A bi-monthly handwritten Arabic magazine, self-described as “critical scientific literary comic paper”. Edited by Philip Birbary B.A. 1910. and Taufik Kurban B.A. 1910 (for the 2nd year of the magazine), and by Aboud Nasrallah B.A. 1912; and Tawfik Kandalaft B.A. 1912, M.D. 1916 (for the third year of the magazine). It discusses literary articles, and features poetry by prominent students, e.g. Ali Salam, B.A. 1910. It also covers YMCA student elections and athletic news, features some jokes, commercial advertisements, as well as descriptions of student life employment prospects and travels.
The first issue of al Thamarah, issued by Thamarat al Este’dadiyah Society, appeared on February 6th, 1914. The editors of the first volume were Mohamad Salam, Mahmoud Hamdi, Nicholas Bshara and Antonios Hayli. The board of editors changed with every volume, counting among the editing members important figures, e.g. Mr. Omar el Yafi (1915-1916), Muhyeddine Halawani (1916-1917 and 1918- 1919), Matta Akrawi (1919-1920), Abdallah Mashnouk (1918-1919) and Anis Nsouli (1918-1919) (the latter two went on to publish and edit the newspaper Beirut Al Masa).
The library holds five volumes, each one covering an academic year. Al-thamarah discussed student life after the decline of the Ottoman Empire; covered visits of prominent personalities to the Syrian Protestant College, e.g. Prince Faysal and General Allenby, and contained many illustrations by Omar El Onsi ( see issues of 1918 and 1919). Featured here is a portrait Prince Faysal by Onsi.
The editing committee included Mr. Omar Farroukh as well as Mr. Camille Khattar (B.B.A. 1929; artist and founder of the ABC stores). The library holds a single bound volume. Interestingly, the only date is mentioned in this review: Wednesday April 11th, 1927 when the Islamic Scouts made a journey that started from Nabatiyeh through many villages to end in Damascus, then back to Beirut by train on Sunday April 15th, 1927.
