31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002
Issue No.571
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002 Issue No.571 |
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Al-Ahram:
A Diwan of contemporary life (427)
Prolific writer May Ziadeh, a champion of women's rights, wrote extensively in Al-Ahram in 1928. Delivering a series of university lectures, she pulled mainly female audiences to her talks on the advancement of the Egyptian woman and the family. Ziadeh also tackled relations between East and West, education and Islamic antiquities. On the latter field she admits she was not an authority but her articles inspired the specialists later. Professor Yunan Labib Rizk* profiles a woman considered the closest thing to a philosopher princess
A literary genius
The Ahmed Ibn Tulun Mosque, above, was described to Egyptian women in an article by May Ziadeh, right, because, she claimed, they sorely lacked knowledge about their country. El-Aqqad, the writer-philosopher and Ziadeh's admirer
In conservative Oriental societies, such as Egypt, the title "Miss" can only apply to women of a certain age group, after which the "Miss" becomes a spinster and an object of derision.
Perhaps the best-known Egyptian woman to have held this title well beyond the acceptable age was the illustrious "Star of the East, Miss Umm Kulthoum" although the famed singer finally managed to shed it when she married a prominent physician. By contrast, "The eminent Miss May Ziadeh" was never able to escape the label, which some say was behind her becoming mad towards the end of her life, but which others argue is why she retained her prominence in literary circles, unlike other women who sacrificed their careers to devote themselves to their husbands. Among the latter were the rising journalist and outspoken women's emancipation advocate, Munira Thabet, whose fame ebbed after she married a fellow journalist, Abdel-Qader Hamza, owner of Al-Balagh, and the noted anthropologist Malak Hefni Nasef, whose fortunes also waned after she became a "Mrs."
Ziadeh was a prolific writer -- her collected works fill eight volumes. Much was written about her as well, especially by her admirers who frequented the literary salon she hosted every Tuesday. Some of them developed a romantic infatuation for her, the most famous being the writer-philosopher Abbas Mahmoud El- Aqqad.
There is a chapter of Ziadeh's life that has long remained obscure: that concerning her relationship with Al-Ahram. Among the most important scraps of information about this relationship is one which indicates that Al-Ahram invited the famous writer to join its editorial staff. She was highly qualified, having assisted her father in the publication of Al-Mahrousa, a newspaper that lived for a short time before World War I. She was also a staff writer for the weekly Al-Siyassa magazine, which first appeared in 1926. In addition to her journalistic experience, Ziadeh also met the Al-Ahram management's Levantine criterion, which emanated from the origins of the newspaper's founders. However, in spite of the offer and in spite of the fact that the management gave her a private office in the Al-Ahram building, Ziadeh preferred to stay on as a writer without a contractual commitment.
Past Al-Ahram editions reveal that Ziadeh's most active period with the newspaper was in 1928. Clearly Al-Ahram felt she was a great asset. It featured her articles prominently, published the poems of "the brilliant poetess" amid great fanfare, honoured her by choosing her to preside over an event called "The Journalistic Feast" and hailed her using such tributes as: "If the Lebanese had difficulties in coming to Egypt to participate in the homage to the Prince of Poets [Ahmed Shawqi], at least we, since we are in Egypt, should pay homage to the 'Princess of Writers', whose country we have long envied for its claim to her."
Al-Ahram not only published Ziadeh's writings for the newspaper but also allocated considerable space on its front page to the lectures she delivered at the American University in Cairo. Her AUC lectures attracted large audiences to which an Al-Ahram correspondent testified: "The eminent Miss May Ziadeh delivered her recent lecture on the women's awakening to a large gathering of scholars, intellectuals, writers, women and Orientalists who packed the university's new lecture hall." The correspondent estimated that some 1,200 women were present at the lecture, an enormous female public presence by the standards of the time.
If Ziadeh wrote and lectured on a broad array of subjects, they all in some way pertained to her main spheres of interests: the advancement of women, the relations between East and West and Islamic antiquities. Her views on these issues drew widespread attention as reported by Al-Ahram.
