Who's Who from Shweir

For a small town of a few thousand year round residents, (in summer population is over 12,000), it has produced disproportionately large number of very influential people world wide... from top poets, visionaries, educators, masons, engineers, innovators, leaders, politicians, chefs, industrialists and some of the most beautiful people on the face of the Earth.

 

Dr. Karim Nasser Khnaisser

Dr. Rania Bou Kheir

 

From Home Page - under title:  Shweirieh around the world make news... 
Featured along w/ Dr. Karim Nasser in Canada for Engineering and Joseph Nohra in Dubai for Sports.

Dr. Sami Harik - Medicine - USA

The University of Arkansas Medical School  in Little Rock is organizing a Neurology symposium and a formal dinner on June 4, 2011 to honor  the career of my brother Sami Harik who headed their Neurology Department for the last seventeen years. Many of the most prominent neurologists shall be lecturing at this symposium as reflected in the attached invitation sent by the University.   By Mansour Harik

Dr. Harik  is an AUB Alum.  To see more info click this link:  Shweir.com on Facebook


Iskandar Harik,
Educator
اسكندر حريق اول مدرس مسيحي في النجف

And the article about him

From: Mansour Harik
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 15:00:15 -0500
Subject: Fwd: From Mansour Harik
To: riadkhunieser at  hotmail.com
 
Azizi Riad
Happy New Year and Thank you for all your efforts on the cultural front of the Shweir Community.
A friend of mine in New York sent me an article and I am forwarding it to you. I hope you like it and if so feel free to post it on the cultural page of Shweir.com. Pls click on the underlined line.
I hope your family and all our relatives in Shweir are doing fine.
Sincerely
Mansour

****************************************

From: Elias N. Berbari <enberbari at  yahoo.com>
Subject: Happy New Year
To: "Mansour Harik" <manny318 at aol.com>
Date: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 9:09 PM

Dearest Mansour,
 
Words won't comprehend how I felt when I read this article.....
 
http://juman.eu/culture/48-gculture/1604-2010-11-04-03-46-55.html 
 
I will phone you tomorrow to talk more.
Happy New Year to you & your family.
Elias

 

Sabbagh Brothers, Fareed & Maher, direct & produce musical play, Che Quevera
            

and Reserve your seats For Salah El Deen Days musical play in Baalbeck
July 7, 8 & 9  .


Miss Lebanon, Christina Sawaya from Shweir
, Crowned "Miss International" in Tokyo... Congratulations... Alf Mabrook.


Miss Lebanon Christina Sawaya waves after winning the Miss International beauty
pageant in Tokyo on September 30, 2002. Sawaya was chosen as
Miss International among beauties from 51 countries.  
REUTERS/Haruyoshi Yamaguchi


Winner of Miss International, Miss Lebanon Christina Sawaya (C),
first runner-up Miss France Emmanuelle Jagodsinski (L), and
second runner-up Miss Japan Hana Urushima (R)
pose after the Miss International beauty pageant in Tokyo on September 30, 2002. 
Sawaya was chosen Miss International among beauties from 51 countries.  
REUTERS/Haruyoshi Yamaguchi

 

Christina Earns Another Honor

The prestigious Global Beauties Award for
"Best Overall Performance"
Among Miss Universe, Miss Globe and Miss International

After an incredible dispute involving the current Miss World and Miss International titleholders, and the dethroned Miss Universe, Christina Sawaya, a stunning Mediterranean and Middle Eastern beauty from Lebanon, became the first Miss International contestant to win the prestigious GB Award for "best overall performance" in the year. Well, 2002 has now the face, the body and the amazing aura of Miss Lebanon and Miss International 2003!

After a tie with Turkish beauty Azra Azin, Miss World, the competition's rules were clear: it was the vote given by the president of the jury, Finish writer and pageant expert Marjukka Nienemen, that would decide who would take the main award home, and Christina had it. It is interesting to note that in Asia Azra was the winner, with a single point ahead of Christina. It is the first time in the five-year history of the GB Awards that the overall winner is not her respective continent's winner as well. It is the first time also that a Miss Universe titleholder or delegate doesn't win the big one.

BEST DELEGATE (Overall Performance)
-Christina Sawaya, Lebanon/Int'l (22)
-Azra Akin, Turkey/World (22)
-Oxana Fedorova, Russia/Universe (21)
4-Justine Pasek, Panama/Universe (14)
5-Emmanuelle Jagodsinski, France/Int'l (11)

The above info was obtained from this website:
http://www.globalbeauties.com/gb/awards2002/gb02_overall.htm

More info about Christina at:  http://www.shweir.com/christina_sawaya.htm


Shweirieh Mughtaribeen making news  

Here Naamet Yafet (Brazil) and Jamil Eid Khonaisser (Canada) 

Al Anwar Yaffet 1a.JPG (163467 bytes) Al Anwar Yaffet 2.JPG (147922 bytes)   Al Anwar Jamil Eid K 1.JPG (105809 bytes) Al Anwar Jamil Eid K 2.JPG (119542 bytes)

Also from Al Nahar Newpaper 

Khalil Hawi Jamil Eid Khonaisser
August 12, 1998  August 11, 1998
Al Nahar Hawi K.JPG (240874 bytes) Al Nahar Jamil Eid K- 1.JPG (116289 bytes)

Al Nahar Jamil Eid K- 2.JPG (440601 bytes)

 

 

 

Professor Daoud Kurban,
Great Arabic Scholar - 1860 - 1935


From: Matar, George
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 6:48 AM
To: jwmharte at gmail . com
Cc: anwar
Subject: Regarding Daoud Qurban

Dear John

Here is some feed back on Qurban, the source is from the American University Beirut.  Hope this will help a bit, in case you do not already have it.  I am copying Anwar Kenicer (Webmaster of Shweir.com) he knows a lot of people in Brazil maybe he knows of a connection

 George E. Matar, P.E.


From: Riad Khunieser
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 7:17 AM
To: 'Nabil Matar'; anwar;  Matar, George

Friends,  Read the Att. and enjoy knowing a scholar Shweiry, Proffessor Daud Kurban 1860-1935.
This article was published in AUB magazine “Al-Kulliyyah”, 1935.
At the end of the article you will notice that his son Tawfik was in Brasil, graduated from AUB with a B.A. in 1910.

Riad


From: Nabil Matar
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 3:45 PM
To: Riad Khunieser
Subject:

Riad, This is posted in the BB, I heard about  Daoud Qurban before. If not mistaking I think the house on the right side of 3arida building ( Elie Aoun building now) used to be belong to him

***********************

From previous communication:

Dear George,

I wonder if you or any of your colleagues and friends on the www.shweir.com website might be able to help me track down biographical detail - however trivial - on Daoud Qurban, translator of James Henry Breasted's 'Ancient Times' into Arabic shortly after WWI? His translation ('al-'Usur al-Qadimah'), widely used as a school textbook throughout the region from the mid-20s, is usually cited as having been first published in Beirut in 1926. Am I right in thinking that this name indicates he was from the Shweir region? I have bee told that he may possibly be Daud Taufik Qurban (b. Shweir 1891), who was a graduate of the Syrian Protestant College in 1910 and remained there as an instructor for a year before emigrating to Brazil in 1913, where he became a Chair of Arabic at the University of Sao Paulo from 1944. I have no evidence to corroborate this link, however, and wondered if by any chance this person might be known to your network? I'm particularly interested to know whether he had any connections with Palestine in the early years of British rule.

Very many thanks for any help you are able to give!
All good wishes
John Harte
(SOAS History Department, London)

**********************

----- Original Message -----
From:   Eddie Beshara [ sssrd  at  optusnet.com.au ]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 12:45 PM
Subject: Submission from Australia

Dear Anwar

Please find attached an article on Dr. Khalil Sa’adeh for consideration on Shweir website.  Regards

 Dr. Adel Beshara

Dr. Khalil Saadeh: A Nationalist Crusader

By Adel Beshara

During the nineteenth century, a small group of writers, who were set apart from those among whom they were living by education and experience, started a literary revival in the Arab East. One of the leading intellectual figures in this revival was Khalil Sa'adeh, whose ideas had a certain intrinsic inter-est. but none of whom have been fully explored. Dr. Sa'adeh, as he is generally known, belonged to that group of writers whose ideas served as forces in the process of change which gave the Arab East a new lease on life. Born in 1857, in the Lebanese mountain village of Shweir, Khalil Sa’adeh studied at the Syrian Protestant College (currently the American University of Beirut). In those years, young Sa’adeh gave two indications that he would not be motivated purely by the desire for an average career. Firstly, he was elected as the official spokesman for the "Student Movement" which formed in 1882 to persuade the Ottoman authorities to recognize the medical degree offered by the university. This was the first major indication of the rebellious tendency in Khalil Sa’adeh's personality. Secondly, despite his academic specialization and work in the field of medical science. Khalil Sa’adeh took a keen interest in the social and intellectual issues of the day. Indeed, his first article. aptly entitled "The backwardness of our Country and the Prospects for advancement," was published in al-Jinan, the Beirut periodical issued by Butrus Bustani. When political conditions in Syria suddenly turned sour under Hamid, Dr. Sa’adeh fled to Egypt along with many other Syrian intellectuals adversely affected by Hamid's repressive policies. At the time, the Syrians constituted a small but highly influential community in Egypt. Many of them were successful entrepreneurs and prominent thinkers who dominated the intel-lectual field. Their psychology bore on Khalil Sa’adeh in several ways. First of all, it enabled him to gain some sense of solidarity with other members of his community. More importantly, it made him more aware and appreciative of his national background. For, according to Thomas Philipp, Syrians who had arrived in Egypt during the last two decades of the nineteenth century had to realize that they would remain marginal and barely tolerated in Egyptian national politics. As emigrants in a foreign surrounding, they had, indeed, been made aware of their 'Syrianness.'" In Cairo, Dr. Sa’adeh led a life of intense intellectual productivity and nationalist militancy. In addition to his medical writings (his first medical book was entitled The Prevention of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and its ways of Treatment), he was a novelist (in English his novels included: Prince Murad, Ceasar and Cleopatra, and Anthony and Cleopatra), a historian (he wrote two major studies. one on the Secrets of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the other on the French Revolution - Mystery of the Bastille - which he described as a turning point in modern history), a linguist (his was the first major English-Arabic dictionary) an editorialist (he contributed to English and Arabic newspapers including The London Times and al-Ahram in Cairo), and a translator. The writings of Dr. Sa’adeh was a fragment of the autobiography of his age. It embodied both the force of nationalism and the spirit of rational socialism. Strangely enough, the most interesting aspect of it came from an unusual source. While he was in Cairo, Dr. Sa’adeh was appointed as a correspondent to The London Times. This enhanced both his interest and skills in the English language and. in the long run, motivated him to publish in 1919 a two-volume Arabic-English dictionary entitled Sa’adeh's Lexicon. Although it took only two years to complete, the Lexicon was a fairly extensive work which introduced into the Arabic language the current terminologies in Science and the Humanities. In recognition of this outstanding achievement the Khedive of Egypt bestowed upon him the title of Bey. Sa’adeh 's exile in Egypt was not free from harassment and un-certainty; yet he always looked back on it with nostalgia. The most controversial part of it occurred soon after the appearance of the Gospel of Barnabus which he translated into Arabic. In the introduction to Barnabus, Dr. Sa’adeh wrote:

I started translating this book which is called the Gospel of Barnabus well aware of the responsibility that I had undertaken. My aim was to serve historical studies and of course our language which is perhaps the most logical medium into which this work should be translated. This is the first time that this hook has come out in the Arabic language. It is a gospel about which scholars and historians have differed sharply. In these closing comments, though, I do have to stress that in this introduction all my discussions are purely scientific and historical in orientation and that I have been scrupulous to avoid all religious controversies which I left to those who are better equipped to deal with them.

