Success stories of Palestinian achievers from all over the world

Kulthum Odeh

Personal Info

  • Country of residence: Palestine
  • Gender: Female
  • Born in: 1892
  • Age: 130
  • Curriculum vitae :

Information

Kulthum Odeh (1892-1965), a Palestinian writer, translator, and researcher who lived in the Soviet Union and had a prominent position among the founders of the Russian school of Arabization. She moved from Palestine to Russia after marrying a Russian doctor in 1913, and lived there during the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. She was imprisoned in 1948 for some after a letter she addressed to Stalin protesting his recognition of the Zionist state.

Birth
Kulthum was born into a well-known family in Nazareth on April 2, 1892, in Dar Nasr Auda in Haret al-Rum.
She says in her memoirs, "My appearance in this world was greeted with tears, and everyone knows how to receive the birth of a girl among us Arabs, especially if this miserable fifth of her sisters, and in a family that God did not give her a boy. They claimed that I was ugly in appearance, so I spoke little and kept away from people, and they only concerned me with education, and I did not mention anyone in our house who called me when I was young except “Sit Scott” or “Slooh” and my focus on education at first grew out of what I used to hear from my mother “Who will take you, O Salula, so that you will spend all your life with your brother’s wife as his servants?”
education
As a result of what Kulthum had suffered from ill-treatment by her parents, who claimed that she was ugly, she had no other concern for me than education. Women with physical disabilities or ugly, and in short words, whom no one proposed to marry.” After completing primary school, Kulthum’s attention turned to the Russian schools in Nazareth, where she says in her memoirs, “I used to hear from my mother, “Who will take you, O son, that you will spend all your life with your brother’s wife as servants?” The little one had this matter, and I started thinking about how to get rid of this miserable future, and I did not see a door to joy except with knowledge, and it was only a profession of teaching at that time that was permitted to women... It was the custom before the war that whoever was the first student in Russian primary schools learns in the indoor section for free and afterwards He gets my rank as a teacher, so I set out to work and achieved what I wanted. The credit for this goes to my father, as my late mother resisted with all her means my entry to school.” She joined the Russian Seminar in Beit Jala, and after graduating from it she returned to the city of Nazareth, where she worked as a teacher In the schools of the Russian (Moscobian) Society in the city.

the beginning
She practiced a literary activity by publishing articles in several magazines, including “Al-Nafa’at Al-Asriyya” in Haifa, “Al-Hilal” in Cairo, and “Al-Hasnaa” in Beirut.” Kulthum met in Nazareth for the first time at that time, the great Russian orientalist Ignatius Krachkovsky, who visited Palestine in the period (1908-1910). ) and played a major role in her later life. In his book “Arabic Manuscripts” Krachkovsky referred to his meeting with her, while his wife Vera Krachkovskaya wrote about her husband’s visit to Nazareth that he met two Palestinian teachers who participated in Krachkovsky’s tours in the region, one of them Kulthum Odeh.

marriage
In 1913 she married a Russian doctor, Ivan Vasiliev, who worked at the Russian Society Hospital in Nazareth. Note that Kulthum's father opposed this marriage, had it not been for the intervention of her uncle, Naguib Odeh, who went with her and Dr. Evan to Jerusalem, where their marriage contract was registered in the Russian Church in the Moskobiyeh of Jerusalem.

Kulthum Odeh in Russia
Kulthum and her husband traveled to Russia, who worked during the First World War at the front. Kulthum volunteered herself as a nurse. When the October Revolution took place, her husband joined the Red Army and in 1919 he contracted typhoid and died leaving his wife with three young daughters after five years of marriage. Kulthum worked as a farmer in Ukraine to support them. After this period, she began teaching Arabic at the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg University and obtained a doctorate in 1928 for her thesis on Arabic dialects. Krachkovsky provided great assistance to her in her later scientific career. During this period, Kulthum practiced translation from Russian into Arabic and vice versa.. Kulthum visited Nazareth in 1928 to meet her family, toured Palestine and met in Jerusalem Mufti Amin al-Husseini, and upon her return to Moscow, Kulthum taught at the Institute of Orientalism, and later moved to work at the Institute of International Relations. And at the Higher Diplomatic School. Kulthum was awarded Odeh with the Soviet Medal of Friendship among Peoples.

The Palestinian cause and Kulthum Odeh
Kulthum suffered greatly when the State of Israel was established and sent a letter to Stalin protesting the Soviet Union's recognition of the Jewish state. He imprisoned her and only the intervention of Krachkovsky and senior Russian scientists saved her.

The Palestine Liberation Organization awarded her the "Jerusalem Medal for Culture, Arts and Letters" in recognition of her cultural and political role in Russia.

her literary contribution
Translating the novel of the Iraqi writer Dhulnoun Ayoub "The Land, the Hand and the Water" into Russian
Translation of Krachkovsky's book on Ayad al-Tantawi into Arabic
say about herself
“Have you been happy in my life? Yes. I found in myself two qualities that are among the most important factors in the happiness of my life: the willingness to work with consistency in it, and love, loving everything, people, nature and work. This second quality is what always helps me in the most difficult situations in my life. Overcoming difficulties to achieve our goal is the greatest factor of happiness. If this is coupled with the happiness of those around us as well, there is a truly joyful life. I spent five years among those girls whom I used to teach. I help them as much as I can. They met me in the same way, and I always saw smiling faces and they accompanied me on many of my outings. I remember once visiting one of my friends and her twelve-year-old daughter was studying with me. I found my friend in bed, and she told me during the conversation that she was angry. Yesterday, against her daughter, when she said to her father: If my mother dies, then marry

 

source

Achievements and Awards

  • Marital status :
  • City :
  • Status :
  • Years in active : From To