The series of lectures she delivered at AUC demonstrate her passionate commitment to the advancement of women and embody her thinking on this issue. The lectures opened with an account of the history of the Egyptian women's movement and "the participation of Egyptian women in our society's literary, scientific and political awakening." The Society of the New Woman, which fostered economic independence by equipping women with looms, the School for the Advancement of Women, founded by Nabawiya Moussa, and the advocacy of women's suffrage spearheaded by Munira Thabet were milestones in this awakening. It gained such momentum that eventually delegations of Egyptian women were nominated to attend international women's conferences in Europe.
Ziadeh also spoke of the various classes of Egyptian women, dwelling at length on the Egyptian fellaha, or peasant woman, and "the nation's duty towards her, for it is she who has given this nation its great men and noble heroes." Al-Ahram's correspondent, who attended the lecture, wrote that the audience gave a long round of applause at this point. Resuming her speech, Ziadeh appealed to the Egyptian people to devote all possible attention to the betterment of Egyptian women so that they can make the best out of their menfolk. In this regard, she took the opportunity to remind her audience of national leader Saad Zaghlul's speech at the Semiramis Hotel which began: "Honourable gentlemen, though soon I hope to be able to say, honourable ladies and gentlemen..." That won the admiration of all present, the Al-Ahram correspondent remarked.
In spite of her general praise for the accomplishments of women's movements, some feminists felt Ziadeh had not sufficiently covered all the aspects. One of these wrote to Al-Ahram, signing her letter with only her initials, to reproach Ziadeh for not paying tribute to many significant women's advocates. Ziadeh failed, for example, to mention "the noble woman" Hoda Shaarawi, the founder of the Society of the New Woman. At the same time, the writer went on, she should not have attributed the founding of the School for the Advancement of Women solely to Nabawiya Moussa. "An association was formed by Alexandrian housewives who collected the donations which made it possible to establish the school," the writer said. The writer further reproached Ziadeh for ignoring Seza Nebrawi and Ihsan El-Kousi, "who improved herself greatly when she resumed her studies. Despite being married, she travelled to Beirut to attend the American University there, leaving behind home and family in order to imbibe from the fonts of knowledge in accordance with the dictates of her personal zeal and ambitions."
On 21 February 1928, Al-Ahram dedicated its entire front page and most of the second page to Ziadeh's lecture on "The family budget and its social importance." From this lecture, we discover that three years earlier a conference on the family was held in Cairo and that Ziadeh had delivered a paper on household economy and budgeting. We also learn of another conference held in Rome in late January 1928 and in which Egypt was represented by "two of our most eminent educated women, Miss Fatma Fahmi and Miss Emily Abdel-Massih."
Ziadeh opened her lecture with a discussion of poverty which she described as "an illness, indolence and enslavement." "No society can enjoy good health when its members are ill," she said, "and no nation can enjoy independence if its citizens are enslaved." In this regard she cited Ibn Al-Muqaffa who wrote: "An attribute of the rich is a virtue but for the poor it is a flaw. Thus, if a poor man is courageous he is called foolhardy, if he is generous he is corrupt, if he is patient he is called weak, if he is sedate he is thought idle, if he is articulate he is a jester and if he is silent he is called mute."
She went on to say that women can be a cause for poverty but can also be a cause for prosperity. According to the statistics cited at the recent conference in Rome, "from 50 to 60 per cent of public income is spent by women." She continued, "Thus, you can see how great the power of women is, how effective they can be in organising the family's wealth. Sometimes a women does this in conjunction with her husband, at other times without his knowledge in order to spare her husband and children the details that should concern only her. The wise woman has her own means to meet household needs, to provide the essentials to her loved ones and to enable her family to enjoy domestic bliss and comfort."
At the same time, Ziadeh appealed for moderation. "Waste is an abomination. It dissipates the family wealth and squanders domestic comfort and well-being. But excess parsimony is no less abominable. After ensuring their essential needs, people must tend to the amenities that enhance their appearance and that of their families, develop their talents and those of their families, and adorn their homes with objects of grace, refinement and beauty."
