Maya Khankhoje is a Montreal based writer.

Edward Wadie Said, philosopher, writer, musician, critic and most importantly, passionate defender of the Palestinian cause, was born on 1 November 1935 in Jerusalem during the British mandate in Palestine. In 1947 when the United Nations divided Jerusalem into Jewish and Arab halves, the Said family went to Cairo, where the 12-year old Edward studied in elite schools with classmates such as the future King Hussein of Jordan and the Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. In 1951 he went to the United States where in 1964 he obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature from Harvard. From then on, he kept garnering academic achievements and honours until he was named a university professor, the highest academic position at Columbia.

Edward Said is the author of Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography, an initial exploration of culture and imperialism. Beginnings is an examination of how writers experience their own lives, and won him Columbia's Lionel Trilling Award in 1976. Orientalism (1978) represents his intellectual credo and is the corner stone for post-colonial studies. His writings in later years turned more political and less literary. The Question of Palestine came out in 1979 and Covering Islam, dealing with the subject of stereotypes, was published in 1981 . Politics of Dispossession (1994) decries the use of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as a fence to exempt Israel from sanctions for its behaviour towards the Palestinians. Out of Place (1999) is an autobiographical description of the setting that formed his thinking in Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon.

Said’s academic life and his political activism went hand in hand. He became a member of the Palestine National Council in 1977 and in 1988 actually helped to draft a new Palestinian constitution. When Said learned in 1991 that he had leukemia, he stepped down from the Palestinian National Council and decided to devote himself to music, his other passion. With his very good friend Daniel Barenboim, Said organized peace concerts and master classes in Palestine.

Edward Said is survived by his wife Mariam Cortas, a son, Wadie and a daughter Najla. He is also survived by many admirers, friends and colleagues, whose testimonies bear witness to Said’s indomitable spirit. “I’m not going to die”, he once said of his detractors, “because so many people want me dead”. Edward Said lives on in their hearts.

The following elegies by Said's friends and colleagues have been circulating in the electronic media and are now part of the public domain, and hopefully, of the public consciousness.

“Some of you may have already heard, and others will be greatly saddened to know that the most important Palestinian American thinker, philosopher, literary critic and public proponent of human rights and of justice for the oppressed has passed on. Professor Said was a shining star in these dark ages of Arab defeatism and resignation...This is a personal, communal, societal and global loss to all those who love freedom, and who believe in the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. It is also a great loss to every Arab who has suffered from terrible Orientalist misconceptions about the Arab heritage and civilization, misconceptions which Prof. Said redressed so well in his superb writings. May God rest his soul in peace; he has fought the good fight.”

Samia Costandi, Palestinian activist, writer and educationist.

“We are deeply saddened by this great loss. The Palestinian Cause has lost a ‘True Gem’”.

Fouad A. Abboud.

“He had the integrity and compassion to extend recognition to the horrific suffering of the Jewish people and the unspeakable pain of the holocaust and simultaneously to demand of Israel recognition of its own culpability for the plight of the Palestinian people.”

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council & Secretary General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue & Democracy.

"He was possessed with a rare depth and clarity of thought..."

Black Radical Congress.

“A man with great courage and clear conviction, Edward Said was a shining light in a confused world.”

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, founder, Palestinian National Initiative.

“A mighty and a passionate heart has ceased to beat.”

Alexander Cockburn (of Counterpunch).

“As Palestine will live forever, so will Edward Said.”

Rezeq, one of the founders of PAJU.

“He was not a flawless man....He was a tough guy, the most eloquent defender of an occupied people and the most irascible attacker of its corrupt leadership.... Edward was a rare bird. He was both an icon and an iconoclast.”

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for “Independent” Newspaper.

“in his last days my father wept openly for palestine and his loss of articulacy and energy to write and write and write. he encouraged me, from his bed, to “continue the struggle, continue... get over your petty personal differences with your colleagues and write and perform and continue continue unceasingly. its in your hands.”

... much lovelovelove

Najla Said, Edward Said’s daughter.