Khalil Beidas
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Khalil Beidas ( ar, خليل بيدس, also transliterated Khalil Bedas, Khalil Baydas, Khalil Beydas) (1874–1949), was a
Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
scholar, educator, translator and novelist. Beidas was the father of Palestinian Lebanese banker
Yousef Beidas Yousef Beidas ( ar, يوسف بيدس, also transliterated Yusif Bedas, Yusef Baydas, Yousif Beydas) (December 1912 - 28 November 1968) was a banker born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese Beirut-born mother. Known as "The Genius from Jerusa ...
and was a cousin of
Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...
's father. Alongside contemporaries such as
Khalil al-Sakakini Khalil Sakakini ( ar, خليل السكاكيني; 23 January 1878 – 13 August 1953) was a Palestinian Orthodox Christian teacher, scholar, poet, and Arab nationalist. Biography Khalil Sakakini was born into a Palestinian Christian family ...
, Muhammad Izzat Darwazeh and
Najib Nassar Najib Nassar (January 1, 1865 – December 28, 1947) was a Palestinians, Palestinian journalist perhaps best known as the owner-editor of, and frequent contributor to, the Palestinian weekly newspaper ''Al-Karmil (newspaper), Al-Karmil.'' Historian ...
, Beidas was one of Palestine's foremost intellectuals in the early twentieth century during the
Al-Nahda The Nahda ( ar, النهضة, translit=an-nahḍa, meaning "the Awakening"), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Leb ...
cultural renaissance. Beidas was the pioneer of the modern
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
ine short-story and novel. He was also a prolific translator—as early as 1898, he had translated some of the works of
Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
and
Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
into
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
. In addition, he established a magazine, "'' al-Nafā'is al-'asriyyah''" (, ''The Modern Treasures)'', which acquired a good name in literary circles both in the Ottoman vilayet of Syria (broadly corresponding to today's
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
,
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
,
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, and
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
) and the
Palestinian Diaspora The Palestinian diaspora ( ar, الشتات الفلسطيني, ''al-shatat al-filastini''), part of the wider Arab diaspora, are Palestinian people living outside the region of Palestine. History Palestinian individuals have a long history of ...
. Beidas is also known as ''Raʾid al-qissa al-filastiniyya'' (the pioneer of Palestinian short-story). He and his wife, Adele, had 4 sons and 4 daughters.


