Abdallah Marrash | |
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| Native name | عبد الله بن فتح الله بن نصر الله مرّاش |
| Born | 14 May 1839 Aleppo, Ottoman Syria |
| Died | 17 January 1900 (aged 60) Marseille, France |
| Nationality | Ottoman, British |
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Abdallah bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash (Arabic: عبد الله بن فتح الله بن نصر الله مرّاش, ALA-LC: ʻAbd Allāh bin Fatḥ Allāh bin Naṣr Allāh Marrāsh; 14 May 1839[1] – 17 January 1900) was a Syrian writer involved in various Arabic-language newspaper ventures in London and Paris.
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.[2] Having earned wealth and standing in the 18th century, the family was well established in Aleppo,[3] although they had gone through troubles: a relative of Abdallah, Butrus Marrash, was killed by the wali's troops in the midst of a Catholic–Orthodox clash in April 1818.[4] Other Melkite Catholics were exiled from Aleppo during the persecutions, among them the priest Jibrail Marrash.[5][a] Abdallah's father, Fathallah, tried to defuse the Sectarian conflict by writing a treatise in 1849, in which he rejected the Filioque.[7] He had built up a large private library[8] to give his three children Francis, Abdallah and Maryana a thorough education, particularly in the field of Arabic language and literature.[9]
Aleppo was then a major intellectual center of the Ottoman Empire, featuring many thinkers and writers concerned with the future of the Arabs.[10] It was in the French missionary schools that the Marrash family learnt Arabic with French, and other foreign languages (Italian and English).[10] After studying in Aleppo, Abdallah went to Europe to pursue his studies while devoting himself to trade.[11]
Having established himself in Manchester by 1863,[12] he became a naturalized British subject on 6 May 1868 under Aliens Act 1844,[13] and on 11 July 1872 under Naturalization Act 1870.[14][15] He accessed the collections of Arabic manuscripts in London and Paris and copied what he thought was useful to his Middle Eastern compatriots.[11] In 1879, he helped Adib Ishaq found the Parisian journal Misr al-Qahira (Egypt the Victorious).[16] 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 23 June 1882; it was ephemeral.[17] In 1882, Marrash settled down in Marseille, where he died on 17 January 1900.[18] He had been a member of the Société Asiatique.[19]
