History
Okaz was established in 1960. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Saudi Arabia. John R. Bradley, in his book Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis, described it as a "downmarket newspaper ... the closest Saudi Arabia has to a yellow press."
Despite Bradley's description, Okaz was originally a cultural weekly based in the city of Hijaz. In October 1964, it began to be published as a daily paper.
Its name was used as Okadh in some scientific publications while referring to it. In fact, the paper is named referring to the popular Okaz market, which was one of the largest open markets during the pre-Islamic era in the Hijaz region. The market inspired the founders of the paper was Suq al Ukaz and specifically in Taif. The market used as a place where eminent poets of the period came together to congregate poems and hold recitation competitions.
Read more about this topic: Okaz
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)