Education and career

Beidas was born in Nazareth, Ottoman Palestine, vilayet of Syria in 1874 and studied at the
Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
'' al-Muskubīya'' (presently, according to Edward Said, a detention and interrogation centre predominantly for Palestinians) and the Russian Teachers' Training Centre in
Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...
(now an Israeli police station), which had been founded in that town in 1886. There were no tuition fees for Palestinian students, and though teaching was in Arabic, high importance was placed on studying Russian. In his recollections, Beidas stated that:'In those days, Russian schools in Palestine were, without doubt, the best.' He graduated in 1892. Beidas' education was on a basis of classical
Arab culture Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The various religions the Arab ...
, and, though a Christian, Beidas achieved renown as a hafiz. In his early twenties, Beidas was appointed headmaster of Russian
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
schools in many parts of Syria and Palestine. Later, he became the senior Arabic teacher at
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
-run St. George's School in Jerusalem. Beidas travelled in Russia after his graduation in 1892 as a ward of the Russian Orthodox Church, and during his sojourn there came under the influence of ideas of
Nikolai Berdyaev Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев;  – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who e ...
, of late 19th century Russian cultural nationalists like
Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
and by writers like
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
and
Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
. On returning to Palestine, Beidas became a prolific translator, and a dominant figure in introducing the major writers of
Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...
to the Arabic-speaking world. It was also through their Russian translations that he turned out many versions of major English, French, German and Italian writers. These innovative translations had a wide impact, not only in Palestine where he was a pioneer in the development of a modern literature, but more broadly throughout the Arab world, influencing authors as various as the Iraqi Ma'rūf al Rusāfī(1875–1945), the Lebanese Halīm Dammūs (1888–1957) and Wadī' al-Bustānī (1888–1945), Syrian authors like Qistākī al-Himsī (1858–1931). His technique in
translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
was distinctive—he translated freely, a creative 'arabization' that embroidered or curtailed the origins until he achieved what he considered to be the basic aim of the novel, that which is derived from everyday life and human nature. According to Edward Said Later, Beidas's novels played an important role in the 'construction of a Palestinian national identity, particularly with regard to the influx of Zionist settlers. His first literary venture into this genre was ''al-Warith'' (The Inheritor/The heir) in 1920. The book dealt with a subject, the Palestine Partition Plan and the establishment of the state of Israel, which appeared only occasionally down to 1948, but whose significance for writers who survived the debacle only emerged after that date, retrospectively. In this work, in which a Jew gets rich via usury and decent people are exploited. It is one of the two Palestinian novels of note written before the
1948 Palestinian exodus In 1948 Estimates of the Palestinian Refugee flight of 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians, Palestinian Arabs – about half of prewar Mandatory Palestine, Palestine's Arab population – Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus, were expelled ...
, the other being ''A Chicken's Memoirs'' (1943) by Ishaq Musa al-Husaini. He played an important role also in the 1930s in the development of Palestinian theatre, which thrived down to 1948. Given his strong connections with the Russian Orthodox Church, Beidas became a leading member of Palestine's
Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
church, representing the Orthodox Christians of Northern Palestine at the Combined Council of Arab Orthodox and Greek Clergy which was charged to administer Orthodox affairs in Jerusalem. On the occasion of the Nebi Musa riots of 1920, which arose in protest at the incipient implementation by the British Mandatory authorities of the
Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...
's opening of Zionist immigration into Palestine, Beidas was one of the key speakers, credited with giving a 'soul-stirring speech. Some speakers were thought to be incendiary: the crowd responded by chanting 'we will drink the blood of the Jews'('' Nashrab dam al-yahud.'') Beidas's own words concluding with the remark,'My voice is weakening with emotion, but my national heart will never weaken'. He, together with several others, was rounded up and detained. He was released in 1921, according to one account in the expectation that lenience would secure his support and mitigate his opposition. Overtures came from the French Mandatory authorities in Lebanon to "grease his palm" and get him to write political propaganda against the British, an offer he refused on the grounds that he had no intention of being either a lackey of the British or a sycophant of the French. Soon after, in 1922, he published his history of the city of Jerusalem, ''Ta'rikh al-Quds ''(History of Jerusalem), (1922) A short story collection ''Masarih al-Adh'han'' (Pastures of the Mind) came out in 1924 and displays his use of fiction to moralise and edify the reader. Beidas was interested in European culture, especially with its humanitarian and social aspects and, prompted by the contemporary Russian cultural resurgence to which he had been exposed, called for a comprehensive cultural revival in the Arab world. His own cultural works were multi-faceted: literary criticism, educational textbooks, translation of major foreign works of fiction, works on linguistics, political speeches and articles and works of Arab, Greek and European history. Beidas' was a main proponent of the Palestinian national movement, through his journal ''Al-Nāfa'is'' as well as through a number of public speeches and articles in major Arabic (Egyptian) newspapers such as ''
Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...
'' and ''Al-Muqattam''. Beidas tried to raise awareness of the threat from the
Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
immigrants, and urged the Ottoman authorities to treat the Arabs fairly. Beidas established a unique library of old manuscripts, valuable books as well as a
Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are co ...
violin, all of which were lost, together with several of his manuscript compositions, when he was forced to flee to
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
after the
creation of Israel Israel, also known as the Holy Land or Palestine (region), Palestine, is the birthplace of the Jews, Jewish people, the place where the final form of the Hebrew Bible is thought to have been compiled, and the birthplace of Judaism and Chris ...
in 1948. Beidas did not outlive very long the loss of his country, and his library is thought to reside within the Jewish National Library at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
.


''Al-Nafa'is''

