Jurdjī Zaidān

Jurdjī Zaidān

Jurdschī Zaidān ( Arabic جرجي زيدان, DMG Ǧurǧī Zaidān ), also written George , Gurgi , Jirji and similar, (born December 14, 1861 in Beirut , † July 22, 1914 in Cairo ) was a well-known writer , editor and historian of the Arab Nahda . He is considered a pioneer of the Arabic historical novel, but also gained great importance through the founding of the magazine al-Hilāl, which continues to this day .

Life

Jurdschī Zaidān was born in Beirut and grew up in a rather poor family as the son of a Greek Orthodox family. In 1881 he began studying medicine at the Syrian Protestant College , later the American University of Beirut , but dropped out less than a year after one of the lecturers was dismissed for his lectures on Darwinism and moved, like many of his compatriots, to Cairo. After brief stays in Sudan and London, he settled there permanently.

He worked for the magazines az-Zamān and al-Muqtataf and was active as an author of various scientific and fictional works, of which his 23 historical novels, which mainly deal with the early Muslim period, became particularly popular. In 1892 he founded the magazine al-Hilāl ("The Crescent Moon"), the direction and content of which he determined not only as editor but also as author until his death in 1914.

Works

• Tārīḫ at-tamaddun al-Islāmī (“History of Islamic Civilization”), 5 volumes, Cairo 1902–1906. The work was sharply criticized because of its negative portrayal of the Umayyads and the Arabs in general by contemporaries such as Rafīq Bey al-ʿAzm (1865–1925), Shiblī an-Nuʿmānī (1858–1914) and Raschīd Ridā .
• Riwāyat al-mamlūk aš-šārid . Over. from d. Arab. by Martin Thilo under the title "The last Mameluck and his wanderings. A historical novel." With pictures. u. faks. Letter d. Author Barmen: Klein 1917.
• "History of Arabic-Language Literature". 4 volumes, 1911-1914.

literature

• Thomas Philipp: The role of Jurji Zaidan in the intellectual development of the Arab Nahda , Ann Arbor 1971.
• Anne-Laure Dupont: Ǧurǧī Zaydān (1861-1914): écrivain réformiste et témoin de la Renaissance arabe . Damascus: IFPO 2006.

Web links

• Literature by and about Dschurdschī Zaidān in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Werner Ende: Arab Nation and Islamic History. The Umayyads as Judged by 20th Century Arab Authors. Beirut-Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner 1977. pp. 37-51.