Louis Sabunji

Louis Sabunji
Born
John Louis Sabunji

1838
Diyarbakır, Ottoman Empire
Died1931 (aged 92–93)
Los Angeles, United States
Occupation(s)Catholic priest
Journalist
Years active1860s–1920s
Known forfounder of Al Nahla

Louis Sabunji (1838–1931) was a Catholic priest and political figure who founded and edited various publications, most significantly Al Nahla (Arabic: The Bee) one of the first newspapers in Arabic based in London. Al Nahla was a monthly newspaper that contained anti-Ottoman propaganda directed at Muslims and inciting them to renounce the authority of the Ottoman ruler Abdulhamid II as a religious Caliph.[1] Sabunji worked with American missionaries in Beirut and later converted to Islam.[1] He also worked with the Anglican missionary George Percy Badger with whom he compiled an Arabic-English dictionary.[1] He was also one of the earliest photographers in Beirut.

Early life and education

Sabunji was born in Diyarbakır in 1838.[2] His family were Syriac Catholic.[3] He had two brothers, Jurji and Daoud.[4]

Sabunji received education at the seminary in the Syriac Catholic Church in Mount Lebanon in 1850.[4] Then he attended the College of Pontifical Propaganda in Rome between 1853 and 1861 and received a PhD in theology.[2][4] There he also learned photography.[4]

Career

Following his graduation Sabunji became an ordained priest and was among the first Turkish and Latin instructors of the newly established Syrian Protestant College.[4] He established and headed a school named Al Madrasa Al Siriyaniyya (Arabic: the Syriac School) in 1864.[4] Then he began to work as a priest in Beirut where he launched a weekly journal entitled Al Nahla in 1870.[2][3] In August 1871 Sabunji suspended his journalistic activity in Beirut due to his clash with Butrus Al Bustani, a Christian journalist, and traveled various countries until his return to Beirut in 1864.[2] Sabunji permanently left Beirut and settled in London in 1876 due to his anti-Ottoman political stance.[2]

In London Sabunji worked as the political editor of a publication entitled Mirat Al Ahwal which was launched by Rizk Allah Hassun on 19 October 1876.[2] Sabunji continued to publish Al Nahla in London from 1877.[3] He founded another weekly in London entitled Al Khalifa.[2] Sabunji became the professor of the Arabic language at the Imperial Institute in London in the late 1880s.[3]

Work

Sabunji was the author of several unpublished manuscripts, including Diwan and his diary Yıldız Sarayında bir Papaz (Turkish: A Priest in Yıldız Palace).[4]

Later years and death

Sabunji settled in Egypt during World War I and then went to the United States where he lived in poverty.[4] In 1931, he was murdered by burglars in Los Angeles at age 93.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Scawen Blunt, Wilfrid (1907). Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g L. Zolondek (January 1978). "Sabunji in England 1876-91: His Role in Arabic Journalism". Middle Eastern Studies. 14 (1): 102–115. doi:10.1080/00263207808700368.
  3. ^ a b c d Rogier Visser (2014). Identities in early Arabic journalism: The case of Louis Ṣābūnjī (PhD thesis). University of Amsterdam. p. 5. hdl:11245/1.406149. ISBN 9789491164200.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Stephen Sheehi (28 May 2015). "The Life and Times of Louis Saboungi. A Nomadological Study of Ottoman Arab Photography". Ibraaz. Retrieved 21 May 2022.