Thursday, August 18, 2011

Open Access Journal: Têgeyştinî Rastî [1918-1919]


"The complete run (66 issues) of the Kurdish newspaper Têgeyştinî Rastî (Understanding the truth) [1918-1919] is now available in full text and for free on the World Digital Library's website at:
http://www.wdl.org/en/search/gallery?ql=eng&i=wdl_inla&ty=Newspapers

Digitized by the staff of the Iraq National Library and Archives, Têgeyştinî Rastî is the first Kurdish-language content to appear on the World Digital Library, representing one of several "at-risk" newspapers digitally preserved for the benefit of current and future generations of scholars. From the Description: "Têgeyştinî Rastî (Understanding the truth) was a semiweekly newspaper published by the command of the British army in Iraq in 1918-19... The paper’s headquarters was in Baghdad, on present-day Nahr Street, in the same building as the Jareedet Al-Arab newspaper. The paper’s masthead contained no mention of the names of the owners, editor-in-chief, or editorial board, and articles were not published under bylines. It is known, however, that a Major Soane was the editor-in-chief, and that he prepared the entire paper for publication... The paper took a hostile stance toward the October Revolution in Russia; tried to appeal to tribal leaders, elders, and other leaders with influence in the Kurdish community; and depicted the British army as a liberator of the Kurds from Ottoman control. It promoted Kurdish literature and the poetry of Al-Haj Qadir Al-Koobi and Nali Rimhawi Ka, and it was the first Kurdish paper to write about the history and origins of the Kurdish people."

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries and the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)."
For general information about WDL, please see: http://www.wdl.org/en/about/

See the Alphabetical List of Open Access Journals in Middle Eastern Studies

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