Despite this unequivocal explanation, the publication of Barnabus in Arabic was met with some skepticism due largely to religious sensitivity. The late Rashid Rida inflamed the public by prefacing the work with a preamble that took its entire meaning out of context. The preamble was incorporated into the book without Dr. Sa’adeh's prior knowledge. In 1908, the year that Abdul Hamid revived the Midhat's constitution of 1976, Dr. Saadeh returned to his native village in the Lebanon. The resurrection of the constitution was greeted with enthusiasm, particularly in Syria where it was mistaken for real liberty. As for Dr. Saadeh, he found himself embroiled in a serious dispute with the French ambassador in Beirut. In the wake of this incident, he published an open letter to the Ambassador in Lisan al-Hal denouncing in the sharpest of terms French imperialist policy in Syria and France's claim to be the protector of the Lebanese Christians. Both the French Ambassador and the Maronite Patriarch reacted wrathfully. Realizing the serious-ness of the situation, the Governor of Mount Lebanon, Mazfar Pasha, advised his friend Dr. Sa’adeh to leave the country until the controversy dies down. Dr. Sa’adeh returned to Egypt only to find that he was no longer welcomed there. He was ejected by the Egyptian monarch after his intimate association with Egypt's top nationalist leaders (Arabi Pasha, Mustapha Kamel and Sa'ad Zaghloul) came to light. At the same time as this was taking place, his wife passed away in Shweir, and his children were left on their own to survive in the famine-stricken town. Unable to return to Syria due to the outbreak of the First World War, Dr. Sa’adeh elected to go to South America where the Syrian community was flourishing. Dr. Sa’adeh's strength lay in his gift to adjust to any kind of situation. Soon after arriving in Argentina, he began the same arduous work which he became accustomed to back in Egypt. He issued a periodical called al- Majallah and established The Syrian Press Trade Union. In 1919, he organized the First Syrian Na-tional Democratic Conference in a daring move to unite the Syrian community in Argentina around the cause of national independence. After the Conference, Dr. Saadeh announced the creation of the National Democratic Party which adopted the slogan ''An independence that we must embark upon as virtual nomads is still better than slavery that seems to offer a civilized life. In 1920, Dr. Sa’adeh went to Brazil where he was reunited with his children. In Brazil, he quickly acquired prominence and became a community leader in his own right. Assisted by his dynamic son, Antun (founder of the Syrian Social National Party) he published two newspapers, al-Majallah and al-Jaridah, and sponsored a number of important activities such as the outstanding project to raise a statue in memory of the late Youssef al-Azamah, who died in the Battle of Maysaloun in 1920. To this very day, the statue stands in front of the Syrian parliament in Damascus. As a community leader, Dr. Sa’adeh showed considerable personal courage in opposing the disunity and intolerable rifts that divided the Syrian community abroad. If one were to sum up the political and intellectual position of Khalil Sa’adeh, the following picture would emerge: (1) He was a strong advocate of the secular idea. Like others in the same capacity, he believed in the separation between religion and politics and in the elimination of the factors that impede social unity. (2) He regarded socialism as the ideal form of political organization. He was not a Marxist but a practical socialist who believed in equality and human dignity. (3) He was a nationalist crusader for the cause of Syrian unity. Although he was a Christian from Mount Lebanon, the idea of a separate Lebanese nationalism never appealed to him. In his last years in Brazil Dr. Sa’adeh was appointed chairman of the Syrian National League and editor-in-charge of its weekly periodical al-Rabitah (The League). He passed away on April 10. 1934 leaving behind him a legacy that time has never been able to completely erase.

Collected Works of Dr. Khalil Saadeh


Novels:

- Prince Murad or the Syrian Prince: Published in London in 1893 (English)
- Ceasar and Cleopatra: Published in London in 1895 (English)
- Secrets of the Russian Revolution: Published in Cairo in 1905 (Arabic)
- Anthony and Cleopatra: Published in Brazil, n.d. (Arabic/English)
- Secrets of the Bastille: Published in Cairo in 1906 (Arabic)
- The Elegant Circusion: Published in Cairo in 1908 (Arabic)

Books:

- The Prevention of Pulmonary Tu-berculosis and its ways of Treatment: Published in Cairo in 1905 (Arabic)
- Saadeh's Lexicon: Arabic-English lexicon published in Cairo in 1911.
- Nublah fi Kannana: Istanbul 1883 (Arabic)
- Arabic Literature: Published in Cairo in 1886 (Arabic - al-Rabittah: A Collection of Articles published in Brazil in 1971.

Translations:

- The Gospel of Barnabus: Published in Cairo in 1908 - Appathia, Published in Cairo, n.d.

Basic References

- Ali Hamie, Khalil Saadeh: L'homme et L'oeuvre 1857-1934, PhD Dissertation, University of Paris, Sorbonne, 1986. - Nawaf Hardan, Al-Rabittah, Sao Paulo, 1971.

- A. Saadeh, Complete Works, Vol. 2, Beirut, 1982.

- Badr el-Hage, The Unknown Works of Khalil Saadeh, London, n.d. - Adel Beshara, "Khalil Saadeh: Nationalist Crusader," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 3, Number 9, 1996.

 


Mansur Jurdak

-----Original Message-----
From: Samira Nawas-Plesman
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 9:52 AM
Subject: RE ANGELA JURDAK KHOURY
 Hi Anwar, I just received a Bio prepared by Philip my cousin about his mom. I am sending it to you as an attachment. Thanks,
Samira

ANGELA JURDAK KHOURY:
LEBANON’S FIRST WOMAN DIPLOMAT

             Angela Jurdak Khoury was Lebanon’s first woman diplomat. The eldest daughter  of the late Mansur H. Jurdak, a distinguished professor of mathematics and astronomy at the American University of Beirut, Dr. Khoury  was born in Choueir, Lebanon on September 24, 1915.   She began her career as an instructor of sociology and administrator at the American University of Beirut in 1938.  During World War II, she was also assistant director of the Allied Powers Radio Poll for Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. 

            In 1945, the newly independent government of Lebanon appointed her as a delegate to the opening General Assembly of the United Nations in San Francisco and assigned her to the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.  She was to represent Lebanon in the United States for the next 21 years.  In its early years, she also served as Lebanon's representative and rapporteur to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.   After her resignation from the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1966, she resumed her teaching career, as a professor of government at George Mason University in Virginia, until her retirement in 1982.  A long-time resident of Washington, Dr. Khoury was a prominent figure among Arab diplomats and in the local Arab-American community.

            Dr. Khoury was educated at the American University of Beirut and the Geneva School of International Studies in Switzerland, and she received her doctorate from the American University in Washington.  Her husband of 36 years, Shukry E. Khoury, died in 1985.  She has two sons Philip S. Khoury, Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and George S. Khoury, a businessman in Darien, Connecticut and two grandchildren.  She also has a brother, George M. Jurdak of Montreal, Canada, and two sisters: Salma M.Jurdak of Washington, D.C. and Salwa Nawas of Atherton, California.

Thank you Phillip Khoury for writing this and to Samira Nawas Plesman, Salwa's daughter, for sending this information.

 


Courtesy of Riad Khuneisser & the staff at Nameh Jaffet Library archives at AUB.  Thanks to all who helped.      

Great writers & poets:
Amin Daher Khairallah, Najib &
Faris Mushraq, and Ibrahim Rahbani

**********************

From the book "Mushraquiat" by Najib Mushraq

Another well-known Shweirieh. Amin Khairallah, the son of a great Shweirieh Daher Khairallah. The wordings and the poem are for Najib Mushraq.

 Amin Khairallah

This picture is for Shweir in 1930. The poem and the picture is for Najib
Mushraq in his book "Al Mashraquat", published in Harisa 1931.

******************************

Ibrahim Rahbany

The attached are picture of Ibrahim Rahbany and the poem by Najib Mushraq. 

To read about Ibrahim Rahbani's work, click on Ibrahim's name to go to the "Books" section of Shweir.com

Thank you Riad Khuneisser for sending this info.  


 

As you Know, the well known Shweirieh are more than can be counted. From time to time I will send you pictures and info or poems for a Shweiry or about him.

Faris Mushraq

When we talk about Dhour we shouldn't forget the name Faris Mushraq, (a
Shweiry from the Rahbani family).
If he is not the first, for sure he is between the first who founded Dhour.
The Dhour that your parents and some of you knew. I am not going to write
about Faris Mushraq but I am sending you three images, his picture, some
information and a poem (1931), by Najib Mushraq from his book "Meshrikiyat"
that might give you an idea about the man.

Riad

 


An email about Dr. William Carslow  

-----Original Message-----
From: rodosomer@shaw.net [mailto:rodosomer@shaw.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 2:14 AM
To: gematar@sbinfra.com
Subject: New Entry in Shweir Guestbook

------------------------------------------------------
Name: Ronald W. Somerville
Email: <rodosomer@shaw.net>
Location: Kelowna, B.C. Canada
Time: Saturday, February 16, 2002 at 02:14:05

Comments:  My Father James's Uncle was Dr. William Carslaw. My fathers Grandfather Richard came to the Lebanon in 1846, his daughter Isabella became the wife of Dr. Carslaw. I was born in Broumana, but the 'family' home was Carslaw House. Dr. Carslaw established a school there (from which Dad graduated before attending AUB. Isabellas sister was Jeanette (Nettie to all) Somerville,who later lived at 48 Rue Jeanne d'Arc,until her death in '52. Dad married my mother, Sadeeca As'ad, in '21, worked in Iraq till '33 and Palestine till '48, then moved to the Nazarian Bldg on Sidani St. He worked at rthe AUB till his retirement.I emigrated to Canada in '54, revisiting several times until I returned with Donna my wife and David and Richard my sons for nearly 3 years, from Jan. '73 till Oct. '75. We naturally visited Shweir many times in drives over the countryside. My Great Grandfather Richard was the engineer who in 1846 installed the first automatic weaving looms for the manufacture of silk brocades in the Lebanon. My sister Agnes Shamma'a married Michel Shamma'a,who also taught at the AUB, still lives in Beirut, on the 4th floor of the building on the corner of Bliss and Jeanne d'Arc. 

I travelled extensively for Carrier Int'l over Africa and the Middle East, then Latin America and the Carribbean till ,84, then as a consultant in Cleveland OH, Atlanta GA, New Orleans LA until I retired here in '94. My sons are married, living in South Carolina and Tennessee respectively. My very good friend here is As'ad Farrah, who was raised in Shweir,even to attending school that Dr. Carslaw established. Agnes and my cousin Elizabeth had the Testimonial Marble Plaque in front of Carslaw House ( damaged during the war) replaced (from a picture that my cousin Carlene in Phoenix had, taken by her Father when he and her Mother Olive spent their Honeymoon there. All in all, we have so many happy memories of Shweir and Lebanon. If we can, we would like to return this summer
for Agnes' 50th Wedding Anniversary. 'In Allah Rad' Those who know of me or my family, PLEASE e-mail me. Memories are made of this.     A wonderful surprise for me to find your website!! I read every entry!      
   
------------------------------------------------------
Hello Ronald and Ahlan wa Sahlan to the Shweir.com Family.  Sorry for the delay in my response, I just returned from a business trip to Aruba, and now trying to catch up on 207 emails in my in-box.  I could not re4sist but answer yours as I finished reading it.  Wow, this is absolutely a great morning.  Dr William Carslaw who in Shweir could not know that name, I doubt any.

I visited the Center this summer and I tell your it is been beautifully restored.  The Carslaw Building is just breathtaking, I don't know if you notice but there is a link on the front page called "Ain Assis" that will take you there, and you can view many of the pictures, including the restored Testimonial Marble Plaque.

So many Questioned to ask, and I could write for a long time but please forgive my short message I have so much catch-up work to do.  But I can't tell you how happy and proud to welcome you to our Shweir.com Family, we
would be honored to have you consider us your hometown web page.
George Matar

 


A Chat with Mansour Rahbani, courtesy of Arabia.com - Chat to read more go to 
http://www.arabia.com/chat/transcripts/english/0,10384,57,00.html 
Thanks ya Mukhtar bil Mahjar  for the tip.

 

 


JAFET MEMORIAL LIBRARY at AUB

-----Original Message-----
From: Riad Khunieser [mailto:rk26@aub.edu.lb]
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 1:14 AM
To: A. G. Kenicer
Subject: AHLAN WA SAHLAN

Hello Cousin Anwar
It is nice to hear from you again. WAYNAK ? Of course we are waiting for you and your mother and all the Shwierieh this summer.
As you know The American University of Beirut has, may be, the best library available in the region. This "libary is dedicated to the memory of Nami Jafet and presented by his wife and sons to the American University of Beirut 5 May 1952". 
So the library is called JAFET MEMORIAL LIBRARY.  The department in the library where the archives are stored and served is the Archives & Special collection Department. A file under the name of the late Raymond S. Ghosn has the documents ,(which I gave to Joe to scan and sent to you), you posted and others which Joe couldn"t scan.  
I am sure you remember and of course you have pictures of the Baladieh and the man standing infront of it. This man is the same man, the well known "Al Mouialim Nami Jafet". Jafet build the Baladieh and the library at AUB who became world-wide known, and Jafet is one of them.
I am sure you and Shwier.com. are making it your job to mention, praise and make us proud of all the Shwierieh who are well known in defferent fields at defferent times, Jafet is one of them and Ghosn of course and many many others.
Riad

************************

Thank you Riad for this very important bit of information.  

It is wonderful to see how one great topic about the dedication of a building honoring Raymond Ghosn at the AUB leads to another topic about another great Shweiry who had a Library dedicated in his name at the AUB and the information about Raymond Ghosn was obtained from the Jafet Memorial Library and facilitated by Riad Khuniesser, scanned by Joe Naoum Sawaya, all great Shweirys.  

Anwar

 

Author Topic:   Raymond Ghosn
Waleed Moujaes
Member
posted 11-02-2001 09:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Waleed Moujaes     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
I found this article in today's Dailystar (dailystar.com.lb). Thought it is interesting for the Shweiriyieh around the globe to share. I believe a lot of us were at AUB (students or workers) when Dr. Ghosn was the Dean.  As you may know, he is the cousin of Dr. Nabil Ghosn, our ex-mayor. 
Waleed  
                                                            *******

AUB’s Ghosn remembered at building-naming ceremony.

Politicians and academics gathered Thursday to remember Raymond Ghosn earlier this week, with the inauguration of a building named after the former dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut.

Ghosn founded the department in 1951 but was assassinated 25 years later on the AUB campus.

The ceremony was attended by a list of individuals which included MP Bahiya Hariri representing Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, US Ambassador Vincent Battle, John Brissler from the American Agency for International Development, and AUB President John Waterbury. 