Although Ziadeh addressed many political issues, her particular concern was relations between East and West. Hers was not the school of Rudyard Kipling's "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet," but rather advocated French philosopher Saint Simon's "marriage between the East and West." This view was expressed in many of the articles she wrote for Al- Ahram. Under the headline "East and West understand one another" she takes Kipling to task. "The meeting of minds between the peoples of the East and the peoples of the West is easy, indeed imperative by virtue of the exchange of benefits in this age, the age of aviation, nautical excursions and diverse travels. How often we have encountered Western men or women from various nations with differences in nationality, language and customs but these never posed a barrier to understanding and friendship."
She then turned to theosophy, a political philosophy based on promoting mutual understanding between East and West and founded by Madame Plavatsky in 1873 after she emigrated from Russia to the US. Not only did Plavatsky establish a branch of her school in India, but, as we learn from Ziadeh, another Russian, the Countess Olga De Labdov, "a woman of extraordinary wealth, repute and distinguished social stature," established a branch of this society in Cairo in 1913. Among the many prominent Egyptians who frequented the society were Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat Pasha, Ahmed Zaki Pasha and Lutfi Bek El-Sayed. Ziadeh herself went there frequently in the company of the renowned Syrian intellectual Shibli Shemayel.
"Theosophic wisdom" gained many adherents in the wake of World War I and many of its foremost advocates came to Egypt. Prominent among these was Madame Valentine de Saint Bouen, who founded the International Intellectual Environment Club, "whose members include an array of Egyptian and foreign writers and orators." Journalists, she added, could play a major role in disseminating the spirit of international understanding this club espouses.
A similar venture, Ziadeh wrote, was the Lyceum Society founded in London in 1903 with the purpose of promoting understanding between British intellectuals, writers and artists and their counterparts in Egypt and Iraq. The society now has more than 30 branches in various capitals around the world.
Ziadeh tried to find in the West what would help the East. In an article on "George Washington, the liberator of America," she stressed not so much his political career as his dedication to promoting education, a role she hoped Eastern leaders would emulate. Washington, she wrote, "wanted the American people to be in the vanguard of nations and his means to achieve that end was education." To substantiate this claim, she cited a passage from the first US president's farewell address to the American people: "It is our immediate need for schools and academic institutes to spread knowledge and culture. Insofar as the government derives its power and authority from pubic opinion, it is our duty to enlighten the public to enable it to choose well and judge wisely."
If Ziadeh advocated the preservation of Islamic antiquities, she also had a feminist perception on the subject. Egyptian women, she charged, neglected to learn about their own country. Thus, she opened her first article on the subject of antiquities with a quote from Malak Hefni Nasef: "We live in Egypt but we do not know it. Is there anything more peculiar than a man with sight who is blind? The Pyramids are within a stone's throw from Cairo, yet most of us Egyptian women have never seen them. Rather we learn about them from tourists, displaying ignorance as we listen spellbound to what they tell us."
But there were many important monuments even closer at hand. Foremost among them was the Mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tulun, "the oldest mosque in Egypt and the largest. It is twice as large as the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem and four times the size of Al-Azhar Mosque." Although there were others more competent than Ziadeh to provide a technical description of the mosque, she confesses that she did wish to impart her impressions. She was particularly struck by "the long, majestic arcades whose surfaces are etched with splendid and intricate engravings." She continues, "One is dumbstruck by the exquisite beauty and diversity of this ancient craftsmanship and is equally impressed by the skill of contemporary Egyptian artisans who, today, are engaged in the renovation of this precious mosque."
As the cause of women was the issue closest to her heart, Ziadeh dealt at length with the role the wives of Ibn Tulun and his son Khamaraweih played in the construction of this monument. To Miyas, Khamaraweih's wife, went the credit for the construction of the Golden Hall, one of the chambers in the palace adjacent to the mosque. "On the walls she had commissioned gold- wreathed reliefs of singing maidens and her husband, represented in life size, sitting in state amidst his attendants and retinue." After listing other architectural contributions by the wives of Muslim rulers, Ziadeh concluded, "Thus have women been creative benefactors in all eras."
