Al-Ahramnewspaper may now be some 140 years old, but the man who first created it, a schoolteacher from Mount Lebanon, was only 26 when he approached the Egyptian government for a newspaper license in 1875. At first it was a family business, run initially by Selim Takla and then by his brother Bishara, also a schoolteacher. The two brothers' wives and children also took turns helping to run this newspaper which eventually helped define the course of Egyptian and Arab journalism. However, the story of the two brothers is not widely known, even to people who work in Al-Ahram Establishment. This should now change as a result of the newspaper's decision to set aside a section of its museum for memorabilia of the Taklas. Hisham Nasr, Al-Ahrammuseum's chief curator, said that the idea of bringing the family's belongings to public view had come up during a routine inventory of the newspaper's art collection. “We discovered a collection of old furniture belonging to the founders of Al-Ahram, Selim Bek and Bishara Pasha Takla. Overwhelmed by the beauty and refinement of these old pieces, we decided to put them on display,” he said. The exhibits, now on display in Al-Ahram building in Cairo, bring back memories of the fascinating time in which the newspaper was founded, during which the Khedive Ismail sought to reinvent Cairo in particular with a massive dose of borrowed funds and western-style city-planning. Visitors to the museum today can gain insights not only into the life of the Takla family, but also into the lifestyles and technology of the period. Many of the hand-made pieces are inlaid with mother of pearl and fashioned either in the French tradition or in the Islamic revival style of the time. Now collector's items, they were once de rigueur in the offices and houses of the class into which these two aspiring young men had won entry. The elder of the two brothers, Selim Bek, was born in the village of Kafr Shima in Mount Lebanon in 1849. At the age of 12, his father sent him to Beirut to study with the famous teacher Boutrous Al-Bostani and he then himself got a job as an Arabic teacher in the city's Patriarchal School. Selim was still in his early twenties when he wrote a much-acclaimed grammar book called Madkhal Al-Tollab, or “The Seekers' Gateway.” What impelled the young Selim to seek his fortune in Egypt was the expansion schemes on which the khedive Ismail had then embarked. Cairo was booming, and Selim decided it needed a good newspaper. As soon as he arrived in Egypt, he petitioned the government for the license necessary to set up a newspaper and printing house. The khedive consented, but only if the newspaper steered clear of politics, a condition to which Selim consented. The newspaper, which he named Al-Ahram, was first housed in the Al-Anfoushi area of Alexandria. Operating by a license issued on 25 December 1875, Al-Ahram published its first issue on 5 August 1876. The new publication included only four pages, appeared only once a month, but was revolutionary in many ways. Not only did it dispense with the flowery language that other publications were using at the time, but its layout, introducing the concept of newspaper columns to the local press, gave it a fashionable edge that resonated with Alexandria's elite. Before long, the newspaper was also appearing in French in order to cater to the large foreign community that ran government and business at the time. Selim Bek thus stepped into the limelight of Egyptian society, and the energetic former schoolteacher found local politics too tempting to resist. Running a couple of political articles against his better judgment and previous promises to the khedive were enough to land him in prison. He had to promise never to do it again before he was released. Once allowed to resume the publication of his newspaper, Selim had to tread a narrow line — the government was watching him but this didn't stop him from taking chances once in a while. In this line of business, opinion was what the readers sought — and often enough it went beyond the lines approved of by the government. Thankfully, the government of Ismail Pasha, eager to maintain a westernised outlook, turned a blind eye to the occasional audacity of the Alexandria-based paper. A year into the new business, Selim brought his younger brother Bishara in to help him, and the two brothers, already successful businessmen, soon turned out to be talented journalists as well. Selim Takla was one of the first Arab journalists to make regular trips to Europe to report on current events. He also met major international figures including the Ottoman Sultan Abdel-Hamid II. Born in 1852, Bishara Takla had tried his hand at teaching before coming to Alexandria to help run Al-Ahram. The series of interviews he conducted with key political figures in Europe around 1884 is perhaps the first example of this genre in Arab journalism. After Selim's death in 1892, Bishara continued to run Al-Ahram, eventually turning it into an eight-page daily. Bishara, who was granted the title pasha in recognition of his contributions to Egyptian journalism, married a Syrian woman named Betsy Naome who came from a successful family of bankers and also had a keen eye for business. Before long, Betsy too got involved in Al-Ahram and continued to run it when Bishara passed away in 1901. It was Betsy who brought Al-Ahram from Alexandria to its new offices on Mazloum Street in Cairo, since the capital was beginning to replace Alexandria as the cultural hub of the country by the early twentieth century. Betsy's son Gibrail was not a journalist or an editor, but he understood the business side of journalism and was able to take Al-Ahram into further expansion. Under his guidance, the newspaper acquired a new printing house and larger offices, boasted 22 distribution centres, and was sold all over the region from Istanbul to Libya. Al-Ahramwas distributed in Egypt by night trains so it could hit the stands throughout the country for the enjoyment of the reading public first thing in the morning. Gibrail was the dynamo who ensured that Al-Ahram was the most successful newspaper of the time. According to one contemporary, “Al-Ahram is ten years ahead of other papers, and Takla Pasha is a hundred years ahead of Al-Ahram.” Another woman then came into the life of the Al-Ahram Foundation. Renée, married to Gibrail, started helping her husband on the paper, and when he died it was her turn to take charge. Her two children, Bishara and Nada, also turned out to be competent administrators of Al-Ahram Establishment. After the 1952 Revolution, the state took over the ownership and management of Al-Ahram. While the paper remained one of the top newspapers in the country, its status as Egypt's most influential publication was not fully regained until Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, a close associate of president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, took over. Heikal did much to put Al-Ahram at the centre of Egyptian cultural life, and he was the one who masterminded the newspaper's art collection which has grown exponentially since then. Today's Takla exhibition brings to light the decades of entrepreneurship that gave Al-Ahram such an edge in the world of Arab journalism. The punctuality of the Takla family is attested to by two punch clocks for the employees, for example, one of particular interest due to its Arabesque inlay. At the time that this clock was in operation, nearly 150 people punched in to the newspaper every day, including writers and other workers. There is also a calculator in the exhibition complete with a ribbon to log additions that now stands on what used to be the desk of Selim Bek. The office furniture varies in style between French and arabesque, and the largest piece is a conference table 2.5 metres long. Some personal pieces have also been found, including the glasses and a marble bust of Bishara Pasha. The permanent exhibition of the Takla collection is situated in the entrance area of Al-Ahram's Fine Arts Hall. Attending the opening ceremony were former Al-Ahram editor-in-chief Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, current Editor Mohamed Abdel-Hadi, and current Board Chairman Ahmed Al-Naggar. At one point in the ceremony, Heikal sat at the desk once used by Selim Bek and leafed through what must have been a dream come true for this grammarian originally from Mount Lebanon: a copy of the first ever edition of Al-Ahram dated 5 August 1876.