We will tell the story of the poet Maryana Marrash. Originally from Aleppo, she devoted all of her energy to empowering Syrian women and developing Syrian society.
Recently, people have tarnished the image of the Syrian woman from earlier times. They have described her as a closed-off person who lacks education, culture, and literature. However, she was fortunate that history has been fair to her. Particularly, it has documented all her achievements and successes that have helped her society.
In this article, we will be talking about the first Syrian Arab woman to publish a collection of poetry. And to extend invitations to literary gatherings.
Maryana Fateh-Allah Marrash was a Syrian writer and poet. She was born in Aleppo in July 1848 and passed away in 1919 at the age of seventy.
During the Ottoman rule, Marash lived in a society that banned girls’ education. In addition to the mingling of men and women for any purpose. As a result, various areas of practical and scientific life have subjected women to ignorance. As pursuing science was limited to men only. However, the community in Aleppo experienced significant cultural and literary prosperity at that stage.
Mariana came from a family known for their work in trading. She worked hard for women’s empowerment and defended their right to education. Mariana’s father insisted on educating his three children (Francis, Abdallah, and Mariana). So, he had built up a large private library in his home, called the Marrash Library. In order to give his children a thorough education. Particularly in the field of Arabic language and literature.
Like her brothers, Mariana went to school. Her brothers were famous for their cultural work. Her brother Francis was influenced by Al-Kawakibi and Tahir al-Jazairi. He called for the implementation of the Constitution and encouraged liberalism as he was one of the first Arabs in its ranks. He greatly influenced Mariana. His death extremely saddened her she composed an elegy to lament his death. Her Brother Abdallah was a rebellious journalist who published his articles in foreign newspapers (French and British newspapers).
The family house was a place for the gathering of Aleppo’s writers and intellectuals. This cultural atmosphere gave Mariana a greater motivation to acquire science and develop her literary skills. Mariana went to a French missionary school in Aleppo at a time when girls’ education was reprehensible, and then she went to an English school in Beirut.¹
Maryana loved the French language, as she received her education in French in Aleppo as well as in Beirut, and she got to know French society through its literature and knowledge. The French revolutionary principles in French life and literature influenced her, and she dreamed of visiting France to transmit French cultural principles to Arabic society.
On the other hand, she excelled in music, sang beautifully, and played the Piano and Qanun. It is clear that Marrash’s family support, and her father’s insistence on educating and developing her literary, musical, and scientific skills led to enriching both Syrian and Arabic society.
Maryana worked on liberating women intellectually and culturally so she could uplift Arabic society in general. She conveyed many literary and liberating ideas that she noticed in French society, among them:
Although the gathering of men and women in one salon was a reprehensible activity at that time, Mariana turned her house into a gathering place for them and she was the first to apply this idea in Arab society. Among the most prominent participants in these cultural gatherings: Rizkallah Hassoun, Qustaki al-Himsi, Gabriel al-Dallal, and Kamel al-Ghazi, in addition to prominent Aleppine intellectuals of both sexes and politicians and members of the foreign diplomatic corps.
Since most of the participants were regular visitors to her family’s home, it was easy for her to invite them. During these gatherings, a lot of literature, music, political and social issues were discussed, and chess and card games were played.
Some of the discussed topics were: Mu’allaqat and the works of Francis Rabelais.
Maryana is one of the first Arab women who published their work in Arabic magazines and newspapers using their real name. Her first article was “The Beauty Spots of the Garden “² which was published in Al-Jinan journal in 1870, volume “15” in its first year of publishing; where she presented critical subjects for literary work in that era.
Her articles are followed in “Lisan al-hal” magazine, where she touched on societal themes; she urged Syrian people to abandon the manifestations of ignorance in prevailing customs and traditions, women’s right to education, and apply the useful cultural manifestations from different nations to advance Syrian society.
Mariana’s articles were not primitive, as she used creative literary language. She urged the reader to take inspiration from the article draw useful points and discuss with the reader realistically to reach her goal. In addition to presenting various cultural images to urge her readers to develop the society intellectually, culturally, and socially.
Mariana had many works that varied between literary and intellectual. She wrote poetry, as she was influenced by her brother and the writers and poets who were regular visitors to her Salon.
She was one of the first Arab female poets, and her first and only collection of poetry “Bint fikr”3 (A Daughter of Thought) was published in Beirut in 1893.
It was the first poetry collection of a Syrian woman and was titled “A Daughter of Thought” because it resulted from an instinctive diverse thought that every human being has. She called, through it, for love, reflection, and liberation from the backward mainstream, and she dedicated her collection of poetry to Sultan Abdul Hamid II. She also described in her poetry her situation and the harassment she suffered because of her open mind.³
We also mention one of her intellectual works (The History of Modern Syria) in which she talked about Syrian history during the late Ottoman rule.
Syrian women excelled in multiple fields, delivering their voices strongly to the entire world. Our pioneer Maryana Marrash is another star in the sky of Syria’s creative pioneers and lit the darkness with all of her might, and her impact remains clear and evident to this day.
She said: ” Why don’t we leave slackness and laziness, be productive and start working? We are the women of the nineteenth century which has surpassed all of the other centuries in civilization. How can we not show men the necessity of women in the gardens of literature?”⁴
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