Her next article on Islamic Cairo featured "The Mosque of Al- Mansour Qalawun and its surroundings." In a lyrical description of the vicinity, called Souq Al-Nahasin, or the brass artisan market, she writes: "It is twilight, yet the bustle is at its most intense. In the street designed to conform to the ancient decree that it must be wide enough to accommodate the width of two fully-laden camels abreast, men, women, children, salesmen, carriages and donkey carts jostle as they make their way to and fro. Nor is this swarming throng devoid of bicycles and cars. Yet, in this crowd, all succeed at forging a path to their destination, proof of the skill of people, beasts and machines."
Of Cairo's more than 500 mosques at the time, Ziadeh puts Qalawun among the finest. The mosque and its adjacent madrasah were modelled on the Al-Hamra Mosque in Cordoba. The complex included a hospital "in which Qalawun had allocated a ward to all known diseases." In this regard, she adds that after having attended a lecture on hospital construction in Islamic history, she had arrived at the conclusion that "the West adopted the concept of the hospital and its system from the East, as it has many other ideas."
Ziadeh emerges from Qalawun and makes her way through the twisting bustling alleys until she arrives at Al-Musafirkhana Palace, "which was originally the home of Mahmoud Muharram, a merchant and the founder of the mosque which stands at the entrance to this alleyway." After describing the inlaid fountain, the mashrabiya windows, the delicate engravings on the doors and other decorative features, she returns to the palace's history. In the 19th century, "the house was acquired by Mohamed Ali Pasha who transformed it into a travellers inn. Later, his successors converted it into a school for girls, and today Musafirkhana falls under the supervision of the Ministry of Al-Awqaf (religious endowments)."
The next literary tour of Islamic Cairo that Ziadeh gave Al- Ahram readers occupied most of the newspaper's front page on 6 June 1928. On this occasion, she took her audience through the three remaining gateways to the Fatimid city of Cairo: Bab Zuwaila, "which historians maintain is unique among the countries of the Orient for its size and grandeur," and Bab Al-Nasr and Bab Al-Futtuh, "the two gates that flank the Mosque of Hakim, similar to the mosque of Ibn Tulun in terms of period and design."
Ziadeh's third article on Islamic heritage took her to Takiyaet Al-Mawlawiya, the ancient Sufi, one of 42 recognised in Egypt. The Al-Mawlawi order was named after the "Mawla" (Sufi master), Jalaleddin Al-Rumi. Ziadeh was among a number of guests invited to attend a zikr there-- religious chanting ritual accompanied by music and dancing. She was clearly enraptured. To the slow rhythms struck up by the musicians, "the dervishes entered the hall slowly and formed a circle within the ring of spectators. Each wore a dark robe over a white robe and a tall felt fez. In the centre of the circle stood the young sheikh of the order, set apart from the others by his magnificent robes and large turban. He stood on a small red carpet with fringes, which contrasted starkly with the muted colours of the floor."
Then one of the dervishes read some passages from a book and began to chant invocations "which we presumed were in Turkish or Persian." He chanted "in monotone, devoid of emotion, in a manner reminiscent of the liturgy in churches." Soon, the pace of the chanting quickened and the dervishes cast off their dark robes and started to whirl around in a circle, their loose white undergarments billowing around them. Whenever two dervishes met, with the sheikh between them, they exchanged salutations. Ziadeh was overawed by the spectacle, so much so that she confesses that these rituals raised many questions in her mind to which she was unable to find clear answers.
If the articles of "the eminent Miss Ziadeh" on Islamic antiquities were not scholarly, as she herself admits, they, nevertheless, radiated a passion for the subject that inspired specialists in the field. It was, thus, not long afterwards that Al-Ahram featured several articles on the monuments Ziadeh had described. One of these, appearing over two editions, was the study by the Egyptian archeologists Mahmoud Ahmed and Youssef Ahmed on "The history and description of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun." A second was Abdel-Wahab Azzam's account of "Jalaleddin Al-Rumi, the founder of the Mawlawiya order." Such responses to Ziadeh's writings were of no less value than her own writings.
* The author is a professor of history and head of Al-Ahram History Studies Centre.
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