Zajal in the Journal
زجل في جريدة
Lebanese Poetry : Book No. 14
Author : Youssef Bchara EL-Bahout
Study and Presentation: Joseph Abi Daher
Year : 2014
ISBN: 978-9953-562-18-0
During its long history, the Lebanese zajal went through many development phases due to changes in popular social life and the spread of general culture in big cities. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the zajal was a means to document events, to converse with God, Saints, pious people and hermits, and for expressing anger towards anyone who violates the teachings and the commandments of the church. The zajal reached the most important phase of its development in the early 1930s, as Chahrour El Wadi and Assaad El-Khoury El-Feghaly founded the zajal band along with friends, and some zajal printed compositions and recordings began to spread. This development did not last more than ten years and culminated in the launching of the first weekly zajal magazine entitled “The Lebanese Zajal”, issued by Youssef Bechara El-Bahout in collaboration with Khalil Ayoub el-Hetti, and under the supervision of Rachid Nakhle. It was said that this magazine was considered a failure, yet El-Bahout managed to found a new phase in the development of zajal, and the following decade witnessed the release of some twenty magazines and journals dedicated to this popular art, opening up access of zajal to all parts of Lebanon and to expatriates.