Ali Sayyar
{{Short description|Bahraini newspaper founder and journalist (1926–2019)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1926
| birth_place =
| death_date = October {{death year and age|2019|1926}}
| death_place =
| nationality = Bahraini
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist
| years_active = 1950–2019
| known_for = Founder of Al Qafilah, and Sada Al Osbou
| notable_works = }}
Ali Sayyar (1926–October 2019) was a veteran Bahraini journalist who founded and edited a newspaper, Al Qafilah, and a magazine, Sada Al Osbou.{{cite news|title=Veteran Bahraini journalist Ali Sayyar mourned|url=http://www.gdnlife.com/Home/ArticleDetail?ArticleId=20387&category=10|access-date=23 April 2021|work=GDN Life|date=9 October 2019}} He was one of the founding fathers of the Bahraini press.{{cite news|title=GCC Press federation honors Bahraini pioneering journalists|access-date=23 April 2021
|work=KUNA|url=https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticlePrintPage.aspx?id=2058684&language=en|date=1 February 2010|location=Manama}}
Early life and education
Sayyar was born in 1926 in Bahrain.{{cite book|title=Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008|page=722|year=2011|publisher=Publitec
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHCQBAFMwawC&pg=PA722|isbn=978-3-11-093004-7|location=Beirut}} His father was Abdullah Sayar. Ali Sayyar graduated from technical schools in Manama and in Cairo.
Career
Before involving in journalism Sayyar worked in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He started his career in journalism in 1950 contributing to the first issue of Sawt al-Bahrain which was a monthly political magazine. In his early writings in Sawt al-Bahrain he supported the members of the Free Officers in Egypt.{{cite thesis|author=Hamad Ebrahim Abdulla|title=Sir Charles Belgrave and the Rise and Fall of Bahrain's National Union Committee|year=2016|location=University of East Anglia
|degree=PhD|url=https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.699591}} Next he founded and served as the editor-in-chief of Al Qafilah (Arabic: The Caravan), its successor Al Watan (Arabic: The Homeland) and Sada Al Osbou magazine (1969–1999). Sayyar opposed the politics of Gamal Abdul Nasser in his articles in Al Watan. In 1956 he joined the High Executive Committee (Arabic: al-Hay'a al-Tanfidhiyya al-Uliya) which was a cross-sectarian nationalist political movement in Bahrain.{{cite journal|author=Toby Matthiesen|title=Migration, Minorities, and Radical Networks: Labour Movements and Opposition Groups in Saudi Arabia, 1950–1975|journal=International Review of Social History|year=2014|volume=59|issue=3|pages=473–504|doi=10.1017/S0020859014000455|doi-access=free}} The same year he began to work at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor in Kuwait. After working there for one year he involved in business and held various positions in Bahraini companies until 1969. In 1973 he became a member of the Constituent Council in Bahrain. The council was established by Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the ruler of Bahrain, to review the proposals about the constitution.{{cite book|title=United States Arms Policies in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea Areas: Past, Present, and Future: Report of a Staff Survey Mission to Ethiopia, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAPzOu7CN74C&pg=PA98|year=1977|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=98
|location=Washington, DC}}
Later he worked for Akhbar Al Khaleej, a Bahraini newspaper, as a columnist.{{cite news|title=Journalist Mourned
|url=https://www.newsofbahrain.com/bahrain/57506.html|access-date=23 April 2021|work=News of Bahrain|date=10 October 2019}} Sayyar was the honorary member of the Bahraini Journalists Association.{{cite web|title=BJA honors renowned journalist Sayyar|date=19 December 2012|publisher=Bahraini Journalists Association|url=http://www.bahrainijournalists.org/Media_Center/BJA_News/p2_articleid/151|access-date=23 April 2021|archive-date=23 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423114054/http://www.bahrainijournalists.org/Media_Center/BJA_News/p2_articleid/151|url-status=dead}}
Death and legacy
Sayyar died in October 2019. His biography was published by the Ministry of Information. In 2020 a book entitled Ali Sayyar in the Memory of the Nation was published by journalist Kamal Dhib.{{cite web|title=Tribute to be paid to towering media figure|work=Bahrain News Agency|access-date=23 April 2021|date=2 February 2020
|url=https://www.bna.bh/en/HRHPremierissuesEdicts34and35/HMKingissuesdecree46/Tributetobepaidtotoweringmediafigure.aspx?cms=q8FmFJgiscL2fwIzON1%2BDtcAZTJAYi3xJsch%2FcSn33Y%3D}}
References
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Category:20th-century Bahraini politicians
Category:20th-century journalists
Category:20th-century newspaper founders
Category:21st-century journalists