The Pioneers

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This is a tribute to those great bloggers, who I like, admire and cannot get enough of reading their blogs.

– Zaydoun: The author of Kuwait Unplugged (formerly known as Live from Kuwait) is by all means a celebrity Arab blogger. His start was as a warblogger during the American invasion of Iraq, and that gained a him an interview by The Guardian The Daily Telegraph. When the war ended, the sarcastic “failed writer” took a break and then decided to change the interest of his blog, by focusing more on local Kuwaiti issues. His blog inspired many Kuwaitis to start blogging, helping in shaping one of the most active blogging communities of the Arab blogosphere. Recently, he began to post in Arabic every once in a while.

– Mahmood: The favorite Bahraini blogger of all times. Using the not-so-well-known Xaraya content management system, Mahmood’s Den is much more than a weblog. The website attracted a nice community around it, and Mahmood’s initiative was always a remarkable landmark in the Arab blogosphere.

– Serdal: This cool man from the UAE was behind the rise of the Arabic language blogs. He has launched various Wiki projects, and his blog is a must read for all Arab programmers and developers.

– Haitham: A Jordanian, works for MTC-Vodafone Bahrain. Sabbah’s blog is my favorite place to read interesting stories on politics of the Middle East, and the Palestinian conflict in particular. Plus, cartoons of his choice are irresistible to me. He has launched the Bahrain Blogger Meetup, and he co-hosted the first BABA awards. Little secret: he tried several times to convince Mahmood to change to Movable Type, but Mahmood is still insisting on Xaraya.

– Subzero Blue: The Tunisian man with the initials MMM was the only Arab blogger to be nominated for the Bloggies 2005 awards for the category “Best African or Middle East Blog” and because he is based in Jordan, I think he fits perfectly for this award. The only drawback with his blog, imho, is that most of the link open in a new window, which is really disturbing to me. And btw, Sabbah’s blog have the same thing.

4 thoughts on “The Pioneers”

  1. Thank you for the very kind words Ahmed :)

    I’m honoured to be on your list. I’m very happy you enjoy my blog “Subzero Blue”.

    Oh and btw, I used to live in Jordan, but now I’m at home in Tunisia.

    As for the drawback you mentioned. I understand what you mean. It was a choice that I made, I just thought it was logical to open external links in new windows like most other people do.
    Anyway, I can see how that can be a bit annoying.

    Thanks again :)

  2. Hi there Ahmad,
    I’m Eman, MMM’s wife :) got introduced to your blog through him, and I really like it.
    Keep up the good work, and I agree with you, the blogs you mentioned are pioneers :)

  3. Ahmed.. thank you so much for the kind words and ace review. But seriously you give me way too much credit..

    Just one minor correction though, the interview was with The Daily Telegraph, which is not a paper I like to be associated with, but hey it was free publicity!

    Thanks again!!

  4. If you are blogging from Saudi, I’d recommend you read the blog of the Religious Policeman. http://muttawa.blogspot.com
    He has been stopped from actively blogging, but his posts are still available on the Internet.
    Be very careful what you publish. Your posts are also being read by those who do not support freedom of speech.

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