عائشة تيمور

Mai Ziada (1886 - 1941) was a Palestinian poet and writer, born in Nazareth in 1886. Her original name was Mary Elias Ziada, and she later chose the name May. She was fluent in six languages, and had a divan in French. Mary Ziada (known as May) was born in the city of Nazareth in Palestine in 1886. The only daughter of a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother of Palestinian origin. The girl received her primary education in Nazareth, and her secondary education in Aintoura, Lebanon. In 1907, May moved with her family to live in Cairo. There, she taught French and English, and continued her studies of German, Spanish and Italian. At the same time, I worked on mastering the Arabic language and improving its expression. Subsequently, May pursued studies in Arabic literature, Islamic history and philosophy at Cairo University. In Cairo, Mai mixed with writers and journalists, and her star started to shine as a writer of social, literary and critical articles, researcher and orator. Mai founded a weekly symposium known as (Tuesday Symposium), in which she gathered - for twenty years - the elite of the writers of the era and its poets, the most prominent of whom were: Ahmed Lotfi Al-Sayed, Mustafa Abdel-Razek, Abbas Al-Akkad, Taha Hussein, Shibli Shamil, Yaqoub Sarouf, Anton Al-Jamil, Mustafa Sadeq Al-Rafei, Khalil Mutran, Ismail Sabry, and Ahmed Shawky. Most of these figures loved May with a spiritual love, some of whom inspired masterpieces from his writings. As for May Ziyada's heart, he was fascinated throughout her life by Gibran Khalil Gibran alone, even though they did not meet once. Correspondence between them lasted for twenty years: from 1911 until Gibran's death in New York in 1931. May published articles and research in major Egyptian newspapers and magazines, such as: (Al-Mokattam), (Al-Ahram), (Al-Zohour), (Al-Mahrousa), (Al-Hilal), and (Al-Miqtaf). ). As for books, her first production in 1911 was a book of poetry she wrote in the French language, and her first work in French was called Azhahir Helm, which appeared in 1911 and was signed in the name of Isis Cuba. Subsequently, she published: (The Researcher of the Badia) (1920), (Words and Signs) (1922), (Equality) (1923), (Darkness and Rays) (1923), (Between the Evils and the Tide) (1924), and (The Sheets) ( 1924). Following the departure of her parents and the death of Gibran, May Ziadeh was exposed to an ordeal in 1938, when a despicable plot was plotted against her, a court stoned her, and was placed in a mental hospital in Beirut. The Lebanese thinker Amin Al-Rihani and great Arab personalities came to her rescue and lifted the stone. May returned to Egypt to die in Cairo on October 17, 1941.