Maryana Marrash

Maryana bint Fathallah Marrash was born into a cultured Melkite Greek Catholic family in Aleppo; her brothers Fransis and Abdallah Marrash were also celebrated writers of the Nahda. Educated in French, English, and Arabic, she became the first Arab woman in the Levant to publish articles in modern periodicals such as Al-Jinan and Lisan al-Hal.

In 1870, Marrash published her poetic collection Bint Fikr (Daughter of Thought), the first published diwan by a woman in the modern Arab world. Her home in Aleppo became legendary as the first modern literary salon where male and female intellectuals, poets, and musicians met openly for intellectual debate and musical performance.