| Birth Date: | 1890 |
| Death Date: | 27 March |
Nazira Jumblatt (18901951) was a Druze leader and the mother of Lebanese politician and Kamal Jumblatt. She was styled sitt (lady in Arabic).[1]
Nazira was born in 1890, and her parents were Faris and Afrida Said Jumblatt.[2] Her maternal grandfather, Said, died in prison of tuberculosis on 11 May 1861.[3] She was educated at home by her grandmother and private teachers and learned both English and French.[2]
She married Fouad Jumblatt in 1905 when she was 15.[2] Their children were Kamal Jumblatt and Linda Al Atrash who was killed in her house in East Beirut on 27 May 1976 during the civil war.[2] [4] [5] Nazira took on the political role and the leadership of the Jumblatt family upon the assassination of her husband Fouad Jumblatt in 1921.[2] [6] She ran the family affairs until 1943 when her son Kamal took the reins of political and family leadership into his own hands.[2] [6] Unlike her son, she was close to the French authorities.[2]
Following the assassination of Fouad Jumblatt, the Jumblatt family groups, the Mukhtara and the Biramiya groups, had internal conflicts.[6] The former was led by Nazira, and the latter by Ali Jumblatt and his son Hikmat who challenged the leadership of Nazira.[6] Nazira managed to end this struggle in 1937 when her daughter Linda married Hikmat.[6] Through Nazira's attempts the Druze rebellion in Hauran occurred between 1925 and 1927 did not expand to other regions.[6] One of her personal friend and and advisers was Paul Peter Meouchi, a Maronite bishop.[7] Nazira died on 27 March 1951.[8]
French novelist Pierre Benoit used Al-Sitt Nazira as the model for the heroine of his 1924 novel La Châtelaine du Liban (the Châtelaine of Lebanon).[9] [10] Sitt Nazira was also the main subject of the 2003 Lebanese documentary Lady of the Palace.