{{Short description|Lebanese Christian writer}} [[File:Layyah Barakat (Warren Times Mirror, 1911).png|thumb|1911]] '''Layyah Faris Anton Alkazin Barakat''' (circa 1858— December 4, 1940) was a [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]]-born Christian missionary, writer, temperance activist, and prison reformer, based after 1882 in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]. She was the first [[Lebanese American]] woman to write and publish her autobiography, when ''A Message from Mount Lebanon'' was published in 1912.
==Early life== Layyah Faris Anton Alkazin was born in [[Aabey|Abeih]] in the [[Double Qaim-Maqamate of Mount Lebanon]]. Her father died in the [[1860 Mount Lebanon civil war]].<ref>Mrs. S. Brainard Pratt, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hI8VAAAAYAAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=RA1-PA300 "May Meeting"] ''Life and Light for Women'' (August 1884): 300.</ref> She was educated by German missionaries, and at an American girls' school in Beirut.<ref>Julia Hauser, [https://books.google.com/books?id=n329BwAAQBAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA122 ''German Religious Women in Late Ottoman Beirut: Competing Missions''] (BRILL 2015): 122. {{ISBN|9789004290785}}</ref>
==Career== In Beirut and [[Cairo]], Layya Alkazin Barakat worked with Presbyterian missionaries as a teacher.<ref>Henry Clay Trumbull, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HMRUAAAAYAAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA205 ''Old Time Student Volunteers: My Memories of Missionaries''] (Revell Company 1902): 205.</ref> She escaped the [[‘Urabi revolt]] in 1882<ref>Linda K. Jacobs, [https://lebanesestudies.ojs.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/mashriq/article/view/41/101 "Playing East: Arabs Play Arabs in Nineteenth Century America"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921021452/https://lebanesestudies.ojs.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/mashriq/article/view/41/101 |date=2023-09-21 }} ''Mashriq & Mahjar'' 2(2)(2014): 79-110.</ref> and immigrated to the United States that year, with her daughter, her husband, his brother, and other family members.<ref name="MEB">Muhanna Eisa Barakat, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aolBAAAAYAAJ&q=Layyah&pg=PA23 ''A Thrilling Experience of Rev. M.E. Barakat, B.A.: The First and as Yet the Only Minister Preaching in this Country from Damascus''] (Swedish Publishing Company 1896): 23.</ref> [[File:A message from Lebanon 1912.jpg|thumb|"A Message from Mount Lebanon"]] In the United States Layyah Barakat took an interest in reform work, especially prison reform and temperance. She served on committees of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, touring and inspecting prisons with other concerned men and women.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XSkSAAAAYAAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA1 "Officers of the Society for 1907"] ''The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy'' (January 1907).</ref> She was a delegate to the fourth world conference of the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] in [[Toronto]] in 1897.<ref>Ian Tyrrell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5GWVAwAAQBAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA46 ''Woman's World/Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930''] (UNC Press 2014): 46. {{ISBN|9781469620800}}</ref> She was "a delightful public speaker... much in demand"<ref>[[Louise Seymour Houghton]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=CbMyAQAAMAAJ&dq=Layyah%20Barakat&pg=PA964 "The Syrian as an American Citizen"] ''The Survey'' (October 7, 1911): 964.</ref> for women's church groups, where she was admired for her "sweet face and simple story",<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=viorAAAAYAAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA586 "Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of Friends of Philadelphia"] ''Friends' Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal'' (April 21, 1883): 586.</ref> but also for her "fervent eloquence".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ioJIAAAAYAAJ&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA1 ''The Heathen Woman's Friend''] (July 1886): 1.</ref>
Layyah Barakat's autobiography, ''A Message from Mount Lebanon'' (1912),<ref>Layyah A. Barakat, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ja4mAEACAAJ ''A Message from Mount Lebanon''] (Sunday School Times Company 1912).</ref> is believed to be the first autobiography by an Arab-American woman to be published.<ref>Michael W. Suleiman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IX1awo2iK6YC&dq=Layyah+Barakat&pg=PA241 "The Arab-American Left"] in Paul Buhle, Dan Georgakas, eds., ''The Immigrant Left in the United States'' (SUNY Press 1996): 241. {{ISBN|9780791428832}}</ref> In 1919 she carried donated food and clothing to Syria.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6435074/layyah_aids_syrians/ "Philadelphia Woman to Aid Syrians"] ''Evening Public Ledger'' (June 20, 1919): 11. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref> In 1922, a small orphanage for girls in [[Aabey|Abeih]] was opened by Protestant missionaries and named after Layyah Barakat, in recognition of her fundraising work. She traveled back to her hometown to attend the opening.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11689969/barakat_orphanage_1922/ "To Aid Syrian Tots"] ''Evening Public Ledger'' (July 3, 1922): 11. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref>
==Personal life== Layyah Alkazin married Elias Barakat, a fellow Christian missionary in Egypt; they had three children. Elias Barakat died in 1909. Layyah Barakat died December 4, 1940,<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/news/docview/105271870/5361945619DC4716PQ/1 "Mrs. Elias Barakat"] ''New York Times'' (December 6, 1940): 25.</ref> and was interred at [[West Laurel Hill Cemetery]] in [[Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Layyah A. Barakat |url=https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/layyah-a-barakat?id=70Pjzjdo |website=remembermyjourney.com |publisher=webCemeteries |access-date=28 January 2026}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://blogs.libraries.indiana.edu/wyliehouse/2017/03/09/a-photograph-from-the-wylie-house-collection-is-identified/ A photograph of Layyah Alkazin Barakat as a younger woman], in the Wylie House image collection, Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington. *[https://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&uri=full=3100001~!362117~!0#focus A photograph of Layyah Alkazin Barakat later in life], in the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barakat, Layyah}} [[Category:1857 births]] [[Category:1940 deaths]] [[Category:Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery]] [[Category:Presbyterian missionaries in the United States]] [[Category:Lebanese Christian missionaries]] [[Category:Lebanese emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:Female Christian missionaries]] [[Category:People from Aley District]] [[Category:Activists from Philadelphia]] [[Category:Woman's Christian Temperance Union people]]
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