May Ziadeh - Palestinian Writer and Poet
May Ziadeh was a prominent Palestinian female writer, poet and feminist in the early 20th century. Born in Nazareth in 1886 to a Palestinian mother and a Lebanese father, they lived in Palestine till 1908, then immigrated to Egypt where she stayed most of her life.
Being the daughter of Elias Ziadeh, the founder and editor of the newspaper Al-Mahrusah in Egypt at the time, she too was able to publish her works in many different magazines and literary contexts including Al Hilal and Al Ahram , writing in both Arabic and French mainly and only a few of her works in English.
Her first volume of poetry was Fleurs de rêve published in 1911 under the pen name of Isis Copia. She later wrote several essays and novels and translated several European authors into Arabic like Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Max Muller the German scholar founding the western discipline of Indian spiritual studies and the science of religion.
Since 1912, she was corresponding with Gibran Khalil Gibran the famous writer and poet, introducing his works in the Middle East and forming this long delicate relationship with letters only, never seeing him in person, embodying the essence of connection on a deeper level and the “search for God in the heart of the other “ as quoted by Aslani & Amerian, 2019 ( source reference).
In this reel curated by Joe Challita, it was referred to be the longest and most romantic relationship in modern Arab history lasting 20 years.
In Kahlil Gibran; Man and Poet book, the authors Bushrui & Jenkins wrote:
“Gibran’s relationship with May Ziadeh differed in many respects. It is impossible to define such a love, though it included spiritual and platonic elements”.
What Ziadeh was most famous for, was her passion and persistent movement to empowering women out of their victim mode inorder to instil change starting within themselves and also voicing out the need for women’s active role in society, being that in work, education, voting and most prominently, an acclaimed thinker, philosopher and writer in their own right amidst a very dominant masculine world.
Ziadeh was quoted to say in a lecture called “The Purpose of Life“ :
“Qasim Amin shouted at the people to guide them. Nevertheless, he knew that the liberation of women is in their hands more than in the hands of men.” (source reference)
She was the first to use the term “feminism cause”.
Instead of complaining or rebelling, she presented her own books and also translated artworks of other feminine writers, Bâhithat el-Bâdiya (Seeker in the Desert), Sawâneh fatât (Platters of Crumbs), Al-Musâwât (Equality) are an example of many others.
Ziadeh was very well known for holding her “Tuesday Salon”, one of the most important Arab literary salons in the 1910s and the 1920s where renown Arab intellectuals both male and female were frequently attending, like Taha Hussein, Abbas el -Akkad and Khalil Moutrane.
May Ziadeh was mostly misunderstood and underestimated in her time , and clearly her criticism was strikingly astounding that when going back to Lebanon in 1931, she was instituted in a mental hospital, accusing her of attaining a mental illness and being severely depressed. Once she came out, she came back to Cairo only to die in 1941 apparently heart broken.
May Ziadeh left a wish in her diary:
“After my death, I hope that someone will do me justice and find the sincerity and honesty contained in my small writings.”
Here are a few of her quotes which give her the justice she needs as you can see it was ahead of her time and still very much so as it applies to our present times, wholeheartedly.