********   IP: Logged

Nabil E. Matar
Member
posted 11-02-2001 01:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Nabil E. Matar     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Thank you Waleed!!!! Now, this is great news worth while posting in our web site. Dr. Raymond Ghosn is another great Shweiri who contributed a lot in the field of Engineering. The Shweirieh should consider honoring him during Eid al Mughtaribeen and I suggest that the Baladieh should name the street near his house after him.
Talking about terrorist!!!! Here a fantastic man who spent all his life working to maintain a high standard of education in the field of Engineering was murdered by a guy who don’t even worth ten cents.
I wish some body could send this web site a biography or an article about Dr. Ghosn so we could post.    
IP: Logged
Waleed Moujaes
Member
posted 11-07-2001 09:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Waleed Moujaes     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Well guys, I thought this is something which we should be proud of. However, never got except one reply from Nabil!!! Sorry but this reminds me of the baladieh!!!   
  IP: Logged
Habeeb M. Nacol
Member
posted 11-07-2001 10:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Habeeb M. Nacol     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Ya Waleed, you are so right. We in Shweir have always taken each others for granted. We have always exalted our distant past and generally ignored the great individuals that are with us here and now. But I see a new thing happening through you (plural) the young lions of Shweir. I am so proud!
            IP: Logged
George Matar
Administrator
posted 11-07-2001 10:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for George Matar     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
MA Tizaal Ya Waleed. After your original post, I talked to Nabil and asked him to contact Riad Kheneisser who happens to be working at the AUB for additional information and hopefully a Biography on Mr. Ghosn. It will be an honor to have something formal published on this web page.
Ghosn R photo.JPG (10563 bytes) Ghosn R 3 Bio.JPG (32732 bytes) Ghosn R 10.JPG (194772 bytes) Ghosn R 6 B.JPG (21581 bytes)

Ghosn R 6 A.JPG (50054 bytes)

 

Ghosn R 5.JPG (31232 bytes)

Ghosn R 7 A.JPG (60128 bytes) Ghosn R 7 B.JPG (50524 bytes) Ghosn R 12.JPG (89454 bytes) Ghosn Raymond 1.JPG (133627 bytes) Ghosn R 8.JPG (84938 bytes)

The above documents are found at the Archives  Dept. in Jafet Library of the AUB.   Many thanks to those who work behind the scenes at the AUB  Archives Dept. that make such valuable info accessible. 

Thank you Joe Naoum Sawaya for scanning and sending the above important information about a Shweiry pioneer... 

***********************

-----Original Message-----
From: Soulaima Houcheime
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 10:41 AM
To: 'gmatar@aol.com'
Subject: About Dean Ghosn

  Hi George ,
I was reading in Shweir news what Waleed has mentioned about Raymond Ghosn.
I was really very happy that The Daily star wrote about him I never knew him but I could say that My husband Salemeh Houcheime is one of Raymond Ghosn's student . They were very few students in Architecture . Salemeh always mentions him in front of everybody in the engineering department as a reference in  Lebanon . He keeps tell them how that man was devoted to his work and how he used to stay with his students in the architecture department at AUB even when they had "Nuit Blanche" to finish their plans and projects .   

My husband used to show me all the projects that Raymond Ghosn did and he explained for me every detail in the construction and how Raymond used to see things in an architectural point of view like being in love with a beautiful woman !!!!!  This is what I want to mention . I can not talk about Raymond Ghosn more than the people who knew him .  

after all , my family and I wish you all a 
MERRY, MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR OF GOOD GATHERING ...!!!!!!!
SOULAIMA 

Thank you Soulaima for sharing with us what you know about Raymond Ghosn... we hope that some of his students and others who knew him well will follow your example and add their experiences...

***********************


 

The following is a copy of the Shweir Bulletin Board about Ibrahim Mitri Rihbani



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Author Topic:   Ibrahim Mitri Rihbani
mohtaro
Member
posted 11-27-2001 10:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mohtaro     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Greetings to shweir community,
My name is Oussama Ajaj El-Mohtar. I have been privilaged to translate into Arabic a great book by a great Shweiri indeed. His name was Ibrahim Mitri Rihbani, (1869-1944) and the book that he wrote -among others- was "The Syrian Christ". This book was published in 1916 in the USA and was reprinted 11 times between 1916 and 1922. Rihbany's family moved to Btater in 1875, and he immigrated to the USA in 1891. He died in 1944 most likely in the Boston area. I am seeking any information about this great man, particularly about the last 20 years of his life. If any one knows about any living descendants or relatives of Ibrahim Rihbany I would be most greatful if they can help me to make a contact. Furthermore, I have compiled a good deal of information about him and his other books and I will be more than happy to share this knowledge with anyone seeking it.
The Arabic translation of the Syrian Christ has just been released in Beirut with an introduction and a biography about Rihbany.
Thank you all in advance.
George Matar
Administrator
posted 11-28-2001 08:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for George Matar     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Hello Oussama

Love to hear of such great writer. My Family is a branch of the Rahbani but unfortunately I don't have any new information. I will copy your message and send it to all the Rahbani on my email and we both will cross our fingers.

mohtaro
Member
posted 11-28-2001 02:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mohtaro     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Thank you George, I really appreciate this. I have made a correction to my initial email. Ibrahim Mitri Rihbany was born in 1869, and obviously not 1969. His life story, from what I have gathered -which takes me up to 1924- is a most fascinating one. - Out of curiosity, have you heard about him before? I am trying to do justice to the memory of this man of wisdom and love. I hope that with your help and others who will share the admiration I have for him, we will succeed.
George Matar
Administrator
posted 11-29-2001 07:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for George Matar     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Thank you Oussama for such a nice email(below).
Check Jamil's book on this web page (Scroll towards the bottom of the front page). His son Salim writes regularly on this BB.
I am sure Dr. Salim Moujais will be in touch soon.

The Shweirieh will really appreciate all that you are proposing to do..... Thank you

The Message
Dear George,
Thank you very much for your trouble. I hope that our concerted effort will be rewarded through restoring Rihbany to his rightful place among the luminaries of our renessaince. You and the readers of the BB or the Web site are going to be amazed at this brilliant son of Shweir. Tomorrow, I will send you the following:
1. bio on Rihbany, including all the titles that I have come across.
2. His Picture, and that of his late parents (Allah yirhamon Jami3an)
3. An informatin sheet about Arabic translation of “The Syrian Christ”

Down the road, I will scan the front pages of his books in English and send them to you. My suggestion is that a section could be created for him and his achievements on the Shweir web site.
Way down the road, I think that the Lebanese and Syrian governments should be encouraged and lobbied to recognise Rihbany and his achievements and add him to the great thinkers, leaders and industrialists Shweir has given to the world. I will be more than delighted to push with you in this direction.
I can go on and on but I will stop at this. I fell in love with this man 20 years ago, and it took me five years to produce the Arabic translation. I would like to ask you for two favours: I need to contact Dr. Salim Moujaes, and Mr. Jamil Khnaiser in Edmonton. Salim is an old friend with whom I have lost contact and I want to appraise him about the Syrian Christ. Jamil I believe visited us in Jal Ed-dib back in 1967-68. I recall two Khnaiser brothers who came to our house and played such beautiful Saif w Tirs. I hope he is the right person. I can appreciate your reluctance in giving me their email addresses, but you can forward this message to them and ask them to please respond. Once again I thank you.
Oussama

Waleed Moujaes
Member
posted 11-29-2001 09:48 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Waleed Moujaes     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Ousamma, thank you very much. This is what Shweir is in need for, the recovery of our past. Unfortunately, our history and a lot of our grandfathers work has been lost or forgotten. Your post is one example of a great Shweiry who I, and many others have never heard of (although one of my hobbies was to go around and visit old people and listen to their stories). What Dr. Salim Mujaes has done over the years in his researches about Shweir's history is priceless. All of us Shweiriyieh, appreciates your efforts to let us know about Ibrahim Rahbany.

I'll definitely be glad to help you (with my few resources) if you need anything.

Waleed

George Matar
Administrator
posted 11-29-2001 11:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for George Matar     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
More info from Dr. Salim Moujaes

Dear George

Thank you for forwarding the information on Rihbani. I am indeed aware of him and have read a few of his books. Indeed, in an upcoming book that I have in press in Beirut (a biography of Antun Saadeh in English) I mention Rihbani and his views on the independence of Syria and Lebanon and his efforts in the US to have the US government support the independence of Syria. He published a book called “America Save the Near East” that is filled with insights into the colonial interests and ambitions of the great powers of the time (France and Great Britain) and even discussed the issue of zionism. His views were very much similar to those of Khalil Gibran and Dr Khalil Saadeh.
Below is a section of my book in which I mention this book:
“The goodwill that the Americans had gained by their various activities in the Near East was unmatched. The desire of Syrians to have their post-war fate linked to American intervention is exemplified by their responses to the King-Crane commission interviews and by various petitions at home and abroad. One such petition is a small work published in 1918 by Abraham Mitrie Rihbani titled “America Save the Near East”. An erudite and articulate author, Rihbani presents cogent arguments on why the United States should undertake to go further east than Europe and assist the Syrians in their bid for independence and progress. Of course, it was not to be, but the sentiments expressed in this book, and in other media, help explain the great disappointment that the Syrians had in the withdrawal of the US from playing a role in the Near East and indeed its acquiescence to the roles played by the French and British. “
Salim Mujais: This Man from Lebanon: The Youth of Antun Saadeh, (in press)
The book in question is the following:
Abraham Mitrie Rihbany: America Save the Near East, The Beacon Press,
Boston, 1918

Rihbani was a very enlightened and astute observer. In one segment of the book he states:
““Among the memories of my early years in Syria the heated, but
intrinsically petty controversies on the subject of the comparative virtues
of the European powers stand out as very conspicuous. No time nor place was
unfit for such encounters. At neighborhood gatherings on those long winter
evenings, when neither book nor periodicals were there to beguile the hours
more profitably, in the market-place, at wedding and funeral gatherings, at
religious festivals, and at any place where the differing clans and sects
came in contact with one another. One could hear at a considerable distance
from the place of meeting the proclaiming of the virtues of a European
Power, and the denial of the same, by the contending partisans, several
shouting their opinions at the same time. “Russia is the giant Power in the
world’ says one. ‘Away with your Russia!’ shouts another; ‘Long live France
and her fiery soldiers! France is the mother of civilization!’ ‘England is
the most civilized nation’, speaks a lover of dignified Britons; ‘she is
the Mistress of the Seas and the richest country in the world’…”

It would be very nice to have some of this information on Shweir.com

Warmest
Salim Mujais MD

mohtaro
Member
posted 11-29-2001 11:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for mohtaro     Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Thank you George, Waleed and Dr. Salim. Here is the Biographical summary that I promised. I am delighted that Dr. Salim mentions Rihbany in his upcoming book. I hope more information will be forthcoming about him.
Salim, please write to me at mohtaro@comnet.ca
Thanks.
Bio begings:

"Abraham Mitri Rihabany, biographical summary gathered from "The Far Journey" and from other books by Rihbany."

