The impact of American protestant missions in lebanon on the construction of female identity, c. 1860-1950

Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations

Volumn 13, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 411-426

  Fleischmann, Ellen ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84937383631     PISSN: 09596410     EISSN: 14699311     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0959641022000016393     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Fleischmann, Ellen L., 1998. '"Our Moslem sisters": women of Greater Syria in the eyes of American Protestant missionary women'. Islam and Christian--Muslim Relations, 9 (3): 319 This was my initial conclusion in an earlier work. See
2. al-Sayegh, Fatma Hassan. 1998. 'American women missionaries in the Gulf: agents for cultural change'. Islam and Christian--Muslim Relations, 9 (3): 341 Writers on missionaries in the Middle East seem almost unanimous in assuming the 'far-reaching' cultural and intellectual impact of the missionaries, yet these claims are made without recourse to direct evidence from those on the receiving end of the encounter, due most probably to the problem of finding such sources
3. Kanafani, Fay Afaf. 1999. Nadia: captive of hope: memoir of an Arab woman, Armonk NY/London: M. E. Sharpe. The problem of finding historical sources which represent Arab women's points-of-view and speak in their voices is a perennial one for researchers of women and gender in the Arab lands and the Middle East in general, and is beyond the scope of this essay. In some cases, the sources simply may not exist, in which case the researcher either abandons the topic altogether, or attempts a creative reading of whatever can be found in the way of sources. In the case of this research, trying to find sources has already taken me to Washington DC, Beirut and Philadelphia. More time is needed to travel to other parts of the globe, since the sources are so scattered. Recent years have witnessed a modest growth in publication of memoirs written by Arab women, but they still remain scarce. See, for example
4. Huber, Mary Taylor, and Lutkehaus, Nancy C., 1999. “ 'Introduction: gendered missions at home and abroad,' ”. In Gender Missions: women and men in missionary discourse and practice, 8–9. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. idem
5. Hill, Patricia R., 1985. The World Their Household: the American women's foreign mission movement and cultural transformation, 1870-1920, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
6. Bowie, Fiona, Kirkwood, Deborah, and Ardener, Shirley, eds. 1993. Women and Missions, Past and Present: historical and anthropological perspectives, Oxford: Berg.
7. Huber and Lutkehaus. “ 'Introduction' ”. 13
8. This was the title of a journal published by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church
9. Jessup, Rev. Henry Harris. 1873. The Women of the Arabs, 209New York: Dodd & Mead.
10. Brown, Arthur Judson. 1936. One Hundred Years: 'history of the foreign missionary work of the Presbyterian Church in the US', with some account of countries, peoples and problems of modern missions, 982New York: Revell.
11. Tibawi, A. L., 1966. American Interests in Syria: 1800-1901: a study of educational, literary and religious work, London: Oxford University Press.
12. Fleischmann. “ '"Our Moslem sisters"' ”. 309–10.
13. Brown. One Hundred Years 979
14. Minutes of a meeting of the Syria Mission, Syria Mission Records 498/1 (hereafter SMR), January 24, 1889
15. Jessup. Women of the Arabs 76–7.
16. Nicol, James. 1956. An Outline History of the American Junior College for Women and the Beirut College for Women 1 unpublished manuscript, (Nicol was president of the Beirut College for Women beginning in World War II.)
17. Scherer, Margaret M., 1930. 'Standing on their own feet'. Women and Missions, 7 (9) December: 329 A certain hyperbole surrounding this theme is exemplified by the following quote from Women and Missions: 'Just to think that when our first Presbyterian missionary wives, who came to Syria almost 100 years ago, tried to do something for girls they were met with blank looks of astonishment and the remark, "Why should you teach girls? Would you teach cows?" '
18. Jessup. Women of the Arabs 515288
19. Brown. One Hundred Years 985
20. Jessup, Mr H. H., 1889. 'Education of girls in Syria'. Woman's Work for Woman, 4 (12): 321
21. Tucker, Judith E., 1999. “ 'Women in the Middle East and North Africa: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,' ”. In Women in the Middle East and North Africa: restoring women to history, Edited by: Nashat, Guity, and Tucker, Judith E., 82Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
22. Tibawi. American Interests in Syria 133142162
23. Nicol. Outline History 1–3.
24. Brown. One Hundred Years 1005
25. Nicol. Outline History 5
26. McGilvary, Margaret. 1920. Story of Our Syria Mission, 12New York: Board of Foreign Missions Presbyterian Church of the US.
27. AlbertHourani. 1991. History of the Arab Peoples, 316Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
28. DeNovo, John A., 1963. American Interests and Policies in the Middle East, 1900-1939, 319Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
29. Nicol. Outline History 3
30. Nicol. Outline History 3–4.
31. Nicol. Outline Hisrtory 5–52. Irwin to Speer, BFM-SM. Except where noted, the historical narrative of the college isfrom
32. DeNovo. American Interests 333
33. Brown. Hundred Years 1005
34. 1993. Twosome, Jerusalem: Habesch Press. In my research on Palestinian women of the British Mandate period, which took me to Amman, Jerusalem, Israel, numerous West Bank communities and Beirut, I constantly came across graduates living in these different places who knew each other. (I used many oral interviews in my research.) I found myself in the anomalous position of conveying greetings from women to their old college friends. One graduate, HaIa Sakakini, describes her and her sister Dumia's experiences at AJC in 1943 in her book
35. Riley, Isaac. 1874. Syrian Home-life, from Materials Furnished by Rev. Henry Harris Jessup, 49New York: Dodd & Mead.
36. Teagarden, Irene. 1929. 'Home economics in Syria'. Women and Missions, 6 (9) December: 342344
37. Wilson, Lois. 1939. 'Through the eyes of our graduates'. Syria News Quarterly, 9 (3) April: 16
38. 1940. 'Tripoli Girls' School'. Syria News Quarterly, 10 (2) January: 11
39. Shannon, Winifred. 1926. '"Syrian Girls" conference'. Women and Missions, 3 (9) December: 349 The missionaries often commented favorably on their Muslim students' 'interest in things religious'
40. Report on the American School for Girls in Syria News Quarterly 10: 2, January 1940, 8
41. Shannon. “ '"Syrian Girls" conference' ”. 348
42. Glockler, Annie J., 1941. 'American School for Girls'. Syria News Quarterly, 12 (1) October: 27
43. Dana, Lanice Paton. 1920. 'Reconstruction problems in Syria'. Woman's Work for Woman, 35 (11): 243
44. Dr Harfouche. Pioneering Profiles, 174–5. Sabri, quoting
45. DeNovo. American Interests 12
46. McGilvary, Margaret. 1920. The Dawn of a New Era in Syria, 44New York: Revell.
47. McGilvary. Story of Our Syria Mission 17
48. Stolzfus, W. A., 1939. 'The American Junior College for Women'. Syria News Quarterly, 10 (3) April: 13
49. Naundorf, Helen. 1941. 'American Junior College for Women'. Syria News Quarterly, 12 (1) October: 23
50. Fleischmann, Ellen L., 1996. 'Crossing the boundaries of history: exploring oral history in researching Palestinian women in the Mandate period'. Women's History Review, 5 (3): 351–71. I was originally (naively) interested only in soliciting information about their political or organizational involvement, as I was writing a history of the Palestinian women's movement. I did not recognize in the initial stages of my research something which they did: the crucial links between their politicization, nationalism, sense of self and education. See