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Home - el Khazen Family Prince of Maronites : Lebanese Families Keserwan Lebanon
Marie el Khazen 1908-1983
Written by Malek
Details

 Born in Lebanon at the beginning of the twentieth century, Marie el Khazen evolved into a modern, unconventional woman in a patriarchal society; a member of one of the oldest Lebanese families. Independent and with the famed Khazen sense of humor, her love of life and freedom inspired pastimes that encompassed broderie (with porcupine needles!), taxidermy, riding, driving, hunting, fishing, a fondness for animals, a love of literature and of course photography, at which she became famous only after her death. She grew up in a mansion in Tallet el Khazen, near Zgharta; her father being Said el Khazen, her mother Wardeh Torbey, and her grandmother Sultana Daher, the wife of Sheikh Fendi el Khazen, from Ghosta.

Rather than turning professional, Marie remained a serious amateur photographer. With her Eastman Kodak camera and keen on experimenting, she had the skills to set up and use her own darkroom. She would pose, and occasionally dress up her subjects, such as in the 1929 portrait of Two Women Disguised as Men, in which both Marie el Khazen and Alice her sister are sitting on plush chairs with their legs crossed, beneath an ancestral portrait within a handsome room in Talle. Dressed in suits and ties and wearing tarbooshes (traditional Arab hats), they are enjoying cigarettes in long elegant holders of the period,  and seem to be comfortable, even complacent in their newfound freedom.

 The New York Times art critic Adam Shatz said of it: "Such pictures don't come along often, but once seen, they are impossible to forget, lodging themselves in the mind with the visceral force of revelation."

Other photographs depict the family’s interest in country sports and automobiles, and Marie gave over 100 of her negatives to the journalist Mohsen Yammine, in the 1970’s. The Arab Image Foundation now has these and more, many of which have been included in exhibitions, that in the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris being significant. One of these, taken in 1924, shows Cheikh Khazen el Khazen and a young woman on horseback, looming over the subject in the foreground. A double exposure, the photograph overlays the figures   with a verdant landscape, creating a surreal but beautifully balanced composition.

 

1924 image by Marie El-Khazen (Credit: Mohsen Yammine collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation)

1924 image by Marie el Khazen (Mohsen Yammine collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation)

 

 

 

  

 

 

Khazen History

      

 

Historical Feature:

Churches and Monasteries of the Khazen family

St. Anthony of Padua Church in Ballouneh
Mar Abda Church in Bakaatit Kanaan
Saint Michael Church in Bkaatouta
Saint Therese Church in Qolayaat
Saint Simeon Stylites (مار سمعان العامودي) Church In Ajaltoun
Virgin Mary Church (سيدة المعونات) in Sheilé
Assumption of Mary Church in Ballouneh

1 The sword of the Maronite Prince
2 LES KHAZEN CONSULS DE FRANCE
3 LES MARONITES & LES KHAZEN
4 LES MAAN & LES KHAZEN
5 ORIGINE DE LA FAMILLE
 

Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans

ما جاء عن الثورة في المقاطعة الكسروانية 

ثورة أهالي كسروان على المشايخ الخوازنة وأسبابها

Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title

Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century

 Historical Members:

   Barbar Beik El Khazen [English]
  
 Patriach Toubia Kaiss El Khazen(Biography & Life Part1 Part2) (Arabic)
 
  Patriach Youssef Dargham El Khazen (Cont'd)
  
 Cheikh Bishara Jafal El Khazen 
   
 Patriarch Youssef Raji El Khazen
  
 The Martyrs Cheikh Philippe & Cheikh Farid El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
  
 Cheikh Hossun El Khazen (Consul De France)
  
 Cheikh Abou-Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France) 
  
 Cheikh Francis Abee Nader & his son Yousef 
  
 Cheikh Abou-Kanso El Khazen (Consul De France)
  
 Cheikh Abou Nader El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Chafic El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Keserwan El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Serhal El Khazen [English] 

    Cheikh Rafiq El Khazen  [English]
   
Cheikh Hanna El Khazen

    Cheikha Arzi El Khazen

 

 

Cheikh Jean-Philippe el Khazen website


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