{{Short description|Lebanese journalist and intellectual (1856–1951)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Faris Nimr | birth_date = 1856 | birth_place = Hasbaya, Ottoman Empire | death_date = {{death year and age|1951|1856}} | death_place = Cairo, Egypt | alma_mater = New York University | occupation = Journalist | known_for = Co-founder of ''Al Muqattam'' }} '''Faris Nimr''' ({{Langx|ar|فارِس نِمْر}}; 1856–1951), was a pioneer Lebanese journalist and intellectual. He cofounded ''Al Muqattam'', an Arabic, Cairo-based newspaper.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Muhammad Shafiq Ghurbal|author-link=Muhammad Shafiq Ghurbal|year=1965|title=فارس نمر|url=http://encyc.reefnet.gov.sy/?page=entry&id=202347|access-date=20 May 2022|website=موسوعة شبكة المعرفة الريفية|publisher=Dar Al Qalam |archive-date=25 December 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121225031959/http://encyc.reefnet.gov.sy/?page=entry&id=202347|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|author=Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī|year=1980|title=الأعلام|trans-title=Who’s who |url=http://encyc.reefnet.gov.sy/?page=entry&id=260246|website=encyc.reefnet.gov.sy|language=ar|access-date=2022-05-21|archive-date=2012-12-24|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121224202101/http://encyc.reefnet.gov.sy/?page=entry&id=260246|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Nimr was born in 1856<ref name=dmr70>{{cite journal|author=Donald M. Reid|title=Syrian Christians, the Rags-To-Riches Story, and Free Enterprise|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=October 1970|volume=1|issue=4|doi=10.1017/S0020743800000738|s2cid=163113257 |page=360}}</ref> in Hasbaya, Ottoman Empire. He hailed from a Protestant family.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leading personalities in Egypt (British diplomatic document)|url=http://nasser.bibalex.org/Data/Docs/BritishDocumentsMerged/FO_371_53313-merged.pdf|publisher=Nasser Library|access-date=18 August 2022|date=8 October 1946|page=28}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0"/>
Nimr graduated from the Syrian College in Beirut in 1874,<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Donald M. Reid|title=Farah Antun: The life and times of a Syrian Christian journalist in Egypt|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/302477754|page=119|oclc=49371914|id={{ProQuest|302477754}}|location=Princeton University|degree=PhD|year=1969|isbn=9798658704937}}</ref> and worked at the newly created Lee Observatory under Doctor Cornelius Van Dyck, before becoming the observatory manager himself.<ref name=":0"/> In 1890 he graduated with a doctorate in philosophy from New York University.<ref name=":0"/>
==Career and activities== Following his graduation Nimr worked at the American College in Beirut as a lecturer.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Native Press of Egypt |journal=The Muslim World|date=October 1917|volume=7|issue=4|page=415|doi=10.1111/j.1478-1913.1917.tb01575.x}}</ref> There he taught chemistry, and one of his pupils was Ilyas Matar.<ref name=ycho>{{cite journal|author=Y. Choueiri|title=Two Histories of Syria and the Demise of Syrian Patriotism|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|year=1987|volume=23|issue=4|page=498|doi=10.1080/00263208708700722|jstor=4283206}}</ref> he was a member of the free mason organization.<ref name=ycho/> 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.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=faw/> They managed to restart the magazine after they were permitted to resume its publication by the British authorities in Egypt.<ref name=faw>{{cite book|author=Fawaz Gerges|title=Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East|year=2018|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ; Oxford|isbn=9781400890071|page=43 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/64675|author-link=Fawaz Gerges}}</ref>
In 1889, Nimr founded ''Al Muqattam'', an Arabic, Cairo-based daily newspaper with Yaacoub Sarrouf and Shahin Makaryus.<ref name=":0"/> He became member of the Egyptian Senate.<ref name=":0"/> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Eliezer Tauber|title=Jewish‐non‐Palestinian‐Arab negotiations: The first phase|journal=Israel Affairs|year=2000|volume=6|issue=3–4|page=170 |doi=10.1080/13537120008719577|s2cid=144487385}}</ref>
==Personal life and death== One of Nimr's daughters, Katie, married George Antonius, an author and historian.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ann M. Lesch|editor=Philip Mattar |title=Encyclopedia of the Palestinians|year=2005|publisher=Facts on File, Inc.|location=New York|page=22|chapter=Antonius, George|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkbzYoZtaJMC&pg=PA22|isbn=978-0-8160-6986-6}}</ref> British diplomat Sir Walter Smart married his another daughter, Amy.<ref>{{cite book|author=Meir Zamir|title=The Secret Anglo-French War in the Middle East. Intelligence and Decolonization, 1940-1948 |year=2015|publisher=Routledge|location=London; New York|isbn=978-1-315-76542-6|page=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BVfqoAEACAAJ}}</ref> Nimr's sister, Maryam, married Shahin Makariyus who was a merchant and the founder of a magazine entitled ''Al Lataif''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Byron D. Cannon|title=Nineteenth-Century Arabic Writings on Women and Society: The Interim Role of the Masonic Press in Cairo - (al-Lataif, 1885-1895)|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|year=1985|volume=17|issue=4|pages=463–484|s2cid=154672274 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800029433}}</ref>
Nimr died in 1951.<ref name=dmr70/><ref>{{cite thesis|author=Katlyn Quenzer|title=Writing the Resistance: A Palestinian Intellectual History, 1967-1974|url=http://hdl.handle.net/1885/155195|location=Australian National University|degree=PhD|hdl=1885/155195|year=2019|page=49 |doi=10.25911/5d5149b41c470}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nimr, Faris}} Category:1856 births Category:1951 deaths Category:20th-century journalists from the Ottoman Empire Category:Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Egypt Category:American University of Beirut alumni Category:New York University alumni Category:Lebanese Protestants Category:Lebanese Freemasons Category:People from Hasbaya District Category:Arab people from the Ottoman Empire Category:19th-century journalists from the Ottoman Empire