Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Zaydan
جرجي زيدان
Born(1861-12-14)December 14, 1861
Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Syria (present-day Lebanon)
Died July 21, 1914(1914-07-21) (aged 52)
Cairo, Egypt
OccupationWriter, novelist, journalist, editor and teacher
Literary movementPan-Arabism

Jurji Zaydan (Arabic: جرجي زيدان, ALA-LC: Jurjī Zaydān; December 14, 1861 – July 21, 1914) was a prolific Lebanese novelist, journalist, editor and teacher, most noted for his creation of the magazine Al-Hilal, which he used to serialize his twenty three historical novels.

His primary goal, as a writer and intellectual during the Nahda, was to make the common Arabic population know their own history through the entertaining medium of the novel. He has enjoyed a widespread popularity. He is also considered to have been one of the first thinkers to help formulate the theory of Arab nationalism.