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Majid (comics)

pan-Arab comic book anthology

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ6737813
Source-derived summary

Majid (Arabic: ماجد) is a pan-Arab comic book anthology and children's magazine published in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by the Abu Dhabi Media Network. Since its publication in 1979, it has been circulated region-wide, within and beyond Arab states of the Persian Gulf, breaking sales' records with a circulation of 176500 weekly copies at one point in time, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Many regarded Majid as a representation of the Arab comic golden age. It is held in high regard along with the Egyptian comic Samir, and its Saudi counterpart Basim.

History and development

Majid is issued by the Abu Dhabi Media Company; a governmental institution of the United Arab Emirates, and was first managed by the Egyptian journalist and bibliophile Ahmad Omar. Majid started as a supplement of Al-Ittihad newspaper, distributing 5000 copies along with the first issue of the paper, before branching into its own publication. Its title (which also refers to the titular mascot usually displayed besides the nameplate, an 11-year-old boy donning the Emirati headwear) is reportedly an homage to the historic Arab sailor Ahmad Ibn Majid, a local of the Emirate of Jilfar. Other "early" attempts at names were (Hamdan), another popular Emirati name, and (Dana)

Majid has been in circulation and has been released every Wednesday on a weekly basis since 28 February 1979 until the end of 2019. It switched to a monthly release format in 2022, possibly in relation to the decrease of "hardcopy" consumption since the 1970s, the technological media alternatives, the financial and promotional difficulties, and the general decline of interest in children magazine within the Arab world

In 2009, Majid magazine launched its official website, featuring character profiles, songs, and integrated videos from their television channel. The magazine ventured into television production with the launch of its television station in 2015, managed by the Emirate director and self-proclaimed lifelong reader of the magazine, Mariam Al Sirkal.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Majid (comics)” is pan-Arab comic book anthology. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Majid, comics and pan-Arab, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 2019, 2022, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1979-01-01. For this dossier, Majid, comics and pan-Arab is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “pan-Arab comic book anthology” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6737813. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 2019, 2022 and 2009.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Majid (comics)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Majid (comics) primary sources, Majid (comics) archive and Majid research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Majid (comics)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Majid (comics)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.