Hind Nawfal Is Dead

A virtuous daughter of Beirut. Founder of women's journalism in the language of the Arabs. The first Lebanese woman journalist.

Daughter of two writers: Nasim Abdallah Nawfal and Maryam Mikhail Nahhas. Granddaughter of a woman of letters and a horsewoman, Angelina Nawfal.

Her father was the author of the two books "The Keeper of the Peace" — Alexander III, Tsar of Russia — and "Youssef Karam," the hero of Lebanon.

Her mother was the author of "The Gallery of the Fair," biographies of famous women.

Our Hind was born in our Beirut in 1875, and began her learning in some of its schools.

She traveled with her parents and her sister Sara to Alexandria, and continued her studies there.

The sister was a clever woman of letters.

She practiced the writer's craft in the two papers "al-Ahram" and "Lisan al-Hal."

And she asked the scholars of the language to choose two Arabic words for the two French words "dame" and "demoiselle."

She obtained a license to found a women's magazine; and when the Latakia notable Iskandar Ilyas asked for her hand, the license passed to her sister.

So Hind founded her magazine "al-Fatah," in Alexandria, sixty-five years ago, on November 20, 1892.

The first of the women's magazines in the Arabic language.

Its editor-in-chief was her father, Nasim.

And when she was wedded to Habib Bey Dabbaneh, in the summer of 1897, her father carried the magazine on for two years.

Our first, gracious woman journalist then gave herself to family life, to the care of the affairs of the household, and to the performance of social duties.

And when her husband passed into God's mercy, she was wedded to his brother, Youssef Bey.

The two of them returned to Beirut ten years ago.

She was widowed three years ago.

Her sister's son, the engineer Mr. Rudolf Ilyas, then cared for her as a son cares for his mother.

Our woman of letters Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah described her beautifully in her magazine "The New Woman," thirty years ago.

And our historian, the Viscount Philippe de Tarrazi, composed a lovely poem for her, which he published in his diwan "Qurrat al-'Ayn."

And I myself described her magazine "al-Fatah" in our dear magazine "The Woman's Voice," in the issue of September 1946.

Her health declined for two years, and she passed into God's mercy in Ras Beirut on March 7, 1957. Mourned; remembered for her letters and her fine character.