Francis Marrash | |
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| Native name | فرنسيس بن فتح الله بن نصر الله مرّاش |
| Born | 1835[1] or 29 June 1836[a] Aleppo, Ottoman Syria |
| Died | 1874[b] Aleppo, Ottoman Syria |
| Occupation |
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| Language | Arabic |
| Period | Modern (19th century) |
| Genres | |
| Literary movement | Nahda |
| Relatives |
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Francis bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash (Arabic:فرنسيس بن فتح الله بن نصر الله مرّاش,ALA-LC:Fransīs bin Fatḥ Allāh bin Naṣr Allāh Marrāsh; 1835[1] or 29 June 1836[a] – 1874[b]), also known asFrancis al-Marrash orFrancis Marrash al-Halabi, was a Syrianscholar,[7] publicist,[7]writer andpoet of theNahda or the Arab Renaissance, and a physician. Most of his works revolve around science, history and religion, analysed under anepistemological light. He traveled throughoutWest Asia andFrance in his youth, and after somemedical training and a year of practice in his nativeAleppo, during which he wrote several works, he enrolled in amedical school inParis; yet, declining health and growing blindness forced him to return to Aleppo, where he produced moreliterary works until his early death.
Historian Matti Moosa considered Marrash to have been the first truly cosmopolitan Arab intellectual and writer of modern times. Marrash adhered to the principles of theFrench Revolution and defended them in his own works, implicitly criticizingOttoman rule inWest Asia andNorth Africa. He was also influential in introducingFrench romanticism in theArab world, especially through his use of poetic prose andprose poetry, of which his writings were the first examples in modernArabic literature, according toSalma Khadra Jayyusi andShmuel Moreh. His modes of thinking and feeling, and ways of expressing them, have had a lasting influence on contemporary Arab thought and on theMahjari poets.
Francis Marrash was born inAleppo, a city of Ottoman Syria (present-day Syria), to an oldMelkite family of merchants known for their literary interests.[8] Having earned wealth and standing in the 18th century, the family was well established in Aleppo,[9] although they had gone through troubles: a relative of Francis, Butrus Marrash, was killed by thewali's troops in the midst of aCatholic–Orthodox clash in April 1818.[10] Other Melkite Catholics were exiled from Aleppo during the persecutions, among them the priest Jibrail Marrash.[11][c] Francis' father, Fathallah, tried to defuse thesectarian conflict by writing a treatise in 1849, in which he rejected theFilioque.[13] He had built up a large private library[14] to give his three children Francis,Abdallah andMaryana a thorough education, particularly in the field of Arabic language and literature.[15]
Aleppo was then a major intellectual center of theOttoman Empire, featuring many thinkers and writers concerned with the future of the Arabs.[7] It was in the French missionary schools that the Marrash family learntArabic with French and other foreign languages (Italian and English).[7] But Francis at first studied the Arabic language and its literature privately.[16] At the age of four years, Marrash had contractedmeasles, and had ever since suffered from eye problems that had kept worsening over time.[17] Hoping to find a treatment, his father had therefore taken him to Paris in 1850; Francis stayed there for about a year, after which he was sent back to Aleppo while his father remained in Paris.[18][d] In 1853, Francis accompanied his father once again, on a business trip of several months toBeirut, where there was a noticeable presence and cultural influence of Europeans.[20] Francis experienced similar cultural contact later on, when he received private tutoring in medicine for four years under a British physician, in Aleppo—he had by then developed a keen interest in science, and in medicine in particular.[21] At the same time, he wrote and published several works.[22] Marrash practiced medicine for about a year;[16] however, deeming it safer for his trade to become a state-licensed physician, he went to Paris in 1866 so as to continue his medical education at a school.[21] But his fragile health and his growing blindness forced him to interrupt his studies within a year after his arrival.[16] He returned to Aleppo completely blind, but still managed to dictate his works.[7]
