Narrative
Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess
Maria Theresa Asmar · 1844
Synopsis
The author, daughter of Emir Abdallah Asmar, recounts her birth near the ruins of Nineveh, her childhood in Baghdad and Mosul, the plague and the persecutions that strike the Christians, the harems she visits, the girls' school she founds and which a European missionary ruins, then her life among the Bedouins. The second volume follows her to Jerusalem and Mount Tabor, then to Lebanon, where Emir Bashir receives her in his palace at Beiteddine and where she meets Lady Hester Stanhope, before her departure for Europe.
Context
The book appeared in London in 1844 from Henry Colburn, in two volumes and more than seven hundred pages, with a dedication to the Queen Dowager and a preface dated May 1844. Its title page says it was written by the author herself and translated into English, without naming the original language or the translator. She writes in it to make the customs of the East known and to warn against imprudent trust, after years of reverses in Europe.
Who it is for
In English, in a translation made during the author's lifetime; two volumes, between memories, scenes of manners and travel narratives.
Prizes and reception
The book made its author known in Europe under the name of Princess of Babylon, and remains her best-known work.