Salma Khadra Jayyusi (; 16 April 1925 – 20 April 2023) was a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She was the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provide translation of

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

into English.

Biography

Jayyusi was born in

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

to a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

father, the

Arab nationalist Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

Subhi al-Khadra, and a Lebanese mother. After attending secondary school in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, she studied

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

. She married a Jordanian diplomat, with whom she travelled and raised three children.Personality of the Month: Salma Khadra Jayyusi
''This Week in Palestine'', Issue No. 114, October 2007. Accessed 11 September 2012. In 1960, she published her first poetry collection, ''Return from the Dreamy Fountain''. In 1970, she received her PhD on Arabic literature from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. The title of her dissertation was "Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry". She taught at the

University of Khartoum The University of Khartoum (U of K) () is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 1956 when Sudan gained independen ...

from 1970 to 1973 and at the universities of

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

and

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...

from 1973 to 1975. In 1973, she was invited by the

Middle East Studies Association of North America Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and enco ...

(MESA) to go on a lecture tour of Canada and the US, on a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

Fellowship. In 1975, the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

invited her to return as a visiting professor of Arabic literature, and from then on, she was based at various universities in the United States. To encourage the wider dissemination of Arabic literature and culture, Jayyusi founded the Project of Translation from Arabic in 1980, and later founded East-West Nexus, a project for making Arabic scholarly works available in English. Jayyusi died on 20 April 2023, four days after her 98th birthday, in

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Works

*
Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry
', 2 vols, 1977 * (ed.)
Modern Arabic poetry: an anthology
', 1987 * (ed.)
The Literature of modern Arabia: an anthology
', Columbia University Press, 1988 * (ed.)
Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature
', Columbia University Press, 1992 * (ed.)
The Legacy of Muslim Spain
', 2 vols, 1992 * (ed.)
Modern Arabic drama: an anthology
', 1995 * (tr. with Trevor LeGassick) '' The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist'' by Emile Habibi, 2002. * (ed.)
Short Arabic plays: an anthology
', 2003. * (ed.)
Modern Arabic fiction: an anthology
', 2004. * (ed.)
Beyond the dunes: an anthology of modern Saudi literature
', 2005 * (ed.)
Human rights in Arab thought: a reader
', 2009 * (ed.)
Classical Arabic stories: an anthology
', 2010.

Awards

*2006 Al Owais Award: Cultural & Scientific Achievements *2020

Sheikh Zayed Book Award The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is a literary award presented yearly to writers, intellectuals, publishers whose writings and scholarly publications contributed to Arab cultural, literary and social life. The award has been described as “the Arab ...

: Cultural Personality of the Year

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jayyusi, Salma Khadra 1920s births Year of birth uncertain 2023 deaths People from Safed 20th-century Palestinian poets 20th-century Jordanian poets Arabic–English translators

Jayyusi Al-Jayyusi (; also spelled ''Jayousi'', ''Jayossi'', ''Jayyousi'', or ''Juyushi'') is a prominent Palestinian business and political clan whose members acted as rulers, local lords, army generals and tax collectors since the 11th century. They we ...

Alumni of the University of London Academic staff of the University of Khartoum Women anthologists 21st-century Palestinian poets Palestinian women poets 20th-century Palestinian women writers 21st-century Palestinian women writers 21st-century Jordanian poets Palestinian translators