Dearest Nazik (A Letter from Salma Sayegh)

Between Salma Sayegh and Mrs. Nazik al-Abid Beyhum there were bonds of friendship and admiration, cemented by their struggle to encourage national industry. Here is a letter our departed wrote to her friend in 1924; it reveals the nobility and the devotion to the cause that her great soul contained...

Al-Mrouj, July 14, 1924

I received your letter a day before I left Beirut. I was proud that you are learning Arabic so that you may compose poetry — but do you think the poet's craft will profit you?

You are all poetry, Nazik; you are all one immortal poem. What need have you, then, to learn meters?

It grieved me that you missed the celebration of Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah. I would have wished you to join your sisters, the Muslim women of Beirut, in that beautiful celebration, in which woman showed herself patriotic in deed, not in word.

A small footnote.... The Nahda held two celebrations: the first, in Tabaris, for ladies and gentlemen; the second, at the house of Emir Said, for ladies only.

In Tabaris the speakers were all men, except for the society's address, given by Emira Najla Abi al-Lama'. The men spoke, and spoke, and spoke...... There were Muslims and there were Christians.... The Muslims sang of Syria, and the Christians boasted of the cedars of Lebanon... Eyes reddened at the mention of the Cedar....... Teeth chattered at the mention of Syria and unity and union....... As for us women, we smiled in silence, while our national dress — from head to foot — spoke all by itself, saying to those men: “Be ashamed, and get to work.”

The upshot, Nazik, is that our celebration was a brilliant success. I say our celebration. And if the Nahda keeps to this path, and with steps like these, we shall arrive before long at a first result.

The economic idea is spreading quickly in the cities. Homs is asking for a women's renaissance society to be founded, and so is Tripoli. Both cities ask me to come to them to found the societies — but where is the strength to come from?

I still suffer from my stomach and my intestines. I came here for rest, and to cut myself off from everything that occupies the mind.

Come to me, Nazik, and I will show you Lebanon and teach you to love it as I have loved Damascus.

A warm kiss from my soul to yours.

Salma