Nasif al-Yaziji
Nasif al-Yaziji | |
---|---|
ناصيف اليازجي | |
Born | Nāṣīf bin ʻAbd Allāh bin Nāṣīf bin Janbulāṭ bin Saʻd al-Yāzijī March 25, 1800 |
Died | February 8, 1871 | (aged 70)
Occupation | Author |
Era | Ottoman Empire |
Movement | Nahda |
Nāṣīf bin ʻAbd Allāh bin Nāṣīf bin Janbulāṭ bin Saʻd al-Yāzijī (
Like several of the principal players of the Arab Awakening (Nahda), Nasif al-Yaziji migrated from a Mount Lebanon ravaged by discord and revolt, to Beirut at a time when the city was undergoing rapid development and establishing itself as a centre of academia and journalism.
A
First employed by Prince Haydar al-Shihabi,[7] he went on to work for Bashir Shihab II.
When Yaziji moved to Beirut in 1840, he became an Arabic tutor and it was in this role that he came into contact with American and British Protestant missionaries. He would help fulfil one of the greatest ambitions of the missionaries – conduct a Protestant translation of the Bible into Arabic – when he corrected a translation that Eli Smith, an American missionary, and Butrus al-Bustani started in 1847.[7]
After that, he taught at the Syrian Protestant College (later renamed the American University of Beirut) and wrote on poetry, rhetoric, grammar and philosophy. It was for his attempts to emulate the style of classical Arab writers, thereby rediscovering the literary heritage of the Arabs, that he is best known.[7]
Among his works is a treatise on the
With Bustani and Mikhail Mishaqa, al-Yaziji formed the Syrian Association for the Sciences and Arts – the Arab world's first literary society – in 1847. The circle tackled and published its deliberations on themes such as women's rights, history and their fight against superstition.[9]
It was dissolved in 1852 but its inner circle went on to establish the Syrian Scientific Association a few years later.[9] This became a much larger, multi-sectarian society of intellectuals who pushed for Arab independence from the Ottomans.
References
- ^ Al-Jinan (in Arabic). Vol. 2. 1871. p. 150.
- ^ معجم المطبوعات العربية والمعربة (in Arabic). Vol. 2. 1928. column 1933.
- ^ Meisami and Starkey, 1998, p. 231
- ISBN 978-3-447-06141-4.
- ^ "شيخنا ناصيف اليازجي 220 عاماً على الولادة: كرِّموه تكرّموا وطنًا". annahar.com. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ISBN 978-0-89410-684-2.
- ^ a b c Moosa, 1997, p. 124
- ^ Salibi, 2003, p. 110
- ^ a b Johnson, 2001, p. 138
Bibliography
- Johnson, Michael (2001). All Honourable Men: The Social Origins of War in Lebanon. ISBN 978-1-86064-715-4.
- Meisami, Julie Scott; ISBN 978-0-415-18571-4.
- Moosa, Matti (1997). The Origins of Modern Arabic Fiction. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 978-0-89410-684-2.
- ISBN 9781860649127.