The History of My School in a Lady's Struggle

Schools are the way to nourish minds and enlighten intellects — above all when they are national schools that instill in the young a patriotic spirit and a proud soul, and raise in them the spirit of self-reliance.

Accordingly I think it right, on this occasion, to point to the Ahliah National College, known as "Mary Kassab's school," for she was its founder and the planter of its good seed, which grew and became a lofty tree that has blossomed and borne fruit.

It is only just and fair, and enlightening for the minds of the rising generation, that I set down a brief glimpse of the history of this national institute and of its founder, Mrs. Mary Kassab. In the days of the First World War, while people were in confusion — hungry, sick, and afraid — and the schools, all of them foreign, had been closed, and the children had begun to roam the streets neglected, God moved the heart of Miss Mary Kassab (the daughter of the late Mr. Salim Kassab, famous in the world of letters). With all the energy, activity, and compassion in her she came forward and gathered them into a room in her house — their number did not exceed six — and began to teach them, they being drawn to her by the pull of her kindness and love.

The school's first celebration, in June 1918, was as good as a great advertisement for it, in view of what the townspeople witnessed and what they heard from the pupils, and the patriotic feeling that arose in their souls; they became convinced that a girl in the East was capable of establishing an organized, fully appointed school.

She succeeded in forming an advisory committee, and this committee set about seeking a larger and better building so as to be able to accept a greater number of girl pupils. While it was so engaged, the armies of the Allies occupied the country, and there arrived in Beirut the committee of the British Syrian Schools. When news reached it of the Syrian Preparatory School and the educational service it had rendered despite its youth, it permitted its directress to use the present building of the British Girls' School, and the directress accepted its offer with thanks. That year the school was able to accept one hundred and forty pupils of both sexes.

In the summer of 1919 the British Girls' School decided to take back its building, and the Ahliah was obliged to rent the building it now occupies in Wadi Abu Jamil.

And in keeping with the suspicion attaching to the name the school had adopted before the partition of the Syrian lands, its board decided to confine itself to calling it "the Ahliah Girls' School."

Thus the school moved a stage forward, its guiding aim the service of the homeland and the raising of its standing by educating its little ones and preparing them for the homeland's service. In its fourth year the school began to flourish on the donations that flowed in to it from various sources.

Its directress felt the necessity of forming a mixed administrative committee, in whose composition the spirit of an all-embracing patriotism should be observed.

Thus the first committee was formed of the school's devoted friends and the admirers of its plan, for all the difference of their religious denominations, and its function was made the stewardship of the school's property and possessions and whatever pertained to it, in the manner that would bring the greatest benefit to the school and widen its scope.

Meanwhile the Scottish Mission had put up for sale the building in which the Ahliah school was housed, and the administrative committee decided to amend its statutes in a way that would give it, as a full juridical person, the right of ownership, so that it could purchase the said building, and to work to collect the money needed for that.

And so, with what the board of trustees donated, it managed to pay the installment that was due, and agreed with the said Mission to pay the remainder in annual installments. Its greatest concern thereafter was to work for the settlement of the debts that had accumulated upon it from the purchase of the building and the new constructions it had then added to it.

Accordingly it dispatched its delegations to Egypt, Brazil, and the United States, to rouse the zeal of the worthies of the Lebanese and Syrian colony to support this national educational project and preserve its existence.

These delegations met with such sympathy and support from the sons of the colony as it has recorded with abundant thanks. At that time it issued a clear statement, which it distributed.

As for the present board of trustees, they are Messrs.: Aziz Kassab, president; Dr. Youssef Hitti; Abd al-Rahman Nsouli; Abdullah Rishani; Mrs. Zainab; and Mr. Duaybis al-Murr; the late Mr. Boulos Khouli was secretary.

And thus we have seen that little room, after this struggle, turned into a great edifice, and that little seed become a lofty tree that shelters hundreds — a fruitful tree whose fruit many men and many women have plucked and tasted.

It is, moreover, a duty of fairness to mention the kindly generosity of the Kassab family in financial assistance; and it is only just also to mention the great generosity and open hand of Mrs. Adal Kassab, who, besides contributing 50 gold liras and more besides, served the school for three years with all activity and many sacrifices, known to everyone who observed her at close hand.

The truth is that the fortune of this institute, whose motto is "Knowledge is light and guidance," runs high, for it is a cause for gladness that God has provided it in these years with an able directress, a wise administrator, and a woman of great letters, a graduate of the finest institutes after having first graduated from the Ahliah itself.

And who does not know Mrs. Widad Maqdisi Cortas, who has taken over its direction and borne the burden of its responsibility in the best possible manner, administering it excellently, assisted in the work by her sister, Miss Salma al-Maqdisi, with all devotion and activity.