Faris Nimr

Faris Nimr
Born	1856 Hasbaya, Ottoman Empire
Died	1951 (aged 94–95) Cairo, Egypt
Nationality	Lebanese, Egyptian
Alma mater	New York University
Occupation	Journalist
Known for	Co-founder of Al Muqattam

Faris Nimr (Arabic: فارِس نِمْر; 1856–1951), was a pioneer Lebanese journalist and intellectual. He cofounded Al Muqattam, an Arabic, Cairo-based newspaper.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Nimr was born in 1856^[3] in Hasbaya, Ottoman Empire. He hailed from a Protestant family.^[4] His father was killed in the 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon, and he moved with his mother to Beirut, then to Jerusalem. They returned to Hasbaya in 1868.^[2]

Nimr graduated from the Syrian College in Beirut in 1874,^[5] and worked at the newly created Lee Observatory under Doctor Cornelius Van Dyck, before becoming the observatory manager himself.^[2] In 1890 he graduated with a doctorate in philosophy from New York University.^[2]

Career and activities

Following his graduation Nimr worked at the American College in Beirut as a lecturer.^[6] There he taught chemistry, and one of his pupils was Ilyas Matar.^[7] he was a member of the free mason organization.^[7] In 1876, he founded the monthly Arabic popular science magazine Al Muqtataf with Yaqub Sarruf in Beirut. They both moved to Cairo in late 1884 where they continued publishing Al-Muqtataf with great success.^[2][8] They managed to restart the magazine after they were permitted to resume its publication by the British authorities in Egypt.^[8]

In 1889, Nimr founded Al Muqattam, an Arabic, Cairo-based daily newspaper with Yaacoub Sarrouf and Shahin Makaryus.^[2] He became member of the Egyptian Senate.^[2] As of 1918 Nimr was a member of the Syrian Welfare Committee of which other members included Suleiman Nasif, Haqqi al-Azm, Rafiq al-Azm and Fawzi al-Bakri.^[9]

Personal life and death

One of Nimr's daughters, Katie, married George Antonius, an author and historian.^[10] British diplomat Sir Walter Smart married his another daughter, Amy.^[11] Nimr's sister, Maryam, married Shahin Makariyus who was a merchant and the founder of a magazine entitled Al Lataif.^[12]

Nimr died in 1951.^[3][13]

References

1. Muhammad Shafiq Ghurbal (1965). "فارس نمر". موسوعة شبكة المعرفة الريفية. Dar Al Qalam. Archived from the original on 25 December 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
2. Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī (1980). "الأعلام" [Who’s who]. encyc.reefnet.gov.sy (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
3. Donald M. Reid (October 1970). "Syrian Christians, the Rags-To-Riches Story, and Free Enterprise". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 1 (4): 360. doi:10.1017/S0020743800000738. S2CID 163113257.
4. "Leading personalities in Egypt (British diplomatic document)" (PDF). Nasser Library. 8 October 1946. p. 28. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
5. Donald M. Reid (1969). Farah Antun: The life and times of a Syrian Christian journalist in Egypt (PhD thesis). Princeton University. p. 119. ISBN 9798658704937. OCLC 49371914. ProQuest 302477754.
6. "The Native Press of Egypt". The Muslim World. 7 (4): 415. October 1917. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1917.tb01575.x.
7. Y. Choueiri (1987). "Two Histories of Syria and the Demise of Syrian Patriotism". Middle Eastern Studies. 23 (4): 498. doi:10.1080/00263208708700722. JSTOR 4283206.
8. Fawaz Gerges (2018). Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 43. ISBN 9781400890071.
9. Eliezer Tauber (2000). "Jewish‐non‐Palestinian‐Arab negotiations: The first phase". Israel Affairs. 6 (3–4): 170. doi:10.1080/13537120008719577. S2CID 144487385.
10. Ann M. Lesch (2005). "Antonius, George". In Philip Mattar (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-8160-6986-6.
11. Meir Zamir (2015). The Secret Anglo-French War in the Middle East. Intelligence and Decolonization, 1940-1948. London; New York: Routledge. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-315-76542-6.
12. Byron D. Cannon (1985). "Nineteenth-Century Arabic Writings on Women and Society: The Interim Role of the Masonic Press in Cairo - (al-Lataif, 1885-1895)". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 17 (4): 463–484. doi:10.1017/S0020743800029433. S2CID 154672274.
13. Katlyn Quenzer (2019). Writing the Resistance: A Palestinian Intellectual History, 1967-1974 (PhD thesis). Australian National University. p. 49. doi:10.25911/5d5149b41c470. hdl:1885/155195.