Beidas' weekly periodical, ''al-Nafā'is al-'asriyyah'' (, ''The Modern Treasures''), was founded in 1908 in
Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
, around the time of the
Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Constit ...
of July 1908. He initially described its as "a magazine for jests and fun-making pieces" (''majallat latā'if wa fukāhãt''). It started by running short stories but also serializations of the Russian novels he was then translating. In one of his anonymous pieces for it, Beidas called upon the fathers of his society to prepare their children towards the 'age of freedom' (''al-hurriyya''), one where the free man was somebody who could make his own law ( ''shar'ia'') and guide himself (''qiyadat nafsibi''). Soon afterwards, in 1911, production was relocated to
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, where it was published on the printing presses of the Syrian Orphanage (''Dar al-Aytam'') in Jerusalem, founded by Johann Ludwig Schneller (1820–1896). several months after the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908. It was to become one of the most popular periodicals amongst Arabs living both within the
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
and in the
Palestinian Diaspora The Palestinian diaspora ( ar, الشتات الفلسطيني, ''al-shatat al-filastini''), part of the wider Arab diaspora, are Palestinian people living outside the region of Palestine. History Palestinian individuals have a long history of ...
. Beidas was in full technical control of the journal, editing most of the contents himself. It became a mouthpiece for all major active writers in
Greater Syria Syria (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒂𔒠 ''Sura/i''; gr, Συρία) or Sham ( ar, ٱلشَّام, ash-Shām) is the name of a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other s ...
and the
Palestinian Diaspora The Palestinian diaspora ( ar, الشتات الفلسطيني, ''al-shatat al-filastini''), part of the wider Arab diaspora, are Palestinian people living outside the region of Palestine. History Palestinian individuals have a long history of ...
and was distributed widely, as far a field as Brazil and Australia. An-Nafa'is became a distinguished institution, benefiting from the general cultural awakening in the region and the increased focus on literary and scientific matters. In the preface to the first issue of An-Nafa'is, Beidas explained that he considered
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
s to be one of the great pillars of civilisation in the enlightenment of the mind and his aim was to draw readers' attention to the significance of narrative art from the intellectual, social and moral point of view.


Selected works

1898–99 * ''Ibnat al Qubtan'' (, Pushkin's ''
The Captain's Daughter ''The Captain's Daughter'' (russian: «Капитанская дочка», Kapitanskaya dochka) is a historical novel by the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin. It was first published in 1836 in the fourth issue of the literary journal ''Sovremen ...
''), Beirut, 1898 * ''Al-Tabib al-Hathiq'' (, ''The Skilled Physician''), Beirut, 1898 * ''Al-Quzaqi al-Walhan'' (''The Distracted Caucasian''), Beirut, 1899 * ''History of Ancient Russia'', Beirut, 1899 * Several educational books * Several textbooks on arithmetic 1908–21 *
Shaqa' al-Muluk
' (, ''The Misery of Kings''), 1908 *
Ahwal al-Istibdad
' (,
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (russian: link= no, Алексей Николаевич Толстой; – 23 February 1945) was a Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels. Despite having ...
's ''The Terrors of Totalitarianism''), 1909 * ''Henry Al-Thamin'' (''Henry VIII''), Jerusalem, 1913 * ''Al-Hasna' Al-Muntakira'' (''The Disguised Beauty''), Jerusalem, 1919 * ''Al-Arch wa Al-Heb'', 1919 * ''Al-Warath'', 1919 * ''Al-Tayaran'' (''The History of Flight''), Cairo, 1912 * ''Rihla ila Sina'' (''Trip to Sinai''), Beirut, 1912 * ''Muluk al-Rus'' (''The Tsars of Russia''), Jerusalem, 1913 * ''Darajat Al-Hisab'' (''Grades of Arithmetic''), Volumes I and II, Jerusalem 1914 * ''Al-Qira'a'' (''Grades of Reading''), Volumes I–VII, Jerusalem, 1913–21 * ''Umam Al-Balkan'' (''The Balkan States''), Jerusalem, 1914 Collections of short stories * Ifaaq Al-Fakar (), c.1924
Masarih Al-Adhhan
(Masareeh Al-Adhan) (), c.1924


See also

*
Palestinian Christians Palestinian Christians ( ar, مَسِيحِيُّون فِلَسْطِينِيُّون, Masīḥiyyūn Filasṭīniyyūn) are Christian citizens of the State of Palestine. In the wider definition of Palestinian Christians, including the Palestin ...


Notes


Citations


Sources

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


Further reading

* ''Ottoman Jerusalem—The Living City: 1517–1917'', Ed. Sylvia Auld and Robert Hillenbrand, Chapter 2 "The Leading Intellectuals of Late Ottoman Jerusalem and Their Biographies". * ''The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse'', Sabry Hafez.


External links


"Short Biography (in Arabic)"

"Short Biography (in Arabic)"


{{DEFAULTSORT:Beidas, Khalil 1874 births 1949 deaths Arab people in Mandatory Palestine Arabs in Ottoman Palestine Palestinian academics Palestinian Christians Palestinian non-fiction writers Palestinian novelists Palestinian schoolteachers Palestinian translators People from Nazareth