[3] In 1908, Azad embarked on travels through several Muslim countries in Asia and Africa and was exposed to anti-imperial movements in Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt.
[4] Al-Hilal was named after the publication with the same title published in Egypt, pointing to the influence of Egyptian anti-imperial activists on Azad's thinking.
[4] In his writing, Azad drew from Islamic theology and the Quran in order to contextualize the Indian independence struggle for his Muslim readership.
[2] At the time, Al-Hilal's peak circulation of over 25,000 marked a record for Urdu journalism,[7] and back issues were regularly republished due to high demand.
[4] He tried again to establish a new newspaper with Paigham in 1921, but the paper was banned by December 1921 and Azad was arrested for his continued refusal to comply with the Press Act.
[1] Al-Hilal is widely considered to be a major turning point in Muslim engagement with the independence movement, inspiring a new community resistance to the British Raj.
[10]In 1921, Mufti Shaukat Ali Fehmi purchased the press that Azad had used to publish Al-Hilal to establish his own Urdu-language magazine, Din Dunia.
While the Fehmi family attempted to have the press preserved in recognition of its historical significance, they received little interest from any universities, museums, or government agencies, and it was eventually sold for scrap.