"When Abraham Mitrie Rihbany bid farewell to his hometown of Shweir and his adopted town of Btater both in Mt. Lebanon, to immigrate to America in 1891, he was leaving his native land Syria. When he died in 1944 that part of his homeland was the independent republic of Lebanon. In between, this great man of literature, spirituality and politics left his mark on generations of Americans and Syrian-Lebanese Americans. He still guides believers all over the world until this very day through one of his books "The Syrian Christ."
Rihbany was born in 1869 to a poor but proud family headed by a well-respected stone mason. In 1875, the family moved to the town of Btater in the Alay part of Mt. Lebanon, where the father was appointed as foreman in charge of the industrial concerns of a French man, Monsieur Lafortune, who was known by his Arabised name: Al-****ouni!
At age 9, and after a brief stint at school, Rihbany started working for his father as a stone mason. He worked until the age of 17, when he felt a deep desire to go back to school. He was encouraged by of a friend of his who was attending the Presbyterian school in Souk Al-Gharb, Mt. Lebanon.
Rihbany restarted school from grade one. He describes in vivid detail the experience of "this giant" sitting with first grade students. However, he advanced very quickly, and in two years, he was at a school level commensurate with his age.
At age 19, his father informed him that he could not spend any more money on his schooling. Things were bad, and the father had many mouths to feed. So Rihbnay arranged to teach at the Souk Al-Gharb school in exchange for his continuing education. As a teacher he worked for three years, two of them at Souk Al-Gharb, the third at Zahlah, in the Bekaa valley.
It was during that third year, 1891, that two of his friends who were immigrating to the USA encouraged him to join them. He agreed instantly, given the overall situation of Syria under the Ottomans, and his personal lot of poverty and heartache at seeing the foreigners better treated than the natives in his own country. In a matter of days, he was able to obtain an exit visa, and 3 "Napoleon" gold pieces, which his father borrowed for him, and he journeyed from Beirut to Joppa, Alexandria, Marseilles, and then to New York.
In New York, Rihbany headed immediately to the Syrian colony on Washington Street. There he worked for a while as an assistant storekeeper until he met with some educated Syrians with whom he founded the Syrian Scientific and Literary Society. Later on, one of his colleagues in the society started the first Arabic newspaper in the New World, Kawkab America and asked Rihbany to be editor. He worked in this capacity for one year at the end of which the paper folded due to personal disagreements. But Rihbany did not go back into the world of commerce like most of his compatriots. Instead, he chose a very peculiar route, that of talking about the "Holy Land" in American churches for whatever contribution he could obtain. Thus, with broken English, and with raw ideas translated directly from Arabic, he embarked on a lengthy tour that took him to many cities in the mid-west before he was officially invited, after a few years, to become the permanent preacher in a town there.
In 1913, Rihbany wrote his first book, A Far Journey, in which he chronicled his life until that point, and which he adorned with pictures taken from Syria during a trip accompanied by his American wife. Shortly thereafter, he started to write a monthly article in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly under the heading The Syrian Christ. Those articles were later collected in a book bearing the same title. The Syrian Christ was reprinted 11 times between 1916 and 1922.
In 1917, he published Militant America and Jesus Christ, a book advocating the joining of the USA in WWI against the axis powers. And in 1918 he followed it with America Save the Near East. In this book, he presented a very tight argument as to why America should take an active role in solving the "Syrian Question" by advancing east in its campaign, liberating Syria, and holding it under its protection, as a "benevolent power." Obviously, in writing his book, he was countering the Anglo-French designs on Syria that were calling for dividing that country into spheres of influence under two mandates, one British, the other French. His vision for solving the Syrian Question could be outlined as such: Syrian independence and unity under the protection of the USA; No Monarchy; A federal national government in Syria seated in Damascus with state legislatures in each of Mt. Lebanon, Aleppo, and Palestine. He also rejected the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine in a lengthy chapter of the book where he debunked all the Zionist arguments presented in favor of such an endeavor at that time.
In 1919, Rihbany was elected by the American Syrian Associations (We don't know at this time which ones) to be their representative at the peace conference in Versailles. There, he met with Prince Faisal, and spent three months with him. That experience, and the political jockeying that he witnessed in those turbulent times were do***ented in a book titled Great Men from the East and the West. Other books that he also penned include The Hidden Treasure of Rasmoula, Jesus Christ for Boys and Girls, and Seven Days with God.
Rihbany died in 1944, most likely in Boston.
The Syrian Christ
This book is Rihbani's masterpiece. He will always be remembered by it. In it, Rihbany was not trying to add a new theory about Christ's divinity, but rather "taking the reader into the inner chambers of Syrian life" without which, he felt that one cannot understand the true meaning of the scriptures. He goes through Syrian beliefs, modes of speech and way of life. He rejects the notion of "The Chosen People" as a narrow and racist view. Rihbany dedicates the book as an act of homage and love to "My Master, the Syrian Christ."
This bio is taken from a book that I am preparing about Rihbany.
Regards.
Oussama

 


A tribute to
My classmate, my dear friend
Minister Bechara Merhej

 I would like to share with you some of the highlights of my visit to our beloved town of Shweir this past summer. 

 I consider myself blessed to have many friends and classmates that I take pride to associate with. This year during my visit to our beloved town my classmates and I celebrated our 40th Reunion of our high school graduation.

One of the classmates that I am honored to call him a friend is Minister Bechara Merhej. He was gracious enough to take time of his busy schedule and join us in celebrating this special event. For that I am grateful to him and to all my beloved classmates who made the event memorable.

During my short visit I witness some of Minister Merhej activities that I would like to share it by posting some pictures to the readers of Shweir.com so you will know why I am honored to call this dynamic man my friend.

 Click here to see Our Reunion Dinner party at Alsad Restaurant and  our classmates visit to our old school SSS:  http://www.shweir.com/pix_summer_02_by_n_matar.htm

Click on this link  http://www.shweir.com/ain_el_assis.htm  to see Bechara in Action taking part in the dedication of the Arzi Building and if you scroll further down, you will see Bechara where he gave a great speech during an evening to honor Dr. Khalil Saadeh.

Below, you will see pictures of Bechara that were taken during the:

The above functions took place during the Emigrant Festival in our town and does not include the many other appearances, meetings and functions that he attended representing the many other organizations he is involved in on a National and International level. 

 To Bechara, we take pride in your achievements and representing the people of Lebanon. Thank you for enriching our lives.

 Your friend,

 Nabil E. Matar

 

*** Original Message ***

Sent:    December 2002

From:  Bechara Merhej

 

To the team of Shweir.com and all the participants,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year .

Special thanks to my classmates of 1962, namely Walid, NAbil, HAbib, Adel, Ziad, Riyad, Wajih and Rafic.

I was deeply touched by the letter of my friend NAbil Mattar whom I know is working very hard to keep the webpage alive and growing, along with our Mukhtar Georges and our marvelous librarian Riyad, and all the other friends who are giving their time to cherish friendship & project the image of Dhour Shweir as one of beauty, excellence, and fraternity.

I enjoyed reading about the news of Shweir specially the news of the Swheiris abroad. This reflects that they are real Shweiris whose commitment  to their mother land will never wither away, but would grow stronger and stronger as time goes by.

It is wonderful to belong to such a precious community. I am proud of you all.

 

Sincerely,

Bechara Merhej

 

From an email, courtesy of George Matar:

"Here is information about one of our prominent Shweirieh, Bechara Merhej, for our did you know section. As you know Bechara is a member of the Lebanese Parliament and he held the title of Interior minister for a while.

I retrieved this information from the following address www.hariri2000.com/merhej.html <http://www.hariri2000.com/merhej.html> there is additional information about his election platform.."

 Bechara Merhej

Mr. Bechara Merhej Born 1946 in Beirut. His parents Jamil Merhej and Salwa Mattar Rahbani are from Dhour Shweir. He is married to Dr. Vali Grotti, pediatrician, and has two daughters, Lena and Mona. He is the brother of Adel, Saad, Kamal, and Roula.

Degree in economics from the American University of Beirut.  Taught at Al-Farouk Omar bin Al-Khattab High School 1968-69, all the while working in both statistics and journalism. At the Al Anwar newspaper he edited the student supplement and contributed to its economic supplement.  Took part in the founding of the Active Arab Front, and held the highest leading position in the Al-Baath Arab Socialist Party until 1973.  In 1975, he contributed to founding the Assembly of Popular Leagues and Association.

Memberships:

* Member, The Gathering for Unity 
* Member, Trustee Board for One Lebanon Youth Club 
* Member, Friends of the Al-Hoda Youth Association. 
* President, Trustee Board, Friends of the Disabled Association, which he helped to found in 1978 
* President, Special Olympiad Association for the physically and mentally disabled 
* Member, AUB Alumni 
* Member, Arab National Congress
* Member, Al Manaber magazine advisory council. He contributed infounding the magazine 
* Member, Follow-up Committee for Support of Lebanese Detainees and Prisoners in Israeli prisons

* Director-

* General, Dar Al Nadwa Association.

Politics:

* Advisor for Arab affairs to former Prime Minister Rashid Solh, 1992 
* Member of Parliament for orthodox seat in Beirut 
* Minister of Interior in the government of prime minister Rafic Hariri from November 31, 1992 until September 2, 1994 
* Elected member of Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Budget, 1994 
* Elected president of Parliamentary Committee for parliament's internal procedure, also of Committee on Human Rights, in 1995 
* Re-elected Deputy for Beirut September 7, 1996 
* Minister for Administrative Reform in the Rafic Hariri Government from November 1996-1998 
* President of Lebanese delegation to the Conferences of Arab Interior Ministers in Tunis 1993, 1994 
* Presided over the Lebanese delegation to a United Nations Conference on "Good Governance" 
* Presided over 36th Session of the Arab Organization for Administrative Development held at Arab League Headquarters in Cairo 1994 
* Presided over Lebanese delegation to the Special Olympiad for the Disabled at Yale University, United States, July 1995 
* Assisted president and prime minister in preparing a citizenship degree, which ultimately gave back citizenship to thousands of deserving cases and to those for whom it was denied 
* Advocated in the US the issue of Lebanese detainees and prisoners and presented a memoranda on the issue to then United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Ghali 
* Renowned for his positive, unified, democratic independent and Arabic style in dealing with public concerns. 
* Published numerous studies on political and economic affairs.

Thank you Nabil and George Matar for providing the above information.

*********************************

    


From Shweir in 1887 to Australia

Posted by Klee on February 08, 2001 at 08:17:28:

I was overjoyed to find your web-site this week. My great-grandparents Amin and Kammilie Abotomey came from Shweir to Adelaide, South Australia, arriving in 1890. We think that their name would have been something like Abou Toameh, Abu Tahmy, or Abou Taami in Lebanon. Their eldest son Samir had arrived in 1887. My grandmother was born here in 1892. For decades I have tried to learn about Shweir, since I found "Shweir, Mount Lebanon" listed on my great-grandmother's death certificate as her place of birth, while researching family history. I am still hoping to trace family records back further if anyone from the Eastern Orthodox Church in Shweir can help, maybe to find Amin and Kammilie's marriage records in the late 1860's, or their birth, or further generations back. 

Amin (born 1847) and Kammilie (born 1852) had seven children. The company 'A. Abotomey and Sons', clothing manufacturers, operated in South Australia from 1897 to 1972, run by three generations of the family.
Amin's brother Bishara Abotomey (born around 1843) and his wife Labeebe (nee Mabarrack) and their family also came here to South Australia. Although the families' heritage was Greek Orthodox originally, Bishara was trained as a Presbyterian Minister in Lebanon (by the American Mission). When he died here aged 61, the newspaper reported that he had been "doing mission work for 35 years" and was "the only Protestant Minister in South Australia of Syrian birth. His daughter Genevieve had a Diploma from the American College (University) in Beirut (in the 19th Century) and was said to have helped to translate the Bible into Arabic in Lebanon. She ran a music shop here for many years. The graves of Amin and Kammilie Abotomey, and Bishara and Labeebe Abotomey are side by side. They have had hundreds of descendants. 

I was once told the meaning of three family names was Abou Taami (a "cutting", maybe from Tomey i.e. Greek), Moujaes (a "re-grafting") and Kiami or Keamy (a "rebirth", maybe from Quiyyamah, from Arabic for resurrection), and these three were branches of the Helou family which in the 1970's numbered over 10,000 persons in Lebanon. One original family had split into these three branches and adopted these names after fleeing an incident involving an Ottoman tax-collector, who after being given hospitality, had demanded that the girls of the family be brought to him, which, as you might imagine, was refused and severely punished, and led to the entire family packing the mules and fleeing.

With such a fascinating Middle-eastern heritage that seems so distant and hard to research, I can't tell you how much it means to see the pictures of the village on the Internet and to read the items. I have been told previously that Shweir means "rock or cliff" and Dhour means "heights" so the newer area of Dhour Shweir means the "heights of the rock". How beautiful Shweir is, nestled in a valley surrounded by rock and the dark green typical of the mountains of Lebanon. The old name of Shweir was Mirrhatta after Prince Hattem who governed the area once. 

A cousin who has since died, visited the Kiami family there in 1973 and Jamil Shakir Kiami (who has also since died) told stories of our heritage which she passed on to us. He spoke in Aramaic (how incredible) of our genealogy; that "many grandfathers ago" we had come from the north and settled in Mount Lebanon in Shweir. He spoke of family names like Boutrous, Faris, Kassab, Helou. 

Apparently the old site of an Abotomey home still had two solid timber doors over a large basement cellar with great floor joists jutting out over the doors, and a grassy cover over what had been the floor. If someone recognises this site in Shweir, let me know. 

May the memory of many great emigrants from Lebanon who gave their talents to the world give us pride and may this web-site help us to learn about our history and remember our noble heritage. Thankyou again for your web-site. I list it among my "favourites".

***********************************************

'Mount Lebanon' by Colonel Churchill, 1853 book

Posted by Klee on February 08, 2001 at 09:31:18:

For those who have never seen it, I have typed the following extract from 'Mount Lebanon - a Ten Year's Residence from 1842 to 1852' by Colonel Churchill:
"The village of Shweir, one of the most considerable in the Lebanon, consisting of a mixed population of Greeks, Greek Catholics, and Maronites, but chiefly the former, is famous for its artisans in every species of manufacture; so useful and industrious indeed are they, that the Emir Bechir conferred on them the singular privilege of being exempt from the forced labour which he used to exact, as necessity required, from the surrounding population. Its iron smelting furnaces are of wide repute, though not the only ones in the Lebanon. The Emir Bechir used to make them a very lucrative monopoly. That of Shweir was farmed out to the Jews of Deir-el-Kammar at eight hundred pounds a-year.
The masons of Shweir are in great demand. They work either by contract, or at an average rate of from two to three shillings a-day. Their manner of building is strong and substantial, but of symmetry and proportion they have not the remotest idea. There is a spring of water here which dries up at the beginning of summer, and reflows about the end of September, sometimes even before the rains have commenced. This singular property is wholly unaccountable in the eyes of the people. The spring has, therefore, been placed under a tutelary Saint, who is supposed annually to trouble the waters.
On the day of their expected re-appearance, the whole village is in commotion; the bells ring, the priests assemble in their different churches, from whence leading forth a numerous and solemn procession, with uplifted crucifix and floating banner, they go down to the cave which is by the side of the road, and await the accomplishment of the miracle.
Should there be any delay, the saint is loudly invoked; hundreds of lighted tapers flaunt about in all directions; clouds of incense ascend; votive offerings are dedicated; supplications are poured out. Presently the water begins to ooze - it bubbles - it flows. Frantic shouts of rejoicing fill the air; bottles are speedily filled with the sacred element, to be corked up and carefully preserved. At length, the crowd, pleased and gratified, disperses; the priests assured of the efficacy of their prayers, the people congratulating themselves on the strength of their faith...."
Extract from Volume 1 page 113-5:
Colonel Churchill (Staff Officer of the British Expedition to Syria). 'Mount Lebanon - a Ten Years' Residence' from 1842 to 1852, describing the Manners, Customs, and Religion of its Inhabitants with a Full and Correct Account of the Druse Religion and Containing Historical Records of the Mountain Tribes from Personal Intercourse with their Chiefs and Other Authentic Sources. Saunders and Otley: London. 1853. (3 Volumes). I found a set stored away in the Library of the University of Adelaide, South Australia. I know that some of the volumes have been reprinted in recent years because of their historical value. If interested check on Amazon.com booksellers.