Around 1865, Marrash publishedGhabat al-haqq ("The Forest of Truth" or "The Forest of Justice"), an allegory about the conditions required to establish and maintain civilization and freedom.[23][e] This allegory relates the apocalyptic vision of a war between a Kingdom of Liberty and a Kingdom of Slavery, resolved by the capture of the latter's king and a subsequent trial before the King of Liberty, the Queen of Wisdom, the Vizier of Peace and Fraternal Love, the Commander of the Army of Civilization, with the Philosopher from the City of Light—who represents the author—as counsel.[27] In this work, Marrash expressed ideas of political and social reforms,[f] highlighting the need of the Arabs for two things above all: modern schools and patriotism "free from religious considerations".[29] In 1870, when distinguishing the notion of fatherland from that of nation and applying the latter to theregion of Syria, Marrash would point to the role played by language, among other factors, in counterbalancing religious and sectarian differences, and thus, in defining national identity.[30]
Although Marrash's poetical expression lacked the legal meticulousness found in works fromEnlightened Europe,[31] orientalistShmuel Moreh has stated that Marrash became, withGhabat al-haqq, "the first Arab writer to reflect the optimism andhumanistic view of 18th-century Europe. This view stemmed from the hope that education, science and technology would resolve such problems of humanity as slavery, religious discrimination, illiteracy, disease, poverty, war, and other scourges of mankind, and it gave utterance to his hope for brotherhood and equality among peoples."[32] Yet, his views on freedom differed from those of the French revolutionists and of his Middle Eastern contemporaries; indeed, he considered pleading for freedom on the basis of natural analogy to be superficial, for even nature responds to its own set of rules, according to Marrash.[33] As a consequence, nothing in the universe may yearn for liberty without satisfying essential rules and needs that guarantee its existence.[33] Being one of these, the need for progress may therefore justify the abolition of any restriction that does not serve as a regulator for a good system.[33] In light of this reasoning, and in reference to the ongoingAmerican Civil War, he thus inGhabat al-haqq supported the abolition of slavery.[34]
It is by Love that the whole world is maintained, [by Love all things move,] by Love each creature perpetuates itself separately, and by Love the whole preserves its parts [and so forth]. [...] He who calls Love the goddess of human society is not wrong, because of the strange effects and miraculous impressions produced by her among men. If a statue of her were to [be created] and set upon the altar of the mind, it would take the form of a woman who is all fair, without one blemish.
But the significance of this work also lay in Marrash's attempt to blend European thought with his own reading of the Christian belief in universal love.[36] Indeed, he had tried to reconcile his philosophical understanding of the concept of liberty with his belief in the benevolence of the Catholic Church's authority.[37] As stated byNazik Saba Yared:
He argued that only the spiritual kingdom [i.e. the kingdom centered on religion] could curb evil [...] and consequently guarantee the freedom of man. Love is one of the pillars of Christianity, and Marrash, like someSufis and Romantics, considered it to be the basis of civilization, indeed of the entire universe [...]. Since love, for Marrash, was the general law, and freedom meant participation in that law, it followed that freedom would be inseparable from love and religion.[31]
In 1867, Marrash publishedRihlat Baris, an account of his second journey to Paris.[22] The book begins with a description of his progress from Aleppo toİskenderun,Latakia,Tripoli, Beirut,Jaffa,Alexandria,Cairo, and then back to Alexandria from which he had boarded a ship toMarseille, where he arrived in October 1866.[38] The Arab cities had inspired in him revulsion and indifference, except Alexandria and Cairo, whereIsmail Pasha had already begun modernization projects.[39] He had then travelled through France, with a stopover inLyon before ending up in Paris.[39] Marrash was fascinated by France, and by Paris the most; everything he described in his account, from theParis Exhibition of 1867 togas lighting in the streets, served to praise the accomplishments of Western civilization.[40] InMashhad al-ahwal ("The Witnessing of the Stages of Human Life"), published in 1870, Marrash would again compare the East and the West, writing that "while the East sank deeper into darkness, the West embraced light".[41] The optimism he had formerly expressed about the first reform currents under the reign ofSultan Abdülaziz in the Ottoman Empire[g] gave way to pessimism inMashhad al-ahwal, as he realized these reforms were superficial and that those he had hoped for would not soon come into being.[43] Yet, inDurr al-sadaf fi ghara'ib al-sudaf (Pearl Shells in Relating Strange Coincidences), which he published two years later, he depicted the Lebanese social life of his day and criticised the blind imitation of Western customs and the use of the French language in everyday life.[44]
