the strong bonds between the literary-cultural, social and political, and that the literary movement was key to liberating the 'collective consciousness' from the traditional norms that had stunted their progress. Men also began to acknowledge the importance of women's emancipation to national liberation and development at this time, and there is no doubt that increased interactions between male and female intellectuals within literary circles made an invaluable contribution. One of the first men to write about the liberation of women was Qāsim Amin, an influential literary figure at the turn of the twentieth century, argued for the emancipation of women for the sake of the Arab Renaissance, as did al-Tahtawi. Both of these men frequented Mayy Ziyadah's salon in Cairo. Thus women's desire for emancipation and men's nationalist dreams became the keystone in the advancement of society. In 1847, two great literary figures of the Arab cultural renaissance, Butrus Al-Bustani and Nasif Al-Yaziji, founded the first literary society, Jam'iyyat al-Adab wal-'Ulum (The Literary and Scientific Society). Its members were exclusively Syrian Christians and Europeans living and working in diplomatic and missionary circles. However, ten years later, al-Jam'iyya al-'Ilmiyya al-Suriyya (The Syrian Scientific Society) was established, and attracted Western-educated Muslims and Druze as well as Christians. In 1917, the Tunisian literary figure, Hassan Hosni Abdel-Wahab wrote about the urgent need for educated Muslim young women to take charge of the future and to 'awaken the nationalist spirit', as without this, 'life would turn to nihilism and its consequences'. Only a few years later in the 1920s, Manwia Al-Wartani and Habiba al-Minshari, became the leaders of a dynamic women's movement in Tunisia. Like these Tunisian pioneers, women of the upper and middle classes across the increasingly imagined Arab world began to reap the benefits of education, and many of them began to focus on writing and joined their male counterparts in contributing to the Arab Renaissance. One woman of particular significance to the awareness of the Arab Renaissance amongst women was Princess Nāzīl Fadīl (c.1884-1914). Her salon seems to have had an effect on its male guests, who were usually prominent members of the nationalist cause. The tradition of women's printing and press, an integral part of middle-class circles and the Renaissance, was also intertwined with the literary salon. Many hostesses produced letters and essays on issues discussed in salons, such as equality, women's rights and nationalism. In Palestine, for example, the