the Umayyad dynasty, well before the idea was first introduced to seventeenth century Europe. She was a highly regarded woman of great intelligence, and an expert in fashion and literature. She was the first woman to open her house to male and female guests, and organised evenings of music, literary criticism, and poetry. European influences Many of the Arab women who founded literary salons received at least part of their education in Europe or in European missionary schools, and were thus exposed to certain aspects of European culture, including the salon tradition. In this regard, the great impact of the colonial powers and the imposition of their culture and values on the region cannot be underestimated. However, that is by no means to say that the Arab women's literary salon was a passive imitation or export of European ideas. Rather, those men and women who travelled to Europe or who were well-read in European literature selected elements of the European tradition and fused them with the traditional Arab salons of old, which was typical of the Arab Renaissance. Moreover, in 1890, one of the French salonnières, Eugénie Le Brun, chose to hold a salon evening in Cairo in an effort to learn more about women's circles in Egypt, and to encourage the revival of the tradition. One of the salons said to have had an influence is Madame de Rambouillet's salon, which opened in 1618 and was held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet in Paris. It was the first and most famous salon in French history. Rambouillet made sure to distinguish her salon from an Academy, and emphasised entertainment as well as enlightenment. Like the later literary salons in the Arab world, the gatherings bore witness to the mingling of the literary elite, with male intellectuals and middle-class women. In a similar fashion to the salons in Cairo, topics such as religion, philosophy and history would be discussed, but it is noted that Rambouillet "...made sure the treatment of the subject was not heavy-handed." Mayy Ziyadah admired the French "salonnières", and made sure to write copious materials on the well-known French hostess, habituée and prominent woman of aristocratic Parisian society, Madame de Sévigné, who was herself influenced by her time spent at the Hôtel de Rambouillet. The great Egyptian nationalist and writer, Tāhā Husayn, who began attending Ziyadah's salon after she requested Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid bring him along on a