Jurji Zaydan (1861–1914, in Arabic script جورجي زيدان also transliterated "Jorge Zaydân," "Georgie Zeidan," or "Jirjî Zaydan") was a prolific Lebanese novelist, journalist, editor and teacher most noted for his creation of the journal al-Hilal, which he used to serialize his 23 historical novels.
His primary goal as a writer and intellectual during the Nahda was to imbue the common Arabic population with knowledge of their own history through the entertaining medium of the novel and enjoyed a widespread popularity that remains today.
Zaydan was born December 14, 1861 in Beirut to an Orthodox Christian family of limited means. His father owned a restaurant and, being illiterate and uneducated himself, placed little importance on education. Because of this, Zaydan dropped out of school after completing an elementary education to help his father run the business.[1]
However he maintained a desire to educate himself by attending night classes in English until, in 1881, at the age of 20, he was admitted to the Syrian Presbyterian College as a medical student. Here, he developed an interest in concepts of individualism such as laissez-faire economics, the Freemason belief in a universal enlightenment, and social Darwinism.[1] He was particularly influenced by Samuel Smile’s book, Self-Help (published in 1859), which he felt he could relate to due to its emphasis on a rags-to-riches success story built upon hard work and perseverance.[2] Furthermore, the book’s focus on individualism and the self, a relatively new concept in Arab intellectual thought, would be a common theme in Zaydan’s later historical novels.
He attended the university around the same time as Ya’qub Sarrouf (1852–1927), who first translated Self-Help into Arabic and would later found the magazine al-Muqtataf (1876), with whom he shared ideals of modernizing the Arab world and emphasis on individual success through hard work.[3]
Cornelius Van Dyck (1818–1895), an American professor of pathology at the Syrian Protestant College known for his translation of the Bible into Arabic in 1847, first encouraged Sarrouf to translate Self-HelpA. He also influenced Zaydan’s worldview, leading him to adopt the idea that education was the most important factor for the progress and development of a people.[3] Such widespread education could only be reached by widespread internal reform and modernization of all aspects of Arab government and daily life. Zaydan therefore became critical of contemporaries such as Mustafa Kamal and Ahmed Orabi, who were concerned solely with gaining independence from Western influence. Zaydan argued that reform must precede independence in order to ensure success.
In 1882, professor E. Lewis was fired from the Syrian Presbyterian College for lightly praising Charles Darwin in a speech he made to students of the college. Because the concept of Darwinism was highly controversial amongst the Presbyterian Church at the time, it had forbidden its inclusion in any curriculum. This led to mass protests amongst the students, many of whom left or were expelled for rebelling.[1] Additionally, many of the European priests running the college were beginning to favor English over Arabic as the language of education. Zaydan was among those who left Syria for Cairo, where many Lebanese intellectuals and members of the Nahda had already relocated as a reaction to increased Ottoman suppression.
After a short stint in the Medical School of ‘Ain ‘Sans and a military expedition with the British army to the Sudan, he turned his focus to developing his writing career.[1]
A. Ya’qub Sarrouf began publishing al-Muqtataf in 1876 with help from Cornelius Van Dyck and his Syrian Presbyrerian College classmates Faris Namir and Shahin Makarius. The magazine was primarily concerned covering modern scientific advancements, the first to do so in the Arab world, and is particularly known for its controversial coverage of the theory of evolution and Darwinism in the early 1880s.
After briefly serving as assistant editor for al-Muqtataf, Zaydan began producing scholarly works on various historical topics. This interest in history propelled him to travel to London to research Arabic history in the library of the British Museum.
His first book was published in 1889 with Ta’rikh al-Masuniya al-Amm, in which he aimed to correct misconceptions about the Freemasons, of which he was a member for a brief period of time. The Freemason belief that universal knowledge existed and should be available to every person appealed to intellectuals like Zaydan and their quest to tap into this knowledge.
In 1890, he published al-Ta’rikh al-'Alamm (History of the World), a rather thin history of Asia and Africa with a focus on the Middle East. Still, it is cited as one of the first non-Islamic histories to be written in Arabic, marking a turning point in the development of modern Arab education. Before, the entirety of Arab history had been recorded by the ulama, the religious scholars of the Caliphate. This was the first attempt at recording a non-religious version of Middle Eastern history.
