[3] Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi (1892–1955) was the founder of the magazine.

[2] He was also the publisher of the first 25 issues and founded simultaneously the "Apollo Poet Society"[4] which was dedicated to the renewal of Arab poetry and the disposal of traditional conventions.

[5] Abu Shadi was not only a poet and author of numerous papers on politics, social reform, Islam and art but also a translator of some works by Hafez, Omar Khayyam and Shakespeare.

[7] After working as a publisher he went to the University of Alexandria to teach medicine and finally emigrated to New York in 1946.

[8] In 1957 another magazine entitled Shi'r was established in Beirut, Lebanon, by the Shi'r movement which was significantly affected by the poetic approach of the Apollo Poet Society and Apollo.