Jayyusi was born in Safed[2] to a Palestinian father, the Arab nationalist Subhi al-Khadra, and a Lebanese mother.

After attending secondary school in Jerusalem, she studied Arabic and English literature at the American University of Beirut.

In 1970, she received her PhD on Arabic literature from the University of London.

The title of her dissertation was "Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry".

In 1973, she was invited by the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to go on a lecture tour of Canada and the US, on a Ford Foundation Fellowship.