Thank you so very much Klee.  This information is extremely valuable to the people of Shweir.  Webmaster

Copy of an email sent by al Mukhtaar on Feb 8, 2001

Dear Klee

What wonderful articles you added to our bulletin Board, I was overjoyed by both of them. By the way the Jamil Kiameh you mention was married to my aunt Salma, and yes he knew a whole lot about history. There is a picture of him in the section "Saif oo Terse" on the front page. Click on the section and then scroll down almost to the end, when you start seeing small pictures arranged vertically on the left side look for the one that is titled "1930 Celebration in front of Ain Al Aboo". Click on the picture to enlarge it... Jamil is the knight with sword on the right side. 

Okay, Klee it would be nice to tell us something about yourself, I don't think you mentioned your name, or maybe you did and I missed it. Please go to the Guest book sign it.  There are quite a few of people that know the Abou Taameh.  

I was surprised to hear that the Moujaes are off shoot of the Helou Family.  That, is going to open a lot of Eyes REAL WIDE.

Thank you and please write back, also tell us how you found the site.

George Matar 

**********************************

and an email from Hilda sent on Feb 9, 2001

Dear Dr. Klee,

I have enjoyed reading your entries on the bulliten board and I do respect
your curiosity about our heritage.  I am a very curious person myself...maybe
genetic!

It is interesting to hear all the storiesyou related, that have been lost to
us, because so many of the elders have passed on and the war in Lebanon had
left people searching to meet  their daily needs and having less opportunity
to leisurely relate to us the stories of  long ago.

A lot of what you see on the site is a compilation of people from shweir who
are somewhere around the world yet willing -like you- to share something
about shweir with us.

Please feel free to contribute to our web-site and if we happen to be able to
answer any of your questions, we will surely let you know.

Welcome on board the shweir.com site...

Hilda

********************************************

Response by Dr. Klee on Feb 9, 2001

Dear George,

Thanks for the wonderful welcome I have received from each of the three of you. 

How amazing that you George are a relative too, no matter how distant!  I am stunned by all this; the Internet is incredible. My mother's mother was Elizabeth Adelaide Abotomey, the youngest child of Amin and Kammilie Abotomey, born here in Adelaide. My mother's cousin Olive De Pinto (nee Abotomey) visited your aunt's family in Dhour Shweir in 1973 and continued to correspond with them from her home in Suffolk, England. She was Jamil's cousin. 

Her mother Naify Abotomey (nee Keamy) was sister of Shakir Kiami, father of Jamil Shakir Kiami. Naify was born in Mirrhairta (Shweir) in 1878, the daughter of Milhelm Kiami, eldest son of Boutrous Fares Kiami, son of Fares Kiami, son of Kassab, son of Helou. After being orphaned, Naify was brought to Australia in 1888 with her brother Naif (born around 1877) and Khuttar (born 1873) by her aunt B'diah Boutrous Abomady (nee Kiami), only daughter of Boutrous Fares Kiami. Naify married my great-uncle Salim Amin Abotomey here in Australia. Olive returned here to visit a couple of times in the 1980's before she died in 1991 and she traveled the world trying to meet her relatives to record their existence. Regarding Jamil's family, it is recorded that Jamil (1908-1986or7) was married to Salma, with four sons George (married to Amal), Samir, Tannous (Tony) married to Loora Malouf from Zahle in 1973, and Shakir (an interpreter). These must be your cousins. 

When Olive visited in 1973, Tannous had just married Loora and they later had Samar, Nada, Randa and Zeina. After Olive's death, Norma Holt, Olive's niece in New South Wales, Australia, continued to write to them. Are they still living in Dhour Shweir? Jamil's grandfather Boutrous Fares Kiami (a builder) married Nora Said Moujaes whose brother Antoun Sa'adeh mentioned on the web-site was "Chief" and whose statue is in Dhour Shweir. Olive taped Jamil Shakir Kiami reading in Aramaic and Arabic a Kiami family genealogy document he prepared while she visited and in the conversations around it you can hear the other family members, and probably it's your aunt saying "Kifich?" (how are you) as they enter because there was fighting and guns going off in Beirut. The war prevented her from visiting Shweir again. For some years I have had a very poor microphone copy3 of a microphone copy2 taped as we all listened to Olive's tape recorder copy1 in the 1970's. What is miraculous about this website contact between us is that just a couple of weeks ago my Dad finally found his copy2 and gave it to me to do a better direct copy and it has been on my mind to get around to it. Many times there have been co-incidences in this Lebanese family research; Olive really wanted the work on our heritage to continue. She found that many of the later generations had no knowledge of their Lebanese background. It is profound to me to remember that I am part of a very long line of generations of Lebanese women, no matter where on earth that may be.  And we are still only 5 feet 1 in. tall, generation after assimilated generation!!

That's all for now, but I will try to add some detail on famous emigrants to the bulletin board when I can. 

Thanks again for your welcome.

Klee.

Dr. Klee Benveniste

benvenik@optusnet.com.au


Baaklini & Kiamie members survived the Titanic

The following copy of a newspaper is courtesy of Nissrine Shehadeh Moujaes 

Headlines  about the rescue of Adele Kiameh and Lateefeh Baaklini from the Titanic

From Al Anwar Newspaper two full pages...(March 8, 1998, pp 16 & 17).  We do not have an original copy of the paper... We would like to feature the entire article if someone can scan the original newspaper or the original letters and documents... any volunteers???  

***************************

-----Original Message----- 
From: Almaza [mailto:almaza@almaza-beer.com
<mailto:[mailto:almaza@almaza-beer.com]
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 8:40 AM 
To: gematar@sbinfra.com <mailto:gematar@sbinfra.com>

Dear Mr Matar,

Acording to your request , it is my pleasure to write you about the Baaklini Family sailed on the Titanic.  

The members of the Baaklini Family that sailed on board the titanic were Latife Born on 1888 married to Suleiman Baaklini and her three daughters Eugenie Born on 1909, Maria Born on 1906 Helene Born on 1911.  All the members of this familly arrived safely to new york. The closest relative to Suleiman is Michel Baaklini 86 years old still living in Shweir and her nephew, Bechara , Zeina, Alma , Micheline and Elias .

Herewith I am enclosing three pictures of Suleiman his wife and her son, the house where we presently live in shweir and photo of Michel Baaklini.  

 Baaklini, Michel.JPG (33642 bytes)
Michel Baaklini
  Baaklini, Suleiman Family.JPG (50117 bytes)  
Suleiman Baaklini with wife & son

Yours truly                                 
Alma Baaklini 
Shwairieh Bi Lebnan

*******************************************************

Excerpts of emails from and to Al Mukhtaar:  

To Baaklini Family members:  
Hey Guys, this is what Leila has sent. Apparently, there is a book coming up, and your Family is going to be in it! 
George

-----Original Message----- 
From: Andalus2@cs.com <mailto:Andalus2@cs.com> [mailto:Andalus2@cs.com
<mailto:[mailto:Andalus2@cs.com]
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2001 12:29 PM  
To: gematar@sbinfra.com <mailto:gematar@sbinfra.com
Subject: Re: Baaklini Family Connection

Dear Mr. Matar: 
Thank you so much for your help - hopefully the Baaklini family members who boarded the Titanic will have their full coverage in this upcoming book. I thank you again and all the anticipated assistance from the family.  Regards,  
Leila Salloum Elias

*****************************************

Sabah il Kheir Ya Leila

I just got this message from Alma Baaklini to help you with your book. I did not have much luck with pic2, I can see the top part only. Suleiman was really a good looking man.

The best part about this message is all the connections you now have.  Leila, Let us know when you are done, I am sure we will love to write something about the book on our web page.....help the sales you know.  

Thanks to all the Baakilini on this effort, And Alma Thank you very very much, when I go to Lebanon this summer, the Almaza (The beer of course) is on me. What the Heck we'll but a full case and share it with the others.

See you in August. 
Best of Luck 
George Matar 

*****************************************

Thanks for this valuable information.   I am ashamed that I have no knowledge of that at all, it is so amazing how much he looks like most of the Baaklini's I know, may be we are related some how. The good news is that they made it safely.

Thanks George for sharing.

Suheil Baaklini

Many Thanks to Alma Baaklini, Leila Salloum Elias and George Matar for bringing this bit of History to light!


 

Emile Al Halabi Directed us to the following links  

http://www.encyclopedia-ti​tanica.org/titanic-survivo​r/latifa-baclini.html
http://www.encyclopedia-ti​tanica.org/titanic-survivo​r/marie-baclini.html
http://www.encyclopedia-ti​tanica.org/titanic-survivo​r/eugenie-baclini.html
http://www.encyclopedia-ti​tanica.org/titanic-survivo​r/helene-baclini.html

 

Lebanese on the Titanic

Copy from the New Bulletin Board by Dr. Klee   posted 02-18-2001 10:33 PM

I was surprised to learn from the old Bulletin Board that there were Lebanese on the ship 'Titanic' when it struck an iceberg and sank in 1912. So I have been searching on the Internet for details. I found an archived letter from Daniel Nassif, Executive Director of the American Lebanese Institute addressed to the Director of the Film 'Titanic'. Nassif says that the multi-varied presence of Lebanese on the ship was "unintentionally reduced in the film to a few seconds of a frightened woman of nondescript appearance and origin shouting in Lebanese "yalla" (let's go!) to her children". He emphasised that "one-hundred-and-twenty-five Lebanese were on board of whom only twenty-nine survived who included twenty women, five children, and four young men. Also during the voyage there were many parties going on in third class, the largest and noisiest of which was a Lebanese celebration of two recently married couples emigrating to the United States: Hanna Touma, Antoine Yazbeck, and their wives. Much dancing and singing to the tunes of Lebanese music could be heard throughout third class and passengers of other nationalities also joined in the festivities. After tragedy struck and the ship was sinking a group of Lebanese Christians huddled together on deck around English Catholic priest, Father Thomas Roussel Byles, recited the "Our Father" and other prayers. All of them perished along with the priest" (this letter was found at http://generalaoun.simplenet.com/daniel3.jpg.
I also found an article by Ray Hanania "Arabs on the Titanic tale: we share the pain but not the glory". He says: "All told there were only 706 survivors of the 2,223 passengers and crew...There were 79 passengers whose sur-names are of obvious Arab heritage" and he quotes another source (Geller "Titanic: Women and Children First" which said that officially there were 154 Syrians on board, and 29 were saved". Hanania says "All the Arab passengers were ticketed "Third Class", except four who travelled "Second Class" " and he lists names and details a few (5 page article at http://www.hanania.com/columns/col04088.htm).
The best information I have found so far is at the site 'Encyclopedia Titanica' (http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/index.html). There are detailed biographies of most of the passengers and crew. Because Lebanon had been part of Syria, they are described as Syrians. Descendants and researchers have put together what information is known about each. I am still searching for an item cited there: Michel Karam 'The Lebanese in the Titanic', Beirut, 2000, which may be a newspaper article. The Third Class passenger list and biographies can be found at http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/listings/passenger_list_3rd_low.shtml. I looked up the Baclini family from Shweir (mentioned on the old Bulletin Board): Mrs. Solomon Baclini (Latifa Qurban), aged 24, and her three daughters Miss Marie Catherine Baclini, Miss Eugenie Baclini, and Miss Helene Barbara Baclini. There are biographies written about each of them with details of who they married. When I read the page on Mrs. Baclini, I was surprised to read: "Travelling with them was Miss Adele Jane Kiamie Najib who was going to the United States to be married. Mrs. Baclini was serving as her chaperone since Miss Najib was only in her teens.
When the collision occured Mrs Baclini knew something was wrong and somehow made her way with her daughters and Miss Najib to the boat deck. Supposedly, when they were boarding Collapsible C, the officer loading the boat would not let Miss Najib on because she was not a "blood relative" of Mrs. Baclini. However, Mrs. Baclini insisted that she could not arrive in America having saved herself and her daughters and tell Miss Najib's family that she had to leave her behind. They finally let Miss Najib on the boat". They all survived.
Having found the family name Kiamie, I looked up details for Adele Najib, and yes, she was actually a Kiamie, 15 years old, the daughter of Najeeb Kiamie and Merion Nasias. So her real name was Adele Najib Kiamie, known as "Jane" and in America she married Naif A. Kiamie. Thankyou to the Baclini family for saving her life! How many others from Shweir might there be in that list?


