View source for Maria Theresa Asmar

{{Infobox person
| name = Maria Theresa Asmar
| image = Maria Theresa Asmar.png
| birth_date = 1804
| birth_place = [[Tel Keppe]], Iraq
| death_date = France
}}
'''Maria Theresa Asmar'''  an ethnic [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]], (born 1804 in [[Tel Keppe]], Iraq) is the author of ''Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess'', which consists of two volumes and 720 pages. This book was written in the early 19th century, describing her travels through [[Turkey]], Syria, [[Lebanon]], and [[Israel]] and the [[harem]] system used in Turkey. It was translated into English in 1844. Maria Theresa Asmar died in France before the [[Franco-Prussian War]],{{Citation needed|reason=I cannot find any record of her death.|date=December 2011}} and was known as Babylon's Princess in Europe.

Facing tremendous obstacles, Asmar, an [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] woman, set up a school for women in [[Baghdad]] and welcomed with open arms western Christian [[missionaries]], who then bribed the [[Turkish government]] to give them the licence for the school and forbid Maria to carry on with her project. Left frustrated and angry to have been treated this way by fellow Christians, she sought [[sanctuary]] with the [[Muslim]] [[Bedouin]]s. She set about recording their daily lives, everything from the weddings and celebrations to their assaults on other tribes. She explains in great detail Bedouin life.

==Bibliography==
*''Memories of Maria Theresa Asmar An Iraqi Woman's Journey into Victorian London'' (2009), Emily Porter PhD (editor). Fadaat House for Publishing, Distributing and Printing, Amman, Jordan.

==External links==
*[http://www.archive.org/details/memoirsababylon00asmagoog Digitized copy of ''Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess'']
<!-- dead link [http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/history/seminar/belgiojoso/belgiojosobib.htm Traveling to Jerusalem: Maria Theresa Asmar] !-->

{{Authority control|VIAF=5649}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Asmar, Maria Theresa
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Iraqi writer
| DATE OF BIRTH     = 1804
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = [[Tel Keppe]], Iraq
| DATE OF DEATH     =
| PLACE OF DEATH    =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asmar, Maria Theresa}}
[[Category:Iraqi writers]]
[[Category:Assyrian Iraqi writers]]
[[Category:Iraqi women writers]]
[[Category:People from Tel Keppe]]
[[Category:1804 births]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]
[[Category:French people of Assyrian descent]]
[[Category:Ottoman Assyrians]]
[[Category:People of Iraqi-Assyrian descent]]


{{Iraq-writer-stub}}