Abdallah Marrash

Abdallah Marrash
Born Abdallah bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash
May 14, 1839
Aleppo, Ottoman Syria
Died January 17, 1900 (aged 60)
Marseille, France
Relatives Francis Marrash (brother)
Maryana Marrash (sister)

Abdallah bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash (Arabic: عبد الله بن فتح الله بن نصرالله مرّاش / ALA-LC: ‘Abdallāh bin Fatḥ Allāh bin Naṣrallāh Marrāsh; May 14, 1839 – January 17, 1900) was a writer involved in various Arabic-language newspaper ventures in London and Paris.

Life

Abdallah Marrash was born in Aleppo, a city of Ottoman Syria (present-day Syria), to an old Melkite family of merchants known for their literary interests.[1] Having earned wealth and standing in the 18th century, the family was well established in Aleppo,[2] although they had gone through troubles: a relative of Abdallah, Butrus Marrash, was martyred by Greek Orthodox fundamentalists in April 1818.[3] Other Melkite Catholics were exiled from Aleppo during the persecutions, among them the priest Jibrail Marrash.[4][lower-alpha 1] Abdallah's father, Fathallah, tried to defuse the Sectarian conflict by writing a treatise in 1849, in which he rejected the Filioque.[5] He had built up a large private library[6] to give his three children Francis, Abdallah and Maryana a thorough education, particularly in the field of Arabic language and literature.[7]

Aleppo was then a major intellectual center of the Ottoman Empire, featuring many thinkers and writers concerned with the future of the Arabs.[8] It was in the French missionary schools that the Marrash family learnt Arabic with French, and other foreign languages (Italian and English).[8] After studying in Aleppo, Abdallah went to Europe to pursue his studies while devoting himself to trade.[9]

Having established himself in Manchester, he became a naturalized British subject in 1872.[10] He accessed the collections of Arabic manuscripts in London and Paris and copied what he thought was useful to his Middle Eastern compatriots.[9] In 1879, he helped Adib Ishaq found the Parisian journal Misr al-Qahira.[11] Marrash founded Kawkab al-mashriq (The Star of the Orient), a monthly Parisian Arabic-French bilingual journal, the first issue of which was published on June 23, 1882; it was ephemeral.[12] In 1882, Marrash settled down in Marseille, where he died on January 17, 1900.[10] He had been a member of the Société Asiatique.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Little is known about the lives of Butrus Marrash and Jibrail Marrash. Butrus was married by the time he was killed, and the name of his father was Nasrallah Marrash; Niqula al-Turk wrote a funeral ode for him.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Wielandt, p. 119; Zeidan, p. 50.
  2. ↑ Wielandt, p. 119; Hafez, p. 274.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wielandt, p. 120; Charon, p. 115.
  4. ↑ Charon, p. 115.
  5. ↑ Wielandt, p. 120.
  6. ↑ Zeidan, p. 50.
  7. ↑ Wielandt, p. 122; Bosworth, van Donzel, Lewis & Pellat (ed.), p. 598.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bosworth, van Donzel, Lewis & Pellat (ed.), p. 598.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Annali, p. 285.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Griolet & Vergé (ed.), p. 77.
  11. ↑ Génériques, p. 121.
  12. ↑ Ayalon, p. 177.
  13. ↑ Journal asiatique.

Sources

  • Annali (in Italian). Istituto Universitario Orientale. 1940.
  • Ayalon, Ami (1987). Language and Change in the Arab Middle East: the Evolution of Modern Arabic Political Discourse. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195041408.
  • Bosworth, Clifford Edmund; van Donzel, Emeri; Lewis, Bernard; Pellat, Charles, ed. (1991). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume VI. Brill. ISBN 978-9004081123.
  • Charon, Cyrille (1903). "L'Église Grecque Melchite Catholique. Chapitre VIII : persécutions d'Alep et de Damas (1817–1832)". Échos d'Orient. Volume VI (in French).
  • Griolet, Gaston; Vergé, Chales-Paul-Laurent, ed. (1905). Jurisprudence générale. Deuxième partie (in French). Dalloz.
  • Génériques (1990). Presse et mémoire : France des étrangers, France des libertés (in French). Éditions de l'Atelier. ISBN 978-2908833003.
  • Hafez, Sabry (1993). The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse: a Study in the Sociology of Modern Arabic Literature. Saqi Books. ISBN 978-0863561498.
  • Journal asiatique, ou recueil de mémoires, d'extraits et de notices relatifs à l'histoire, à la philosophie, aux langues et à la littérature des peuples orientaux (in French). Société asiatique. 1875.
  • Wielandt, Rotraud (1992). "Fransis Fathallah Marrashs zugang zum Gedankengut der Aufklärung und der französischen Revolution". In van Gelder, Geert Jan; de Moor, Ed. The Middle East and Europe: Encounters and Exchanges. Rodopi Publishers. ISBN 978-9051833973.
  • Zeidan, Joseph T. (1995). Arab Women Novelists: the Formative Years and Beyond. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791421727.