Al Ahram Newspaper
Egypt's
largest newspaper, founded in 1875 by the Taqla family.
The newspaper is published in Arabic, and is the most
known and the leading newspaper in the Arab world today.
It now has a circulation of about 900,000, of which a
substantial part is sold abroad, principally in Arabic
countries. But the newspaper has subscribers in most of
the world's countries, and is often the first Arabic newspaper
that libraries in non-Arabic countries make available
in their newspaper selections.
Al-Ahram has a wide coverage of world affairs, but as
for Egyptian affairs, it is counted for expressing views
that are close to the governments own
The first Issue of
Al-Ahram was released at August 5, 1876. Thus, it is the
oldest newspaper in the Arab and Third world, and one
of the oldest papers in the world.
Al-Ahram headquarters was transferred from the old building
in Mazloum Street to the present premises at Galaa Street
on November 1st, 1968. The new building, widely acclaimed
as very modern and sophisticated, is home to one of the
most efficiently-run press houses in the world. This building
includes Al-Ahram newspaper printing press that prints
Al-Ahram daily and all other Al-Ahram publications in
addition to newspapers of other clients. It also includes
the various departments: Editorial, Al Ahram International,
Al-Ahram Hebdo, Advertisements, Pyramid Advertising Agency,
Computer Center, Distribution, Subscriptions, Export and
Import, Engineering and Projects, Personnel, Accounting,
Legal, Medical, Security, Mail, Communications, and Al-Ahram
buildings Department. Since its inception, Al-Ahram has
covered events from an Arab national perspective. Al-Ahram
has always been a forum for expressing the views and ideas
of leading Arab intellectuals and opinion-makers, and
through which they could convey the concerns and aspirations
of the great Arab nation.
"Al-Ahram Weekly is an independent English-language newspaper
issued by Al-Ahram Organisation. Since it first hit
the newsstands on Thursday 28 February, 1991, it has
rapidly established itself as the leading English-language
newspaper, not only in Egypt, but also -- as we know
from the many letters we receive from our readers --
throughout the Arab world. As we launch our electronic
edition, we hope that a new and ever larger public will
come to share their opinion -- and particularly those
readers who in the past have had difficulty obtaining
access to the print edition of our newspaper.
From the start, Al-Ahram Weekly set out to provide the
English-language reader with objective, in-depth coverage
of the Egyptian and Arab scenes: politics, economy,
culture and society. The challenge we set ourselves
was to do this from "an Egyptian perspective".
As we hope our readers will have realised over the past
years, this has never meant whitewashing or propaganda,
but rather providing as honest and objective a look
at contemporary Egyptian and Arab reality as possible
-- as seen through Egyptian and Arab eyes.
Moreover, Al-Ahram Weekly has also sought to provide,
through guest columns and in its opinion pages, an open
platform for the free expression of a wide range of
different views and analyses. We may safely claim that
no other English-language newspaper from the Arab world
provides as comprehensive and wide-ranging a picture
of the manifold ideological, political and cultural
currents which characterise the region today.
Al-Ahram Weekly is proud to have hosted in its pages
many leading international political commentators, both
Arab and non-Arab. Our regular contributors have included
Noam Chomsky, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Edward Said,
Eric Rouleau and Eqbal Ahmad. Top Egyptian political
commentators with regular columns include Ibrahim Nafie,
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed and Salama Ahmed Salama.