Dr. Klee
Wow!!!!! And I'll Second that too, WOW!!!!!Absolutely Fantastic information. Well done
Where do you get all that Energy?
God Bless you
George


The following is from the Attallah.org web site: 
http://www.atallah.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7

  General Information: Atallahs and other Lebanese on The Titanic
Posted on Thursday, August 07 @ 19:24:45 EST by tony
 
 
  Atallah History and old Stories A detailed account of all the Lebanese who perished on the Titanic, including their villages of origin and age.

There were officially were 66 Lebanese on board the Titanic, and 29 were saved: four men, five children and 20 women. The small Roman Orthodox Village of Kfar Mishki in the lower Bekaa Valley of Eastern Lebanon was devasted by the loss of at least 8 of its inhabitants. Another village, Hardeen, lost a 12 of its inhabitants whilst 8 others survived.

There were 2 passengers who belonged to the Atallah family, one of them listed as Canadian of Lebanese origins.

People whose country of residence was Lebanon:

Name Age at the time Originating Survived/Killed
ABRAHIM, Mrs Mary Sophie Halaut 18yo Ayn Arab S
ALBIMONA, Mr Nassef Cassem 26yo Shanai S
ASSAF, Mrs Mariana 45yo Kfar Mishki S
ATTALAH, Miss Malake 17yo Beirut K
AYOUB DAHER, Miss Banoura 15 yo Beirut S
BACLINI, Mrs Latifa 24yo El Shweir S
BACLINI, Miss Marie Catherine 6yo El Shweir S
BACLINI, Miss Eugenie 3yo El Shweir S
BACLINI, Miss Helene Barbara 1yo El Shweir S*
BADT, Mr Mohamed 40yo Tripoli K
BARBARA, Mrs Catherine David 45yo Kfar Mishki K
BARBARA, Miss Saiide 18yo Kfar Mishki K
BETROS, Mr Tannous 20yo Zgarta K
CARAM, Mrs Maria Elias 18yo Kfar Mishki K
CHEHAB/SHIHAB, Mr Emir Farres 29YO Beirut K
ELIAS, Mr Joseph jr. 15yo Kfar Mishki K
ELIAS NASRALLAH, Mr Tannous 22yo Kfar Mishki K
GERIOS THAMAH, Mr Assaf 21yo Kfar Mishki K
HANNA, Mr Boulos 18yo Hardeen K
HANNA, Mr Mansour 35yo Kfar Mishki K
HANNAH, Mr Borak 27yo Hardeen S
IBRAHIM SHAWAH, Mr Yousseff 33 yo Beirut K
JOSEPH (SHAHIN), Mr Elias 33yo Kfar Mishki K
KHALIL, Mr Betros 25yo Hardeen K
KHALIL, Mrs Zahie "Maria" 20YO Hardeen K
LAHOUD ISHAQ MOWAD, Mr Sarkis 30yo Zgarta K
LEENI, Mr Fahim ("Philip Zenni") 22YO Tula S
MAMEE, Mr Hanna 20yo Tripoli S
MOUBAREK, Mrs Omine 24yo Hardeen S
MOUBAREK, Master Gerios ("George _") 7yo Hardeen S
MOUBAREK, Master Halim Gonios 4yo Hardeen S
MOUSSA, Mrs Mantoura Boulos 35yo Hardeen S
MOUSSELMANI, Mrs Fatima 22yo Tibneen S
NAJIB KIAMIE, Miss Adele "Jane" 15yo El Shweir S
NAKHLI, Mr Toufik 17yo Hardeen K
NAKID, Mr Sahid 20yo Zgarta S
NAKID, Mrs Waika "Mary" 19yo Zgarta S
NAKID, Miss Maria 1yo Zgarta S*
NASR ALMA, Mr Mustafa Farm 20yo Tibneen K
NASSER, Mrs Adele 2nd Class 14yo Zahleh S
NASSR RIZQ, Mr Saade 20yo Ser’al K
14yo Al Hakur S
14yo Al Hakur S
NOFAL, Mr Mansouer 20yo Kfar Mishki K
PETER / JOSEPH, Mrs Catherine (Rizk) 24yo Ser’al S
PETER / JOSEPH, Master Michael J. 4yo Ser’al S
PETER / JOSEPH, Miss Anna ("Mary Joseph") 2yo Ser’al S
RAZI, Mr Raihed 30yo Tibneen K
SAAD, Mr Amin 30yo Tibneen K
SAAD, Mr Khalil 27yo Tibneen K
SAMAAN, Mr Hanna 40yo Hardeen K
SAMAAN, Mr Elias 17yo Hardeen K
SAMAAN, Mr Youssef ("Joseph") 15yo Hardeen K
SEMAN, Master Betros 10yo Hardeen K
THOMAS, Mr Charles R'ad 31yo Hardeen K
THOMAS, Mrs Thamine "Thelma" 16yo Hardeen S
THOMAS/TANNOUS, Master Assad Alexander 5months Hardeen S
TORFA, Mr Assad 20yo Tibneen K
TOUMA, Mrs Hanna Youssef 27 Tibneen S
TOUMA, Miss Maria Youssef (Thomas) 9yo Tibneen S
TOUMA, Master Georges Youssef (Thomas) 8yo Tibneen S
WAZLI, Mr Yousif Ahmed 25yo Tibneen K
YASBECK, Mr Antoni 27yo Hardeen K
YAZBECK, Mrs Selini "Celiney" 15yo Hardeen S
YOUSSEFF (ABI SAAB), Mr Gerios 45yo Hardeen K
YOUSSIFF (SAM'AAN), Mr Gerios 28yo Hardeen K

* Babies who died within a year of the tragedy.

Sleiman Atallah (Attala) (listed as Canadian).

Mr Sleiman Attala, 30, was a journalist from Ottawa, Canada. His native country was Lebanon.
He boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as a third class passenger. He bought ticket No. 2694 for £7 4s 6d.
Mr Attala died in the sinking. His body, if recovered, was never identified.

Miss Malake Attalah passengers

When the Titanic sank Miss Attalah was aged 17 years, she lived in Beirut Lebanon
She boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg on Wednesday 10th April 1912 (Ticket No. 2627) £14 9s 9d
Attalah died in the sinking. Her body was never recovered .
Travelling Companions (on same ticket) Mr Yousseff Ibrahim Shawah

Source:   http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org

 


Information about a few of the notable Shweirieh 
earlier in the
Late 19th century and early 20th

In the late 19th century and early 20th,Shweir produced a large number of intellectuals whose achievements involved literature, journalism, politics and science.

Many thanks to Dr. Salim Mujais for providing us with some very valuable information below...

 

Dhaher Khairallah (1836-1916)

Dhaher Elias Khairallah was born in 1836 and studied the elements of reading and writing in the school of the monastery of Mar Elias which was limited to religious texts. He was barely 14 when his father died and being the eldest had to become the bread earner for the family. He apprenticed as a mason and worked in this profession until he was 26 when he was asked to do some construction work at the American missionary school in Abieh. While there, he convinced the missionaries to accept him as a student in return for which he would care for the building needs of the school. After graduation, he went to Beirut and started a school for young men that counted the author Jerjy Zaydan among its graduates. Dhaher then joined the Orthodox College of al-Thalath Aqmar (The Three Luminaries) where he taught mostly Arabic language and literature. After brief stints of teaching in Damascus, Tripoli and Kayfun, he joined the Orthodox Patriarchal Monastery of al-Balamand and taught seminary students many of whom were later to become leaders in the church. He also studied law late in life and practiced his new profession briefly in Beirut. He was a prolific writer in linguistics and had several books on the details of Arabic grammar and syntax.  In addition, he wrote a couple mathematics textbooks and two works on Orthodox theology. He died in 1916 and was buried in Beirut.

 

Jerjes Hammam (1857-1921)

 Jerjes Hammam was born in 1857 and being sickly, his parents sent him to the English primary school in Shweir. He excelled to such a degree that an English inspection team in 1870 recommended he be transferred to the high school in Souk al-Gharb where he met Reverend Ray in 1872. In 1873, he became the Reverend's translator and he focused his efforts on translating geometry and algebra books to Arabic. When in 1874, Reverend Ray transferred his post to Shweir and founded its high school he brought Jerjes Hammam with him and appointed him as a teacher. Hammam was appalled by the then available books for teaching Arabic and devised a modern educational method with a series of graded books, which revolutionized teaching methods in the Near East. Jerjes Hammam later went to the UK were he studied advanced mathematics. In 1887, he published in association with Salim Kassab an Arabic-English dictionary. In the introduction they write: Being the first handbook on the subject we have spared no pains in studying the best authorities in both languages, so as to produce the exact translation of the Arabic words, and in making it inclusive of all the words that are in general use, in both spoken and written Arabic, together with scientific, industrial, commercial, and political terms? In the Arabic introduction to this dictionary, the authors state that they intended to follow this work with a larger and more comprehensive one covering all the Arabic vocabulary. They state that they had already finished a large part of this larger sequel, but the need for a practical medium size work led them to publish the abbreviated opus I have been unable to ascertain whether the longer work was ever published.  In  1908, Jerjes Hammam published an Arabic-Arabic dictionary for students He called it Mu?jam at-Taleb (A Student’s Dictionary). It was printed by the al-Matba? Ah al-Uthmaniyah (Ottoman Press) in Baabda in 1907. The dictionary reflects his concern and ongoing crusade to improve the teaching methods and standards and his efforts to provide the tools for such improvements. At its publication, the dictionary had a long and learned introduction on issues of Arabic grammar written by another philologist and grammarian from Shweir called Dhaher Khairallah  (see above).  Two other Shweireh contributed financially to the production of the dictionary: father Moussa Merhej and Nehmeh Jafet. In 1907, Jirjis was invited to participate in the design and later the administration of the Orthodox high school in Homs where in addition to his administrative duties he taught mathematics. After many years of teaching in the most important schools in Lebanon and Syria, Jirjis Hamman died on the 22nd of June 1921.

 

Ni’mah Yafith (1860-1923)

 Ni’mah Yafith was born in Shweir on October 28th of 1860. He

Received his early education at the hands of his father who was teaching at the school of the Mar Elias monastery.  He completed his studies at the Protestant high school in Shweir while helping his own father in teaching at the Mar Elias monastery school.

In 1878 he joined the Syrian Protestant College from which he graduated in 1882 with a bachelor’s degree in Sciences. Among his teachers at the College were Daniel Bliss, George Post, John Wortabet, Yakoub Sarrouf, and Faris Nimr. Ni’mah Yafith had a particular interest and skill in mathematics and in 1886 he published a textbook on the subject, followed in 1890 by a shorter version of the original tome.  Around the same time, he joined the teaching staff at the Orthodox College of al-Thalath Aqmar (The Three Luminaries). Ne?meh was actively involved in the scientific and literary revival activities of the time.  Soon after his graduation from College, he became a member of the al-Majma?  Al-Ilmi al-Sharqee  (the Oriental Scientific Association), a learned society that counted among its members the elite scientists, physicians and educators of the time.

In  1893, Ni’mah emigrated to Brazil where he was very successful

In trade and industry.  In 1907, he built the largest textile factory in the country and by 1913 he was heading the Syrian Chamber of Commerce in Brazil.  With the rapid development of the commercial activities of the Syrian communities in Brazil, Ni’mah Yafith organized, in 1913, a special chamber of commerce to serve the interests of the immigrants. In 1917, the newly organized al-Jam’iyah al-Wataniya al-Souriya al-Lubnania (The Syrian Lebanese Patriotic Association), a group that lobbied for Syrian independence under French patronage invited him to become its first president. Likewise he was elected, during the First World War, head of the Brazilian Red Cross Society in Sao Paulo. His services in this and other philanthropies were recognized by both the immigrants and the Brazilians alike, and the Sao Paulo Republican Party, named him, in recognition of those services, head of its Ypiranga branch. The State government also bestowed upon him the rank of honorary colonel for his many services to the country, and the French government recognized his services to the Allied cause by decorating him with the Legion of Honor. During the First World War, he spearheaded the effort to send financial support to Syria to help

Alleviate the famine.  He died on December 26, 1923.  In  1952, a commemorative statue was erected in his honor in front of the new city hall built in Dhour-el-Shweir with money donated by his family. A large donation to his alma mater the American University of Beirut (previously the Syrian Protestant College) helped establishes the Yafith Library, the premier library in the Near East.

 

As’aad Rustum Mujais (1878-1969)

 As’aad Rustum was a prolific and humorous poet whose poems and limericks have  withstood the test of time with their vigor and relevance.

His poetry was focused on social and political criticism and he spared no one from his barbs were they politicians, clergy or fellow writers and poets.  He had a penchant to parody the classical poems of yesteryears, particularly the inflated poetry of Antar and others, with a very successful humorous outcome that ridiculed the withered traditions of classical themes. He was born in 1878, studied at the Protestant school in Shweir, and subsequently at the Syrian Protestant College. By the turn of the century, he immigrated to the United States and undertook a successful commercial venture in the import of Persian carpets. This did not prevent him, however, from pursuing a literary career and contributing to the various Syrian periodicals published in New York.

