Arab journalism: its origins and development

Today, the press in the Arab countries has reached a great level of progress, spread, and influence on public opinion. The author saw that it was his duty - the writer and researcher - to compile an extensive study about it, to meet the Arab library's need for such a scientific study in which accuracy, presentation, investigation, and comprehensiveness were sought as much as possible. The press represents the "fourth authority" in the state (the authority of public opinion) after the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities, which is the greatest evidence of its great stature, the depth of its influence among the people, and the intensity of its influence on societies. Moreover, it is one of the most comprehensive cultural arts, the easiest to express, the closest to the minds and feelings of readers, and the most widespread, to the point that today it has become an urgent need for almost every individual who accepts it just as he accepts food and medicine!
It is surprising that the reader knows only a scant amount of information about how the newspaper was prepared and the long, arduous stages that each of its letters went through, or about the historical phases that journalism passed through in the Arab world until it reached the prosperity it has achieved today.