Lebanese writer
Nasif al-Yaziji
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Born
| N???f bin ?Abd All?h bin N???f bin Janbul?? bin Sa?d al-Y?zij?
(
1800-03-25
)
March 25, 1800
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Died
| February 8, 1871
(1871-02-08)
(aged 70)
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Occupation
| Author
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Era
| Ottoman Empire
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Movement
| Nahda
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N???f bin ?Abd All?h bin N???f bin Janbul?? bin Sa?d al-Y?zij?
(
Arabic
:
????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ???????
;
[1]
[2]
March 25, 1800 ? February 8, 1871) was an author at the times of the Ottoman Empire and father of
Ibrahim al-Yaziji
. He was one of the leading figures in the
Nahda
movement.
[3]
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
Greek Catholic
, born to a prominent family originally from
Homs
(modern
Syria
).
[4]
[5]
[6]
He began his career as a private secretary (mudabbir) - a common way for Christians to attain social mobility under the restrictive
iqta'
system by which Mount Lebanon, which he described as "a country of tribes", was governed.
Bashir Shihab II
and Nasif al-Yaziji at
Beiteddine Palace
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
muqata 'ji
system. Used by the Ottomans to govern the emirate of Mount Lebanon, this involved
tax-farming
or iqta' rights being given to leading local families. These families enjoyed a degree of autonomy in the running of their region, controlled the land, collected taxes and benefitted from tax exemptions and benefits in exchange for providing the central authorities in Istanbul with revenue and armed men.
[8]
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
[
edit
]
- ^
Al-Jinan
(in Arabic). Vol. 2. 1871. p. 150.
- ^
???? ????????? ??????? ????????
(in Arabic). Vol. 2. 1928. column 1933.
- ^
Meisami and Starkey, 1998, p.
231
- ^
Allen, Roger; DeYoung, Terri; Lowry, Joseph Edmund; Stewart, Devin J. (2009).
Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: 1850-1950
. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
ISBN
978-3-447-06141-4
.
- ^
"????? ????? ??????? 220 ????? ??? ???????: ??????? ??????? ?????"
.
annahar.com
. Retrieved
2023-12-11
.
- ^
Moosa, Matti (1997).
The Origins of Modern Arabic Fiction
. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
ISBN
978-0-89410-684-2
.
- ^
a
b
c
Moosa, 1997, p.
124
- ^
Salibi, 2003, p.
110
- ^
a
b
Johnson, 2001, p.
138
Bibliography
[
edit
]
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