Throughout his life, Marrash composed many essays about science (especially mathematics), and about education,[45] a subject which mattered a lot to him; indeed, he wrote inGhabat al-haqq that "without the education of the mind, man is a mindless beast".[46] He also wrote many articles in the popular press;[47] in those published inButrus al-Bustani's journalAl-Jinan, he showed himself favourable to women's education, which he restricted however to reading, writing, and a little bit of arithmetic, geography and grammar.[22] In an 1872 issue ofAl-Jinan, he wrote that it is not necessary for a woman "to act like a man, neglect her domestic and family duties, or that she should consider herself superior to the man"; he nonetheless closely followed his sister's studies.[7] Marrash also condemned Arab men's severe treatment of their wives and daughters.[48] In his later works, he tried to demonstrate the existence of God and of the divine law; theSharia, as he conceived it, was not restricted to the sphere of theIslamic law alone.[7]
Writings published in periodicals:
| Title | Periodical | Date | Translated title |
|---|---|---|---|
| الكون العاقل | Al-Jinan | August 1870 (16) | |
| القرن التاسع عشر | Al-Jinan | September 1870 (18) | |
| التمدن والمتوحش | Al-Jinan | October 1870 (20) | |
| النور[١] | Al-Jinan | December 15, 1871 (2) | |
| النور[٢] | Al-Jinan | February 1, 1871 (3) | |
| الجرائد | Al-Jinan | March 1, 1871 (5) | |
| سياحة العقل | Al-Jinan | April 15, 1871 (8) | |
| رسالة من حلب | Al-Jinan | July 15, 1871 (14) | |
| السلوك | Al-Jinan | September 15, 1871 (18) | |
| يوم باريز | Al-Jinan | March 1, 1872 (5) | |
| موشح | Al-Jinan | March 15, 1872 (6) | |
| الأمانة | Al-Jinan | April 15, 1872 (8) | |
| المرأة بين الخشونة والتمدن | Al-Jinan | September 1, 1872 (17) | Woman between Coarseness and Civilization |
| في تربية النساء | Al-Jinan | November 15, 1872 (22) | On the Education of Women[53] |
| الأعيان | Al-Jinan | February 15, 1873 (4) | |
| الانسان | Al-Jinan | January 1, 1874 (1) | |
| حل لغز عبدالمجيد أفندي ناميه | Al-Jinan | April 15, 1874 (8) |
Mention no longer the driver on his night journey and the wide striding camels, and give up talk of morning dew and ruins. [...]
I no longer have any taste for love songs on dwellings which already went down in seas of [too many] odes. [...]
So, too, theghada, whose fire, fanned by the sighs of those enamored of it, cries out to the poets: "Alas for my burning!"[i] [...]
If a steamer leaves with my friends on sea or land, why should I direct my complaints to the camels?
Marrash often included poems in his works, written inmuwashshah andzajal forms according to the occasion.[55] Shmuel Moreh has stated that Marrash tried to introduce "a revolution in diction, themes, metaphor and imagery in modern Arabic poetry",[56][j] sometimes even mocking conventional poetic themes.[58] In the introduction to his poetry bookMir'at al-hasna' (The Mirror of the Beautiful One), which was first published in 1872, Marrash rejected even thetraditional genres of Arabic poetry, particularlypanegyrics andlampoons.[59] His use of conventional diction for new ideas marked the rise of a new stage in Arabic poetry which was carried on by theMahjaris.[55] Shmuel Moreh has also considered some passages fromGhabat al-haqq andRihlat Baris to be prose poetry, while Salma Khadra Jayyusi has described his prosaic writing as "often Romantic in tone, rising sometimes to poetic heights, declamatory, vivid, colourful and musical", calling it the first example of poetic prose in modern Arabic literature.[60]
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Kahlil Gibran was a great admirer of Marrash,[61] whose works he had read atal-Hikma School in Beirut.[62] According to Shmuel Moreh, Gibran's own works echo Marrash's style and "many of [his] ideas on enslavement, education, women's liberation, truth, the natural goodness of man, and the corrupted morals of society".[63]Khalil Hawi has referred to Marrash's aforementioned philosophy of universal love as having left a deep impression on Gibran.[64] Moreover, Khalil Hawi has stated that many of Marrash's recurring expressions became stock images for Arab writers of the 20th century: he has mentioned, for example, "the valleys of mental contemplation", "the wings of thoughts", "solicitudes and dreams", "the veils of history", "the Kingdom of the Spirit", "the nymphs of the forest, the spring and the dawn", "golden diadems", "the jewels of light", "the storms of days and nights", and "the smoke of revenge and the mist of anger".[64]
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