May Ziadeh
May Ziadeh (born Marie Ziadeh) was born on February 11, 1886, in Nazareth to a Lebanese father, Elias Ziadeh, and a Palestinian mother named Nuzha Muʿammar. Ziadeh had a brother who died in 1891 at the age of two. She completed her primary education at Sisters of St. Joseph in Nazareth, where she learned French, Italian, and music, before continuing her education at Collège des Soeurs de la Visitation in Aintoura in the Kesrouan province in Lebanon. It was around this time that Ziadeh began writing poetry, drawing inspiration from the French Romantics. In 1907, she left Nazareth for Cairo with her family, a move that inspired her and resulted in her aligning with the nahda (“the Renaissance” in Arabic), an intellectual revival that began in the nineteenth century.
While in Cairo, Ziadeh worked as a French teacher and gave lessons to the daughters of Idris Bey Ragheb, who owned the newspaper al-Mahrousa [the Safeguarded One]. In 1908, he transferred the publication to his friend, Elias Ziadeh; and beginning in 1909, the masthead listed Elias as the owner and editor-in-chief. This gave Ziadeh the opportunity to begin her writing career. She published several articles about social and nationalist issues, as well as literary criticism in al-Mahrousa, al-Zuhour, and al-Hilal.
In 1911, Ziadeh published a French-language poetry collection titled Fleurs de Rêve [Dreamy Flowers], under the pseudonym Isis Copia. She eventually switched from writing in French to Arabic in order to be a part of the nahda, and began publishing under the Arabic name May.
Ziadeh was influenced by many writers, including Malak Hifni Nasif, Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Ameen Rihani, Adib Ishaq, and Gibran Khalil Gibran, with whom she exchanged many letters over the years. Gibran’s letters to Ziadeh were published in Love Letters: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran to May Ziadeh (Oneworld Publications, 2008).
In 1913, Ziadeh founded her literary salon, which remained active for nearly twenty years and was frequented by key literary figures, including Huda Sha‘rawi, who was at the forefront of the women’s empowerment movement in Egypt.
Ziadeh published and translated a number of books in the 1920s, including a translation of the novel Deutsches Liebe [German Love] by F. Max Muller from German into Arabic; Ibtisamat wa dumuʿ [Smiles and Tears], which was published in Cairo in 1921; and a biography of Malak Hifni Nassif, published by Dar al-Hilal in 1920. After the publication of the latter text, she was invited to join al-Rabita al-Qalamiya, or the Pen League, a group started by Arab writers who were a part of the Mahjar literary movement.
After her father’s death on October 24, 1929, Ziadeh became the owner and editor-in-chief of al-Mahrousa newspaper. By 1935, in mourning and turmoil over the deaths of her father, mother, and Gibran, Ziadeh developed a nervous disorder. After the condition worsened, and with the involvement of her paternal cousin, Ziadeh was admitted to a hospital in Lebanon. Throughout those years, which included defamation and accusations of insanity, many writers protested her confinement, including Ameen Rihani. Finally, on June 1, 1938, Beirut’s Court of First Instance dismissed the lawsuit of mental incompetence by her cousin.
In late July 1938, Ziadeh moved to a small house in al-Frikeh, a town in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate in Lebanon. It was a short walk from Rihani’s house, and there, she continued to host literary salons before returning to Cairo on January 11, 1939.
After the death of Rihani, Ziadeh withdrew from the public, presenting her final lecture on January 20, 1941, at the American University in Cairo. A few months later, on October 19, she fell ill and was rushed to Maadi Hospital, where she died.