ABSTRACT
It is well known that the early Arabic newspapers, particularly those published by émigrés, could not bear their own weight financially. They were subsidized, usually in a secret way, by interested parties. Sabunji's first employment in Blunt's service was not as a journalist, but as a tutor in Arabic to his wife, Lady Anne Blunt, in 1880. In this capacity, Sabunji did more than instruct Lady Anne in the intricacies of the language. Judith Lady Wentworth, in her embittered portrait of her father, averred that Blunt squandered a great part of her mother's fortune "in subsidies to the charlatans who besieged his door". In addition to providing services of questionable value, Sabunji also sought outright subsidies from Blunt for his Arabic newspapers. Sabunji's last mission in Blunt's service was to accompany Blunt on a visit to Egypt and Ceylon, beginning in September 1883.
