Lisan al Hal

Lisan al Hal or Lissan ul Hal (in Arabic لسان الحال) was a Lebanese Arabic language daily newspaper established by Khalil Sarkis in 1877^[1][2] and is the oldest Lebanese publication still published in Lebanon.^[3]

History

Khalil Khattar Sarkis (born in Abey, Lebanon) had established his own printing house called Al Adabiyya (in Arabic المطبعة الأدبية) through which he printed his newspaper and the magazine Al Mishkat^[1] (in Arabic المشكاة). The paper was published twice per week for a long time until the 1900s.^[4] One of the early editors of the paper was Salim Sarkis.^[5] Khalil Khattar Sarkis continued as editor until his death when in the 1910s, his son Ramez Khalil Sarkis took over the task until 1941 when he was elected as a Lebanese Member of Parliament from Beirut and was assigned as minister of education. During the Ottoman era, the paper was censored several times.^[5]

After his election and starting 1942, editing of Lisan al Hal was continued by his son Khalil Ramez Sarkis who was also a literary figure and had a series of literary works published. After Khalil Ramez Sarkis, editing and publishing was taken over by Gebran Hayek.^[6][7] Bishop George Khodr wrote for the daily in his column called Hadith al Ahad (The Sunday Talk) from 11 March 1962 to 25 January 1970.^[8] The newspaper stopped publication during the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s.

The daily was disestablished in 1999.^[9] The circulation of the paper just before its closing was 33,000.^[10] The name and the licence of the paper was acquired by the Lebanese National Congress that resumed its publication as a weekly newspaper.^[3]

References