During this time, he taught Arabic and opened a publishing house he named Dar al-Hilal (The Crescent). His professional and personal life took a turn in 1891 with his marriage to Maryam Matar and the publication of his first historical novel, al-Mamluk al-Shariid (The Fleeing Mamluk).[2] The novel met with such broad success that he was able to quit his teaching job. He would continue to steadily produce roughly one novel a year until his death in 1914.[1]
He began publishing his most influential project, the journal al-Hilal (The Crescent) in 1892. It originally contained five sections—a history of the most famous men and events; articles by him or other writers; the serialization of his historical novels; monthly events and world news of Egypt and Syria; and eulogies and criticism, mostly involving contemporary literature.[1] With its focus on informing the public about Islamic history and new concepts within Western Civilization, the magazine often took on an encyclopedic tone.
His primary aim remained steady throughout his publication of al-Hilal and his historical novels. This was to provide the common Arabic people with an accurate sense of their own history in an accessible, entertaining way. Because of this, historical accuracy took firm precedence over plot and character development in each of his novels, and was often critical of Western writers who bent historical fact to fit their literature, claiming such liberties misled the general public.[2]
Zaydan would typically write his annual novel during the summer months when al-Hilal wasn’t published in order to begin its serialization in the fall. Every novel with the exception of one had an almost identical frame. He would begin each one by picking a historical topic—though his novels did not follow a logical timeline, they were all centered on some aspect of Islamic history. Next, he would read all available sources on the topic in order to gain the most thorough understanding possible. From this he would build a skeleton outline based entirely on historical fact. Finally, he would dream up characters and a romance through which he would relate the history.[2]
The scholar’s accuracy with which he approached each novel is further demonstrated by his frequent inclusion of documented sources, frequent footnotes and introductory chapters that provided historic, cultural, and geographic context to the historic event of choice[4] The entertainment aspect came in with a love story between fictitious characters and a mystery of some sort to maintain reader interest. His plots were often weak, relying mostly on convenient coincidences between characters to drive the love story and mystery, with almost all of his novels ending in a happily ever after.[2]
His characters were often one-dimensional, with no insight given on their skills, background or their view of the time, institutions or society they were a part of. Because he would present all character traits and personalities within the first mention of each character, character development was never present. These static characters, coupled with his straightforward, journalistic style were ideal for relating an objective and accurate history in the clearest way possible to the broad Arab public.
Along with providing the general population with education, he also aimed to develop the “philosophy of language,” which has the explicit purpose of informing, educating and enlightening. He was critical of writing that was accessible to only a small group of people, especially the esoteric language in religious scholarship. Because of the 10% literacy rate among men and .05% among women of the time, such gilded language was largely inaccessible to the general public.[1] The introduction of the novel, especially one written in simple, clear language, is particularly noted for shifting the act of reading from the scholarly elite to the individual.
In 1910, the newly openend Egyptian University offered Zaydan a professorship in Islamic History, which Zaydan was hesitant to accept due to his unpopularity amongst conservative Muslims. He did accept the position, but was dismissed before beginning in response to significant outcry from the Muslim public, who objected to his Christian origins and secular leanings. Zaydan’s secular take on history was particularly controversial in Tarikh al-Tamaddun al-Islam (The History of the Islamic Civilization, 1901–1906), in which he offers a critical secular reading of Islamic history in no less than five volumes. The experience embittered him until his unexpected death in 1914.[1]
Leaving behind a legacy that includes 23 published novels, numerous scholarly works, and a magazine then circulated in Persia, India, Japan, Western Africa, Zanzibar, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, and North and South America, he was one of the most prolific and renowned Arab writers of the time. His impact left a lasting impression on the general Arab population as well as such literary giants as Taha Hussein, Najib Muhfuz and poet Fadwa Tuqan.[4]
Beyond the amount of work he produced in his lifetime though is the shift in thinking he brought to the Nahda and those who followed it. Because the Arabic novel was written in an accessible language, individualized education took a huge step away from the religious elite and towards the general population. His printing press greatly aided in this attempt to spread new knowledge and ideas to people of all backgrounds. With the creation of a population that is thinking and speaking for itself, came the creation of a dialogue, and with that, the desire of the population to point out what is unsatisfactory in society and to come up with an idea on how to change it.
Until recently, Zaydan's works were not available in English, although they have been translated in a dozen other languages.[5] The Zaidan Foundation, set up by his grandson Dr George Zaidan in order to promote Arab culture, has commissioned translations of five of his twenty-two historical novels. The work began in 2009 and the books are due to be released in 2011-12. The books are:
Also in 2011, the translator Samah Selim translated Zaydan's novel Shajarat al-Durr into English. The book won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award.
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