qanun and sang beautifully. Aleppine historian Muhammad Raghib al-Tabbakh wrote that she was unique in Aleppo, and that "people looked at her with a different eye". Although she had many suitors, she initially wished to remain single. However, she was persuaded to marry after her mother's death, and chose for husband Habib Ghadban, a scion of a local Christian family. They had one son and two daughters. Literary career As early as 1870, Marrash started contributing articles and poems to journals—especially Al-Jinan and Lisan al-hal, both of Beirut. In her articles, she criticized the condition of Arab women, urging the latter—regardless of their religious affiliations—to seek education and express themselves on matters of concern to them. Her collection of poetry Bint fikr (A Daughter of Thought) was published in Beirut in 1893. Marrash was granted permission by the Ottoman government to print her book after composing a poem exalting Sultan Abdul Hamid II. In some of the several other panegyrics included in the collection, she also praised Ottoman governors of Aleppo. Her poetry was much more traditional in style than her brother Francis', as exemplified by the elegy she composed to lament his death; yet, she was at home with the poetry of French romantics, especially that of Alphonse de Lamartine and Alfred de Musset. Sami Kayyali said about Marrash: The emergence of a woman writing in the press and composing poetry in this dark era was a significant event. Our recent history shows that it was rare for even men to read and write; her appearance in these dark nights was thus like a bright star in the center of the heavens. Her non-fiction works also include a history of late Ottoman Syria, [Tarikh] [Suriya] al-hadith, the first book on the subject. Marrash's salon Marrash was famous for the salon she held in the home she shared with her husband. She had travelled to Europe once, and was impressed by what she saw of life there. As related by Joseph Zeidan:Upon her return in Aleppo, Maryana Marrash turned her house into a gathering place for a group of celebrated writers who met there on a regular basis to cultivate each other's friendship and discuss literature, music, and political and social issues. However, according to Joseph Zeidan, there are no proofs supporting whether or not she created her salon after seeing similar ones in Europe; in any case, it did