The very short-lived Eastern and Western Review launched itself into highly competitive waters and sank without much trace – a lifebuoy or two – after a few issues, in 1892/3.
Theodore Bent published a long article with them, divided over two issues, in 1892. For availability, see at the end of this page.
Here is the journal’s initial editorial puff:
“The Eastern and Western Review. The Best Sixpenny Monthly. Diversified–Interesting–Amusing–Instructive”
“The Eastern and Western Review, whilst supplying high-class matter, endeavours to present it in a popular style: it is, in short, instructive, but not dictatorial; interesting, but not heavy; amusing, but not vulgar.
“It contains articles of national and international importance by well-known writers; History of the Churches, Eastern Affairs and Western Reviewers, History of the Nineteenth Century, Sketches of Travel, Political Events and Continental Opinions, Serial Fiction, Short Stories, Reviews, Jottings, Notes of the Month, and Religious, Literary, Scientific, Military, Naval, and Financial Notes. In fact, the public will find in the REVIEW all they expect in any other monthly, with the addition of special and novel features. One of its objects is to make the East and Eastern Affairs more widely and better known in this country. An intelligent view of Foreign Politics, of which Eastern Affairs really form the keystone, is of vital importance to every inhabitant of Great and Greater Britain.
“To British Manufacturers and other large Advertisers the REVIEW offers exceptional advantages, inasmuch as it will enable them to bring their goods under the notice of an influential class of readers in India, Egypt, Syria, and other Oriental countries, who cannot be reached through the medium of ordinary publications.”
About the editor: Habib Anthony Salmoné (1860–1904):
“Born at Beyrout, Sep. 1, 1860 : son of a naturalized British subject and distinguished scholar : member of the R.A.S., 1884 : wrote On the Importance to Great Britain of the Study of Arabic : Lecturer on Arabic at University College, London : published, 1890, an Arabic-English lexicon, Honorary Professor of Arabic at King’s College : travelled through Turkey, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, India, 1891–2 : founded in 1892 the Eastern and Western Review, in Arabic and English, of Oriental and Imperial affairs, but it came to an end in 2 years : engaged in journalism : brought out The Imperial Souvenir, a metrical translation of part of the National Anthem into 50 of the languages spoken in the British Empire : died Oct. 1904.” (Wikipedia)
The British Library offers a little more:
“Habib Anthony Salmoné published what was described by A.G. Ellis (who catalogued the Arabic books now at the British Library in his Catalogue of Arabic books in the British Museum) as ‘a monthly magazine of politics, literature, and science’. Salmoné chose at first to publish two editions simultaneously; one in Arabic called Ḍiyāʾ al-khāfiqayn, and one in English called ‘The Eastern and Western Review.’ According to Ellis, however, the Arabic edition appeared to stop after the second number.” (From the ‘Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library’, a digital archive, via Gale)
Bent’s lengthy article for the journal was published in two parts:
‘The Two Capitals of Armenia: I – The Patriarch of Sis’. The Eastern and Western Review, Vol. 1(4), May 1892, pp. 137-140.
‘The Two Capitals of Armenia: II – The Patriarchate of Etchmiazin’. The Eastern and Western Review, Vol. 2(1), June 1892, pp. 6-13.
His text was based on two tours to the region, north, via the Turkish port of Mersin in 1890; and during the last leg of the couple’s remarkable ride, south–north, through Persia in 1889.
Theodore Bent referenced some of the material from the two parts of the article in three other papers:
1896 ‘Travels amongst the Armenians’. The Contemporary Review, Vol. 70 (Jul/Dec), 695-709.
Mabel Bent covers the ground in her published Chronicles:
The Travel Chronicles of Mabel Bent, Vol. 1, Oxford, 2006, pp. 269ff
The Travel Chronicles of Mabel Bent, Vol. 3, Oxford, 2010, pp. 118ff
Contact us for more information on the content of Bent’s article. It is not currently available online, only in the UK from the British Library or, presumably, the six legal deposit libraries.
Leave a comment or contact us about this article