He gained the praise of young Gibran Khalil Gibran when the two of them were the major contributors to the periodical al-Muhajer published in New York by Ameen al-Ghurayeb. Gibran frequently referred to the three of them as the? Trinity? And when Ameen and As’aad visited Egypt and Syria in 1908, Gibran wrote to them of his longing to be in their company. The relationship between Gibran and As'aad Rustum was not, however, without its occasional tensions. As’aad was offended by a wholesale criticism of Syrian poets in the Americas that Gibran expressed in an article published in al-Muhajer.  Gibran rectified his faux pas in a letter to Ghurayeb praising a wonderful poem by Ass?ad on the topic of the national flag, and Ghurayeb managed to  smooth  the  relationship  between  the  two.  In 1908, As’aad published a collection of his poems in a book titled Diwan As’aad Rustum.

Another collection of poetry was later published as al-Rustumiyat. Ass?ad may have  had a lapse in his publications during the First World War so in 1918 Gibran writes to him .:

Dear Brother As’aad: Peace upon your soul. Your return to us

After such a long absence, carried on the wings of poetry, is an event worthy of celebration and rejoicing. I told you yesterday verbally and now I repeat my words in writing that your withdrawal from literature was a crime and a form of blasphemy and rebellion against the laws of God. I read yesterday your poem on the beauty of ugliness and was delighted with it as I am with all your poetry? I sent you today a copy of my English books The Madman with the hope that you will find in it what would please you. Do write a word about it if you find it worthy or toss it in the immense great abyss we call silence?

As’aad Rustum lived for most of his life in the United States and left a large legacy of poems only a small portion of which was published in collections.

  

Mansour Jurdak (1881-1964)

 Mansour Jurdak was a famous mathematician, physicist and Astronomer.

He directed the observatory of AUB and in June of 1918 he discovered a new nova.

 

Daoud Fouad Mujais (1886-1960)

 Daoud Fouad Mujais studied in the Protestant school in Shweir

And became a teacher in it and in other schools in the region. In June 1904, he started a magazine called al-Nour in Alexandria (published until 1918) and in 1909 the daily al-Hurryat (closed in 1910). He had a long conflict with the Governor of Lebanon Youssef Pasha, which fills the pages of his newspaper.  He was sentenced to 6 months in jail, but escaped before his arrest and would not accept a "dishonorable pardon". As the authorities could not silence him by bribery and offers of government position, they continued to persecute him (with an occasional attempt at his life) until he left to South America where he collaborated with Dr George Sawaya (1882-1959, also from Shweir) in publishing the periodical al-Islah (Reform) in Buenos Aires. In Chili, he later issued the periodical al-Aresh (The Throne) between 1920 and 1925.  He is also known to have started several political and literary societies and to have been a member of the founding group that wrote the bylaws of the Reporters Union. Daoud Fouad Mujais was a fierce anti-clerical, a reformer of newspaper writing attacking lies and false pretenses rampant in the newspapers of the time.

The political-literary career of Daoud Fouad Mujais did not end in Chili.

He moved to Germany in the late twenties, married and brought his children to Shweir where they stayed for several years learning Arabic. In the late thirties, he was involved in supporting and helping plan the uprising of Keilani in Iraq against the British rule. In later years, he continued to espouse nationalist ideology and issues.

 

 Thank you Dr. Salim Mujais for these insightful information which is part of Shweir's History


150 years anniversary of the birth of Khalil Saadeh in 1857

Article from Annahar  http://www.annaharonline.com/htd/EDU070420.HTM
by John Dayeh On Arpril 20th 2007 in Adab, Fiker and Fann section

مــئـة وخــمـسـون عـامــاً عـــــلـى ولادة خـلـيــل ســـعـــادة
كــــرســـــــيّــــهُ صــــــهــــوةُ جـــــــواد قـــــــويّ الــشـــــكـــــيـــمــة
جان دايه

بعدما قرأ الأب الدكتور يواكيم مبارك تصميم أطروحة الدكتوراه التي قدّمها له أحد الطلاب اللبنانيين في جامعة السوربون والمتمحورة على سيرة خليل سعاده (1857-1934) وإنتاجه، طرح عليه السؤال الآتي: أين الفصل الخاص بأنطون سعاده؟ بالطبع، لم يطرح الأب الدكتور هذا السؤال لمجرد ان أنطون هو ابن خليل سعاده، بل لأن الأول لم يكمل دراسته الثانوية في "برمانا هاي سكول" بسبب ظروف الحرب الكبرى، ولا في أي مدرسة أخرى باستثناء "الجامعة" التي يمكن إطلاق اسم "الدكتور سعاده" عليها. فقد درس الابن على أبيه، منذ التحق به في البرازيل عام 1919 وهو في الخامسة عشرة، قواعد اللغتين العربية والانكليزية، وعلم الصحافة، وبخاصة الكتابة في السياسة الدولية، وعلمَي الاجتماع والسياسة، والخط العربي المائل، والوطنية والمناقبية.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Webmaster's Note:  When one of our team members conducted a search on the Word "Shweir" on the internet, the following was one of the articles we found.   We consider this information to be part of the history of Shweir.  This is in no way an endorsement of a political belief.  We adhere to our Mission Statement and are presenting what we believe to be a well researched historical article or rather thesis about some very important people from Shweir who had significant impact upon the community and the region.  However, we do not and cannot guarantee its accuracy.   Most of us from Shweir were/are unaware of the depth of information contained herein.  This is an excellent example and a model of presenting information and biographies about important Shweirieh.  We will be happy to feature similarly researched information on any Shweiry regardless of political or religious affiliation.  What we can do is to provide you with as reliable and unbiased information as we can.  You draw your own conclusions and you are the final judge on how to perceive and process such information.    

The Works Of Dr. Khalil Saadeh

Novels:

- Prince Murad or the Syrian Prince: Published in London in 1893 (English) 
- Ceasar and Cleopatra: Published in London in 1895 (English)
- Secrets of the Russian Revolution: Published in Cairo in 1905 (Arabic)
- Anthony and Cleopatra: Published in Brazil, n.d. (Arabic/English)
- Secrets of the Bastille: Published in Cairo in 1906 (Arabic)
- The Elegant Circusion: Published in Cairo in 1908 (Arabic)

Books:

- The Prevention of Pulmonary Tu-berculosis and its ways of Treatment: Published in Cairo in 1905 (Arabic)
- Saadeh's Lexicon: Arabic-English lexicon published in Cairo in 1911.
- Nublah fi Kannana: Istanbul 1883 (Arabic)
- Arabic Literature: Published in Cairo in 1886 (Arabic - al-Rabittah: A Collection of Articles published in Brazil in 1971.

Translations:

- The Gospel of Barnabus: Published in Cairo in 1908 - Appathia, Published in Cairo, n.d.

Basic References

- Ali Hamie, Khalil Saadeh: L'homme et L'oeuvre 1857-1934, PhD Dissertation, University of Paris, Sorbonne, 1986. - Nawaf Hardan, Al-Rabittah, Sao Paulo, 1971.
- A. Saadeh, Complete Works, Vol. 2, Beirut, 1982.
- Badr el-Hage, The Unknown Works of Khalil Saadeh, London, n.d. - Adel Beshara, "Khalil Saadeh: Nationalist Crusader," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 3, Number 9, 1996.


Dr. Khalil Saadeh: A Nationalist Crusader

By Adel Beshara

During the nineteenth century, a small group of writers, who were set apart from those among whom they were living by education and experience, started a literary re-vival in the Arab East. One of the leading intellectual figures in this revival was Khalil Sa'adeh. whose ideas had a certain intrinsic inter-est. but none of whom have been fully explored. 

Dr. Sa'adeh, as he is generally known, belonged to that group of writers whose ideas served as forces in the process of change which gave the Arab East a new lease on life. Born in 1857, in the Leba-nese mountain village of Shweir. Khalil Saadeh studied at the Syr-ian Protestant College (currently the American University of Bei-rut). In those years, young Saadeh gave two indications that he would not be motivated purely by the desire for an average career. 

Firstly, he was elected as the official spokesman for the "Student Movement" which formed in 1882 to persuade the Ottoman authorities to recog-nize the medical degree offered by the university. This was the first major indication of the rebellious tendency in Khalil Saadeh's per-sonality. 

Secondly, despite his academic specialization and work in the field of medical science. Khalil Saadeh took a keen interest in the social and intellectual issues of the day. Indeed, his first article. aptly entitled "The backwardness of our Country and the Prospects for advancement," was published in al-Jinan, the Beirut periodical issued by Butrus Bustani. When political conditions in Syria suddenly turned sour under Hamid, Dr. Saadeh fled to Egypt along with many other Syrian in-tellectuals adversely affected by Hamid's repressive policies. At the time, the Syrians constituted a small but highly influential community in Egypt. Many of them were suc-cessful entrepreneurs and prominent thinkers who dominated the intel-lectual field. Their psychology bore on Khalil Saadeh in several ways. First of all. it enabled him to gain some sense of solidarity with other members of his community. More importantly. it made him more aware and appreciative of his na-tional background. For, according to Thomas Philipp, Syrians who had arrived in Egypt during the last two decades of the nineteenth century had to realize that they would remain marginal and barely tolerated in Egyptian national poli-tics. As emigrants in a foreign surrounding, they had, indeed, been made aware of their 'Syrianness.'" In Cairo, Dr. Saadeh led a life of intense intellectual produc-tivity and nationalist militancy. 

In addition to his medical writings (his first medical book was entitled The Prevention of Pulmonary Tu-berculosis and its ways of Treatment), he was a novelist (in English his novels included: Prince Murad, Ceasar and Cleopatra, and Anthony and Cleopatra), a histo-rian (he wrote two major studies. one on the Secrets of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the other on the French Revolution - Mys-tery of the Bastille - which he described as a turning point in modern history), a linguist (his was the first major English-Arabic dic-tionary) an editorialist (he contributed to English and Arabic newspapers including The London Time.s and al-Ahram in Cairo), and a translator. 

The writings of Dr. Saadeh was a fragment of the autobiogra-phy of his age. It embodied both the force of nationalism and the spirit of rational socialism. Strangely enough, the most interesting aspect of it came from an unusual source. While he was in Cairo, Dr. Saadeh was appointed as a correspondent to The London Times. This en-hanced both his interest and skills in the English language and. in the long run, motivated him to publish. in 1919 a two-volume Arabic-Eng-lish dictionary entitled Saadeh's Lexicon. Although it took only two years to complete, the Lexicon was a fairly extensive work which in-troduced into the Arabic language the current terminologies in Sci-ence and the Humanities. In recognition of this outstanding achievement the Khedive of Egypt bestowed upon him the title of Bey. Saadeh 's exile in Egypt was not free from harassment and un-certainty; yet he always looked back on it with nostalgia. 

The most con-troversial part of it occurred soon after the appearance of the Gospel of Barnabus which he translated into Arabic. In the introduction to Barnabus, Dr. Saadeh wrote: I started translating this book which is called the Gospel of Barnabus well aware of the re-sponsibility that I had undertook. My aim was to serve historical studies and of course our lan-guage which is perhaps the most logical medium into which this work should be translated This is the first time that this hook has come out in the Arabic language. It is a gospel about which schol-ars and historians have differed sharply. In thses closing comments. though. I do have to stress that in this introduction all my discus-sions are purely scientific and historical in orientation and that I have been scrupulous to avoid all religious controversies which I left to those who are better equipped to deal with them.

Despite this unequivocal explanation. the publication of Barnabus in Arabic was met with some scepticism due largely to re-ligious sensitivity. The late Rashid Rida inflamed the public by pref-acing the work with a preamble that took its entire meaning out of context. The preamble was incor-porated into the book without Dr. Saadeh's prior knowledge. In 1908, the year that Abdul Hamid revived the Midhat's con-stitution of 1976. Dr. Saadeh returned to his native village in the Lebanon. The resurrection of the constitution was greeted with en-thusiasm. particularly in Syria where it was mistaken for real lib-erty.
As for Dr. Saadeh. he found himself embroiled in a serious dispute with the French ambassa-dor in Beirut. In the wake of this incident, he published an open let-ter to the Ambassador in Lisan al-Hal denouncing in the sharpest of terms French imperialist policy in Syria and France's claim to be the protector of the Lebanese Chris-tians. Both the French Ambassador and the Maronite Patriarch reacted wrathfully. Realizing the serious-ness of the situation, the Governor of Mount Lebanon, Mazfar Pasha, advised his friend Dr. Saadeh to leave the country until the contro-versy dies down. Dr. Saadeh returned to Egypt only to find that he was no longer welcomed there. He was ejected by the Egyptian monarch after his intimate association with Egypt's top nationalist leaders (Arabi Pasha, Mustapha Kamel and Sa'ad Zaghloul). came to light. 

At the same time as this was taking place. his wife passed away in Shweir, and his children were left on their own to survive in the fam-ine-stricken town. Unable to return to Syria due to the outbreak of the First World War. Dr. Saadeh elected to go to South America where the Syrian community was flourishing. Dr. Saadeh's strength lay in his gift to adjust to any kind of situation. Soon after arriving in Argentina, he began the same ar-duous work which he became accustomed to back in Egypt. He issued a periodical called al- Majallah and established The Syrian Press Trade Union. In 1919. he organized the First Syrian Na-tional Democratic Conference in a daring move to unite the Syrian community in Argentina around the cause of national independence. 

