Jurji Zaydan[a] (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.

[1] Jurji Zaydan was born on December 14, 1861, in Beirut to an Eastern Orthodox Christian family of limited means that had probably originated in the Hauran region.

[2][4] However, he maintained a desire to educate himself by attending night classes in English until, in 1881, at the age of 20, he was admitted to the Syrian Protestant College as a medical student.

[2] He was particularly influenced by Samuel Smiles's book, Self-Help (published in 1859) to which he felt he could relate because of its emphasis on a rags-to-riches success story built upon hard work and perseverance.

Zaydan thus became critical of contemporaries such as Egyptian Mustafa Kamil Pasha and Ahmed Orabi, who were concerned solely with gaining independence from Western influence.

After a short stint in the Medical School of 'Ain Shams' and a military expedition with the British army to the Sudan, he turned his focus to developing his writing career.

[2] Yaqub Sarruf began publishing al-Muqtataf in 1876 with help from Cornelius Van Dyck and his Syrian Protestant College classmates Faris Namir and Shahin Makarius.

The magazine was concerned primarily covering modern scientific advancements, the first to do so in the Arab world, and it was known particularly known for its controversial coverage of the theory of evolution and Darwinism in the early 1880s.

His professional and personal life took a turn in 1891, with his marriage to Maryam Matar and the publication of his first historical novel, al-Mamluk al-Shariid (The Fleeing Mamluk).

His primary aim remained steady throughout his publication of Al-Hilal and his historical novels: to provide the common Arabic people with an accurate sense of their own history in an accessible, entertaining way.

The static characters, coupled with his straightforward, journalistic style were ideal for relating an objective and accurate history in the clearest way possible to the broad Arab public.

[2] Leaving behind a legacy that includes 23 published novels, numerous scholarly works, and a magazine then circulated in Persia, India, Japan, Western Africa, Zanzibar, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, and North and South America, he was one of the most prolific and renowned Arab writers of the time.

His impact left a lasting impression on the general Arab population as well as such literary giants as Taha Hussein, Naguib Mahfouz and poet Fadwa Tuqan.