23 Facts About Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Zaydan was a prolific Lebanese novelist, journalist, editor and teacher, most noted for his creation of the magazine Al-Hilal, which he used to serialize his twenty three historical novels.

Jurji Zaydan is considered to have been one of the first thinkers to help formulate the theory of Arab nationalism.

Jurji Zaydan was born on December 14,1861, in Beirut to an Eastern Orthodox Christian family of limited means that had probably originated in the Hauran region.

Jurji Zaydan's father owned a restaurant and, being illiterate and uneducated himself, placed little importance on education.

Jurji Zaydan developed an interest in concepts of individualism such as laissez-faire economics, the Freemason belief in a universal enlightenment, and social Darwinism.

Jurji Zaydan was particularly influenced by Samuel Smiles's book, Self-Help to which he felt he could relate because of its emphasis on a rags-to-riches success story built upon hard work and perseverance.

Jurji Zaydan attended the university around the same time as Yaqub Sarruf, who first translated Self-Help into Arabic and would later found the magazine Al-Muqtataf with whom he shared ideals of modernizing the Arab world and emphasis on individual success through hard work.

Jurji Zaydan 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.

Jurji Zaydan thus became critical of contemporaries such as Egyptian Mustafa Kamil Pasha and Ahmed Orabi, who were concerned solely with gaining independence from Western influence.

Jurji Zaydan argued that reform must precede independence to ensure its success.

Jurji 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.

Jurji Zaydan's 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 of the "Le Liban" lodge.

Jurji Zaydan then taught Arabic and opened a publishing house that he named Dar al-Hilal.

Jurji Zaydan would continue to steadily produce roughly one novel a year until his death in 1914.

Jurji Zaydan began publishing his most influential project, the magazine Al-Hilal in 1892.

Jurji Zaydan's 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 happy ending.

Jurji Zaydan's characters were often one-dimensional, with no insight given on their skills, background or their view of the time, institutions or society of which they were.

Jurji Zaydan was critical of writing that was accessible to only a small group of people, especially the esoteric language in religious scholarship.

Jurji Zaydan was dismissed before beginning in response to significant outcry from the Muslim public, who objected to his Christian origins and secular leanings.

Jurji Zaydan's secular take on history was particularly controversial in Tarikh al-Tamaddun al-Islam, in which he offers a critical secular reading of Islamic history in at least five volumes.

Jurji Zaydan's impact left a lasting impression on the general Arab population as well as such literary giants as Taha Hussein, Naguib Mahfouz and poet Fadwa Tuqan.

Jurji Zaydan's printing press greatly aided in this attempt to spread new knowledge and ideas to people of all backgrounds.

Until recently, Jurji Zaydan's works were not available in English, but they have been translated in a dozen other languages.