Adāl Najīb Qiyāmah was a passenger on Titanic.
Background[]
Adāl Najīb Qiyāmah was born on November 14, 1896. She was the first child of Najīb Mansūr Qiyāmah and Mariyam Nasif Muja'iz. Her father stemmed from Al Shwayr, Syria, which is now part of the Lebanon, where Adāl was also born and where the couple would have more children. Two boys were born in 1899: Jamal and Jirjis. They were twins. They were followed by Fu’ad Mansur in 1901, Farid in 1904 and a daughter, Ruza in 1906. After Ruza came Mansur in 1909. The family was well off and prominent in their village. faring well unlike many others. They were from a long linage of merchants. So they weren’t economic migrants.
At the end of December 1909, father Najīb emigrated to the United States with Sulayman Dāwūd al-Ba'qlīnī who was a pharmacist and his neighbor. Before entering the USA. They were supposed to settle in New York but went to San Cristóbal, Venezuela for lots of months. Sulayman and Najīb appeared in New York on January 4, 1910.
During those years, Adāl stayed at her grandparents from father’s side, and sometimes at the house of an uncle and aunt. Like many young Syrian girls at that time, she was preparing for a life as a housewife and learnt the many secrets of her grandmother’s cuisine as well as the homemaking. Her father also missed the good food from his own culture.
In 1912, Najīb had laid the foundation for a factory in silk and textile and now enough money was available to have Adāl join him. The rest of the Qiyāmah family would be next. At the same time, Sulayman had called for his wife Laṭīfah Al-B'aqlīnī and their three daughters, Hilānah, Ūwjīnīyā and Mārīyā to come over. While they were making the trip to America, Adāl would accompany them. In the USA, she was going to be made a bride. Laṭīfah was chosen as her chaperone.
Her father wrote to the al-B'aqlīnī’s back in Syria that Adāl should take various traditional items with her as well products and food from Syria in case there wasn’t enough money or if the goods onboard the steamship were not to their liking. Najīb had complained about the quality of the American rugs as well as the smokes.
When Adāl left her village in a carriage, pulled by horses, she headed to Beirut. From there, she was on a ship that docked in Marseille. The immigration policy in France required for them to undergo some check-ups. Their departure plans were thwarted for a moment when one of Mrs. Ba'qlīnī's daughters, Mārīyā, was found to be stricken with conjunctivitis and they could not depart.
Titanic[]
Instead, they had made their way to Cherbourg, were they were on April 10 to take the Maiden Voyage of the grand Titanic, which departed that same evening. Adāl and the others were in Third Class. She, Mrs. Al-B'aqlīnī and her young daughters were all in one cabin.
On April 14, late at night, the ship hit trouble in the shape of an iceberg. The massive berg was spotted too late to completley steer clear of it and the Titanic scraped against it with her starboard side, leaving a long set of gashes underneath the water line. The collision woke up as tons of seawater entered the lowest deck.
On April 15, after midnight, it was clear to the highest officers that the Titanic was sinking. The captain had ordered the lifeboats to be swayed out and prepare for evacuation. When Adāl and Mrs. Al-Ba'qlīnī knew something didn’t align, they took the children and all clothing as well as some jewels with them and went up to the Boat Deck. The two women were not together anymore at some point as perhaps Adāl needed to return to the cabin for a moment. Many details about their escape were conflicting and various versions exist, some probably invented or made up, but Adāl, Laṭīfah and her children all survived when they were rescued in a lifeboat, unsure if they were all in the same boat.
The Titanic sank at 2:20 A.M, leaving over 1500 victims. Many of them succumbed to the cold sea where they were fighting for their lives. Meanwhile, Adāl had to wait for a few hours before a rescue ship would arrive.
After the sinking[]
Having left the Carpathia after her arrival in New York on April 18, Adāl needed to stay for treatment against exposure and shock in Saint Vincent's Hospital. Father Najīb was there to bring her and the Al-Ba'qlīnīs to his home. His wife and children came over later and lived in the Bronx with him while he still worked in the silk factory.
Later life[]
A new brother was born to Adāl in 1915: Sami. Now that she was settling down, her name was changed to Adele Jane Najib Kiamie to fit in the new country. A marriage was arranged for Adāl. He was Nayif Qiyāmah, a Syrian who had come to the USA that same year. He manufactured clothes for small children. They took an apartment in Manhattan together, where two children were born to the Kiamies. The first was a daughter Leila, conceived in 1919. In 1921 they had son named Mitchell.
Sadly, Adele was not destined to live long. She was stricken by skin cancer, which caused her to die at the young age of 27. She passed away on February 8, 1924.