Hafiz Ibrahim, a modern classical Egyptian poet of the 19th and early 20th centuries, was nicknamed the Poet of Nile and the People’s Poet. Neoclassical poets used the classical Arabic system of meter and rhyme to express unfamiliar ‒ to classical poetry ‒ themes, such as patriotism, anti-colonialism and social injustices, to varying extents.

This painting by two Austrian artists is supposed to demonstrate certain aspects of the daily life of Ottoman women. As the text explains, unable to go outside the women were entertaining themselves inside, with music and dance.

Nasif al-Yaziji (1800–71), father of the translator of the Bible, Ibrahim al-Yaziji, was a leading figure of al-Nahda. Al-Yaziji moved to Beirut in 1840 to teach Arabic; in 1847 he became a government corrector of the first translation of the Bible into Arabic (initiated by Smith, al-Bustani and Van Dyck). In the same year, along with al-Bustani, he founded the first literary society in the Arab world, the Syrian Association for the Sciences and Arts.

Shadow plays were popular among Arab and Ottoman audiences. The performances retold epics from popular folk literature.

Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha (c.1769‒1848) was the founder of modern Egypt. His reign marks a period of rapid and sometimes cruel reform and modernisation of the military, administrative and educational systems; his economic reforms in general and agricultural reforms in particular were especially hard on the Egyptian people.

Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1804‒87) was born to a Maronite family in Lebanon. During the early part of his career, collaborating with Dr Samuel Lee to translate the Bible into Arabic, he worked in Egypt, Malta and London. In 1855, al-Shidyaq moved to Tunis to become editor of Al-Rai’d al-Tunisi, the country’s national newspaper. He then left to go to Istanbul to take up a post as corrector of the Government Press, where he also launched his weekly Arabic-language magazine Al-Jawa’ib.

Sultan Mahmud II (1785‒1839) introduced a series of reforms that began in 1839. The reforms, which encouraged Ottoman patriotism through integration of non-Muslims and non-Turkish ethnic groups into Ottoman society, aimed to prevent the slow decline of the empire. His reforms included changes to the education system and civil liberties, and the establishment of state-run postal and telegraph services, newspapers and railways.

Butrus al-Bustani (1819‒93), educator and activist, was one of the pre-eminent figures of al-Nahda (the Awakening), the Arabic renaissance that was centred in Lebanon during the mid-19th century. A central member of the team (including the Americans Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck), al-Bustani worked on the first Arabic translation of the Bible. He also founded the National School (madrasa al-wataniyya) in Syria in 1863 on secular principles. In the late 19th century he was responsible for the creation of the first modern Arabic encyclopaedia.

Tales from the Arabian Nights fuelled the European public’s imagination and hunger for the “exoticism of the East”. Arabian Nights was so popular in Europe that theatre performances and ballets were based on it; the story of Aladdin is one of the best-known.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769‒1821), from a young military leader in 1793, rose to become the First Consul in 1800 and Emperor of France in 1804. Under his direction, economic, legal and educational reforms were initiated and the Napoleonic Code was established. His invasion of Egypt (1798‒1801) had long-term consequences.

Husayn Bayham was a Lebanese journalist and founder of Najm al-‘Ulum, one of the Arab world’s first scientific journals. Bayham was also one of the founders of the Syrian Scientific Association in 1857 in collaboration with Ibrahim al-Yaziji, Butros al-Bustani and Muhammad Arsalan.

Khalil al-Khury was manager of al-Wilayet Press, Syria’s printing press. He was also chief editor of Syria’s official Gazette.

When Arabian Nights was first translated for a European public in the 18th century it made a huge impact. The Calcutta I (Shirwanee) and Bulaq (Cairo) editions are among the earliest, and the most popular translations are those by A. Galland, R. F. Burton and J. C. Mardrus.

Qasim al-Kusty was a poet and a dramatist.

Ibrahim al-Yaziji (1847–1906) was a linguist, poet and journalist born in Beirut. While the second of his translations of the Bible to Arabic (1876‒80), and its subsequent publication, brought him fame and he was editor of several newspapers and magazines, including Najah, Tabib and al-Dhiya’, he made his biggest contribution to Arabic publishing by simplifying the character forms and symbols of Arabic from 300 to 60.