Zulfa al-Sa'di

Zulfa al-Sa'di (1905–1988) was a Palestinian visual artist born in Jerusalem to a family of Sufis. She was a student of Nicolas Saig (1863–1942) from whom she must have learned how to use photographs that chronicled historical events or publicised political figures to develop her paintings. In particular, al-Sa'di was interested in an allegorical use that emphasized symbolic meanings about national Palestinian identity. al-Sa'di lived and worked in Jerusalem until 1948, when she was forced to move to Damascus. There, she taught art to Palestinian refugee children.

In 1933, at age 23, she participated in The Arab Exhibition in Mandate Jerusalem. There, she exhibited portraits of eminent men in the Arab world of her time, including Sharif Husayn, King Faysal I of Iraq, and Egyptian poet Ahmad Shawqi.