INTRODUCTION
“I left New Orleans [in 1907] for New York by way of Washington, D.C., to print my book, al-Safar al-Mufid fi al-’alam al-jadid [Dr. Abdou’s Travels in America].” (p. 650)
Dr. Nagib Abdou (1874–1942) wrote this brief announcement towards the end of a long essay that was part of the first ever directory of "Syrian" immigrants throughout the world, and which he published in 1907. Hidden amongst his detailed accounts of prolonged travels, as well as his ruminations on cities, peoples, journeys, science and medicine, architecture and geographies, this brief sentence reads almost as an afterthought; an unremarkable last step to produce a remarkable book.
Map showing distribution of Arab immigrant businesses and workers. Click on the image to go to an interactive map that you can explore.
The 676 pages of al-Safar al-Mufid (Dr. Abdou’s Travels) (rendered mainly in Arabic but also English and some Spanish) contain an encyclopedic amount of information. On one hand, it was an unprecedented directory of thousands of “Syrian” business owners and workers across the world. But it was also a guidebook for present and future immigrants to help them navigate state bureaucracies and commercial transactions in a variety of countries. Additionally, in his two extensive travel essays, Abdou mapped the world for his readers with images, maps, and texts, and he provided detailed information about each of the countries (and sometimes their states/provinces) and their peoples. He supplemented this with indices of all Arabic language newspapers published in the world, consular offices across the globe, advertisements, brief histories of some countries, and biographies of “prominent” individuals or families. In short, it was a remarkable undertaking in its scope and depth.
We have launched this project to make this rich source of information on early Arab immigrants accessible. We have digitized the entries as they appeared in al-Safar al-Mufid (Dr. Abdou’s Travels) and mapped all 7,337 names of businesses and their owners across the world. We have also created a searchable database and provided various visualizations of that information. Finally, we have written short essays about Abdou and his directory. (You can access and search the book itself at www.arabicsearch.org)
We also see this project as an organic and ever-growing one. At the most basic level we invite you to share with us stories, images, names, and dates of people who were immigrants in 1907 and whose information did not make it into the directory, or you find the information incomplete. You can use this form to do so.
At another level, we welcome your comments and suggestions for ways that we might be able to improve this project. You may contact us by going here.
As always we are grateful for your support and help in spreading the word about this project and other Khayrallah Center projects. Thank you!
Navigation and Orientation of Website
We invite you to explore the world of Nagib Abdou and over 7,000 of his "Syrian" contemporaries.
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Use the navigation menu at the top of the webpage to go various parts of the website and engage with the directory through different avenues.
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“Home” offers an introduction to this project and a comprehensive map displaying the directory’s thousands of entries.
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“Biography” tells the story Dr. Nagib Abdou, seeking to answer questions about who he was and why he chose to write and compile entries for al-Safar al-Mufid (Dr. Abdou’s Travels)
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“Database” enables you to digitally search the directory’s thousands of entries and learn more about the lives and work of included individuals. Please note that we digitized the entries as published and that not every record will have data for each criteria.
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“Visualizations” contains two maps and an interactive dashboard that draws from the directory’s listings. The maps note the listed locations of the directory's listed business owners as well as the origins of select individuals. The dashboard displays dynamic data that reveal patterns regarding business types, origins, and the genders of the business owners.
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“Newspapers” share a listing of the 103 Arabic-language newspapers published in the Middle East and North African region and beyond.
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"Your Story" is where you can provide us with additional information about someone who was not included in the directory, or whose entry you can enhance.
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Finally, the "Contact" on the navigation menu will provide you with various means through which you can reach us.
Credits and Bibliography
We would like to thank Sydney Alston and Tanmai Vemulapalli (graduate students in the Public History graduate program at NC State), Evan Martin and Sarah Spurrier (undergraduate students in the Arabic Studies program at NC State), for their invaluable work in researching and digitizing al-Safar al-Mufid (Dr. Abdou’s Travels). We would also like to thank NC State University Libraries' Data & Visualization Services for their guidance.