After the Conference. Dr. Saadeh announced the creation of the Na-tional Democratic Party which adopted the slogan ''An independ-ence that we must embark upon as virtual nomads is still better than slavery that seems to offer a civi-lized life. In 1920, Dr. Saadeh went to Brazil where he was reunited with his children. In Brazil, he quickly acquired prominence and became a community leader in his own right.
Assisted by his dynamic son, Antun (founder of the Syrian Social National Party) he published two newspapers, al-Majallah and al-Jaridah, and sponsored a number of important activities such as the outstanding project to raise a statue in memory of the late Youssef al-Azamah who died in the Battle of Maysaloun in 1920. To this very day, the statue stands in front of the Syrian parliament in Damascus. As a community leader, Dr. Saadeh showed considerable per-sonal courage in opposing the disunity and intolerable rifts that divided the Syrian community abroad. 

If one were to sum up the political and intellectual position of Khalil Saadeh, the following picture would emerge: (1) He was a strong advocate of the secular idea. Like others in the same capacity, he believed in the separation between religion and politics and in the elimination of the factors that impede social unity. (2) He regarded socialism as the ideal form of political organiza-tion. He was not a Marxist but a practical socialist who believed in equality and human dignity. (3) He was a nationalist crusader for the cause of Syrian unity. Although he was a Christian from Mount Lebanon, the idea of a separate Lebanese nationalism never appealed to him. In his last years in Brazil Dr. Saadeh was appointed honary chairman of the Syrian National League and editor-in-charge of its weekly periodical. al-Rabitah (The League). He passed away on April 10, 1934 leaving behind him a legacy that time has never been able to completely erase.  


In accordance with Webmaster's note above, the following is submitted by Michael Sawaya, Dhour Shweir.  This again appears to be a well researched, informative and historical article about another important person from Shweir.  We encourage our readers to submit to us similarly researched articles about important Shweirieh like Salwa Nassar, Asad Rousom Moujaes, Khalil Hawie, Rahbani Brothers, Nimeh Yafet, and many others. 

 

ANTOUN SA'ADEH
(March 1, 1904 - July 8, 1949)

A WAY OF LIFE AND STRUGGLE

Leader-Founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), author of numerous books and treatises on social, philosophic, intellectual, political and literary subjects; also founder of several newspapers at home and overseas, originator of a philosophic outlook on life, the universe and art, and a distinctive Social Nationalist doctrine.

BACKGROUND:  

On March 1, 1904, in Showeir, Metn District, Mount Lebanon, Antoun Sa'adeh was born to two Lebanese parents, natives of the same town. His father, Dr. Khalil Sa'adeh, was a noted physician, scholar, man of letters and one of the few most prominent national leaders, at home, in Egypt, and in Brasil which teems with Lebanese emigrants. He also founded several overseas
patriotic and national societies and parties as well as the two publications, "al - Majallah" (the magazine) and "al - Jaridah" (the Newspaper) in Sao Paulo, Brasil.  

Antoun Khalil Sa'adeh got his elementary education in the Showeir School and continued his secondary education in the "Frères Institute" in Cairo, where his father was an émigré. Then he moved back to Lebanon and joined the Brummana High School (a flourishing institution, run by the Quakers) where, on a special occasion, staged for the reception of Jamal Pasha, Supreme Commander of the eastern flank of the Ottoman forces in the Near East, young Antoun rejected to bear the Ottoman flag in the reception. Late in 1919, i.e. in the aftermath of World War 1, he left the country for the United States of America profoundly grieved at the indescribable famine plague which overwhelmed his country and people especially the Lebanese, and of which he was eyewitness. Then in February 1921 he moved to Brasil where he participated with his father, Dr. Khalil Sa'adeh, in editing the "Jaridah" and "Majallah". Dr. Sa'adeh is also noted for being the author of the first English-Arabic dictionary referred to as Sa'adeh's Dictionary (1911).  

For many reasons Sa'adeh, the son, did not continue his academic studies, but relied on self-education; so in addition to Arabic, he mastered English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian. This opened the door wide before him to utilize these living languages in carrying further his penetration of human knowledge and thought in numerous specializations,
comprising history, philosophy, the social sciences, anthropology and literature. This achievement furnished him with expansive, all-round knowledge, evidenced in his repeated reference in his writings, to reliable sources and authorities. Sa'adeh was endowed with a masterly analytical mind and a superior creative potence, profusely manifest in his works and thinking.  

In 1924, in Brasil, he formed a secret society to work for liberating the homeland from the mandate; he also joined several societies for the same purpose, but soon found out that struggle, to be effective, must be launched in the homeland on the spot and not from the land of emigration overseas. So he returned home in July 1930.  He wrote the story "Faji'at Hubb" (a love tragedy) which was printed with the story, "Eid Sayyedat Saydnaya" (The Feast of the Saydnaya Madonna) in one volume for the first time in Beirut in 1931.  In the same year Antoun Sa'adeh moved to Damascus where he participated in editing the Damascene daily newspaper "al Ayyam" (Days; The Times).  

The next year, he returned to Beirut determined to establish the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, preferring start in the most convenient medium, that of the students at the American University of Beirut, where he. had previously taught the German language. On November 16, 1932, Sa'adeh founded the SSNP with a membership of five A.U.B. students, among them was George Abdul
Masseh.  From such a humble milieu, his call resounded in the region far and wide, bringing together one thousand members in the lapse of three years of underground action. Then, on its third anniversary, November 16, 1935, the Party was detected by the mandate. Sa'adeh and a number of his aides were detained and sentenced to various periods, the longest being six months for Sa'adeh himself, pursuant to decree 115 L.R. which prohibited the founding of societies and political parties in the territories under the French mandate.  

In his letter from detention, dated December 15, 1935, to his lawyer (the late) Mr. Hameed Franjiyeh, titled "On What Motivated Me to found the Syrian Social Nationalist Party", Sa'adeh says.  "I was only a child when the Great War broke out in 1914, but I had already begun to perceive and comprehend. The first thing that suddenly occurred to me, having witnessed, felt and actually experienced the affliction of my people, was this question: (What brought this woe on my people?) - Since the war ended, I began to look for an answer to this question, and a solution for the chronic political problem which drives my people from one distress to another, constantly delivering it from a lesser evil to make it an easy prey for a greater one. It then happened that I left the country, in 1920, while dormant sectarian rancors were wide awake, and the nation had not yet buried its corpses. Among the emigrants overseas the case was only a little
better".  This portrayal of the plight of our nation, with all the distress and misery brought in by World War I and the aftermath, was profoundly impressed on the mind and conscience of Sa'adeh to be reproduced in his first writings (1921) in "al-Majallah" and "al-Jaridah" in Brasil, with a distinctive tone indicating the exhausting labour of mind he was sustaining, and the painstaking search for a prescription which would save his nation from it chronic illnesses. The resurging nation he anticipated should start with a model of his own shaping -- a party that will save his country and people from sectarian feuds and fragmentation. He sensed in the depth of his soul that a formula must be devised to help them out of subjection to a relentless, unbroken chain of catastrophies. As Ottoman oppression shrank away, he found the country succumb to French and British colonialism, which in the Sykes-Picot agreement, stabbed our homeland with the knife of partitioning in order to prepare, under the Balfour Declaration, a foothold for the Zionist, racist settlement colonialism in Palestine.  He witnessed all that happened and, conversely, witnessed the Great Syrian Conference held in Damascus in 1919 and in 1920 declaring the integrity of the Syrian lands, to be later trodden down by the hoofs of the French horses at the ennobling battle of Maisaloun, though ending in victory for the colonialist army and the stretching of General Gouraud's grips to Northern Syria.  Sa'adeh also witnessed the fall of Palestine, through the British mandate dedicated to the policy of the Balfour Declaration, into the clasp of the Zionist designs.  

All that national suffering is pronounced in Sa'adeh's early writings in the overseas press between 1921 and 1925, the period in which the idea of founding the Party was being conceived.  During World War I, while still a youngster, Sa'adeh saw how his people died from starvation without having to do with the fighting, and their fate exclusively determined by foreign interests. At that stage Gibran Kahlil Gibran wrote his touching, "My People Died", lamenting his countrymen and their fate. This article rang throughout the intellectual Arab world; yet Sa'adeh who had eyewitnessed how his people died of hunger and disease went much further than lamentation from a distance. The seeds of revolution and change were stirring in the depth of his being and so he began to contemplate a plan to be drawn up later on for relieving his people from their misery and subjugation. That was the distinction between the creative leader who treasures in his soul a historic stage and proceeds to lay out the foundation of change and salvation, and poet who is overwhelmed by agony which he pours forth from the tip of his pen in translucent literature.

Reference : http://leb.net/fchp/lead1.htm  


 Nora Matar Moujaes  

One of the earliest Shweiry Women Pioneers are Dr. Nostas Barakat and Zahia Barakat a pharmacist.   These two have served the Shweirieh for a long time around the early middle of the 20th century.  Many of the old folks remember their contribution to keep the Shweirieh healthy. 


 *... the first printing press in the Middle East began operation in the 1700's (need exact date)  in Dayr Mari Hanna.  (by Sami Andre Khonaysser, Paris)

* ... Khalil Hawie - Famous Poet was born and raised in Shweir.  (by Mona Khoury, Florida)

* ... The Rahbani Brothers are from Shweir (ain el sindiani - The Rahbani family) and my grandfather used to tell me they started out by singing in Yanabeeh. (by Mona Khoury)

* ... Toufic Ataya - wrote the math book that we used all through elementary school

* ... Nimeh Yafet - Contibuted to construct the new Baladieh, and that is why his statue is in front of it.  (by Mona Khoury)

* ... Shweir had a famous Souk al Arayes La Yitjahazo. My grandmother used to tell me that they came from as far as Zahle to outfit the brides to be.  (by Mona Khoury).

* ... Shweir was a silk producing village. One of the sites were bi Ain el hanoot. They all got together during harvest and had a big festival at Ain el Hanoot. by (Mona Khoury).

* .... there were three Baaklini's (will need the names) that were sailing to the new world on the Titanic?  Maybe there were others.  (by Souheil Baaklini? Texas)

* .... Dhour el Shweir was known as Marhaeta in reference to Ameer (prince) Hatam?  His castle was built on what is now known as Berj Dahdooh.  (by Mona Khoury)

* ... the first Shweiry to move and build his home in Dhour el Shweir was Farris Moujaes (Abu Khalil)?  (by Alfred Moujaes, Texas)

* ... Elie Bou Kheir in Texas is the inventor of the "two handed tennis racquet"?  And with this type of racquet his children Lillian and Jamil were the champion and co-champion, respectively, of their respective age group in the Missouri City Summer Tournament?  See related story in the Texas section (Elie / Judy get the story to Anwar with pictures).  (by George Matar, Texas)

*  ...  Dr. Khalil Saadeh was the first to translate a dictionary to Arabic?  (by Mike Sawaya, Saudi Arabia).

*  ...  Antoun Saadeh, establisher of a Nationalist Party, believed in unity among all religion and a united geographical Nation ( Fertile Cresent) & also a philosopher " Man & society ", (A.S. was against racism, politics, discrimination and imperialism ).  (by Mike Sawaya)

Joseph Khayrallah wrote the Biology books that we studies all the way through high school. Dr. Nasib Hammam wrote a book about our culture and religion in our country or area.  Both these guys are from Shweir. I knew them personnally.

*  Does anyone know anything about Asaad Ristom's writing and poetry; I knew helived in the US, and he wrote a poem telling about when he got sick here, stomach ache, the doctors here started experimenting on him etc. and then after giving up on them he went home and had a platefull of mejaddarah and that healed him, hence there is nothing better than mejaddarah for the body! He wrote a lot of patriotic Shweirieh style (that is shweir dialect!) poems.  I think Nora should remember him, for she seems to be very literary!!   (2 by Samia Chedid)

* Did you know that the famous Sami Clark is from Shweir? He is Sammy Houbika he is the son of Sheikh Adel who is the brother of our beloved Mukhtar Sheikh Jamil Houbika.

* Did you know that in 1970-71 Sami Clark in collaboration with Elias Rahbani (the younger brother of Akhawain Rahbani, also a Shweiry from Ain Sindyaneh) competed in the "European International Song Festival" and came in Third? Anybody remembers the name of the song? "What I Need is a Smile". That was a proud moment for us. Sami, we love you man.....  (we need a biography on Sami)

* Did you know that there are other musicians / singers that cracked the national "Lebanese market"? The Late Toufic Dahdooh (Great Baladi singer) and currently Elie Shweiry, and Milhem Barakat.  Rumor is that Elie & Milhem as well as Sami Clark will perform at Eid al Mughtaribeen this summer.

* Did you also know that Shweir had a rock and roll band named "The Games"? Voted Lebanon's # 1 Progressive Rock and Roll Band by "Elain Jihha" of Radio Lebanon's English Program. The last time they played together was in 1972 during Eid al Mughteribeen's conclusion Formal Dance, at the "Hotel Canari". That week they disbanded to go to college in the USA  (4 by George Matar)