sufficiently accurate version of the text to serve as the basis of the published book, and securing the funds to cover the costs of printing. These challenges are vividly illustrated in the career of Aḥmad Zakī Pasha (1867–1934), who, like Aḥmad Taymūr and Aḥmad al-Ḥusaynī, straddled the worlds of bureaucracy and scholarship. Zakī's efforts to raise the standards of Arabic scholarly publication inaugurated a host of enduring institutional and methodological developments. Most importantly, he established the model for a new, enormously significant cultural agent: the editor, muḥaqqiq.
