Rida Saïd
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Rida Said al-Aytouni ( ; 1876 – 28 October 1945), was a
Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...
eye surgeon and ophthalmologist and the leading educational reformer of Syria in the early 20th century. After
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
he reinstated the Arab Medical School in
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, becoming its first Dean and linking it to the National Hospital. Under the French mandate, Said founded the Syrian University (modern-day Damascus University) in 1923, becoming its first President. He continued his medical practice as an ophthalmologist all his life. After serving as Minister of Education and as President of Damascus University his ground-breaking reforms caused him to be widely known as "the founder of modern education in Syria".


Early life

Born in Damascus in 1876 to a well off family, Said's primary and secondary education was at Rashidiya Military School in Damascus. He continued his education at the Military Medical School in Istanbul where after graduating in 1902 and was appointed assistant to the Professor of Ophthalmology. He was then promoted to Head of Medical Ward in 1908 with the rank of Agassi, or "Major" in the army of the Ottoman Empire. In 1909, he was sent to the
Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...
in Paris where he studied for his degree under Professor Félix de Lapersonne who was head of the Department of Ophthalmology. After being awarded with a degree and winning a research fellowship as a "Moniteur" Said’s abilities were regarded as so exceptional that Lapersonne appointed him to be his Principal Assistant in all his eye surgery operations. He returned to Damascus in 1913, and started practicing as an ophthalmologist, which at that time was called a ''kaḥḥāl''. A year after his return, he served as Chief Medical Officer for the Hijazi Railway and soon after appointed Director of the Syrian Railways. In 1917 he was elected as Mayor of Damascus during a period of significant and historical world events such as World War I which began in 1914 in addition to the beginning of the Arab Renaissance, which had been expanding and gaining traction since the beginning of the last century. During the period Said served as Mayor, Damascus suffered a great famine lasting many years and as Mayor worked hard to ease the suffering of the people. After
Faisal I Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi (, ''Fayṣal al-Awwal bin Ḥusayn bin ʻAlī al-Hāshimī''; 20 May 1885 – 8 September 1933) was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death in 1933. A member of the Hashemites, Hashemite family, ...
took office in Syria, Said met with the King in Aleppo and endeavoured to convince him to reopen all scientific institutes closed because of the war. This was agreed and In 1919, he was able to establish the first medical school in Damascus and the world that teaches in Arabic which in 1920 became known as the Arab Medical Institute to which he was elected dean.


Contribution to Syrian education

Said launched new medical departments at the institute, including a department for the study of nursing and midwifery; with further departments established soon after for pharmacy and dentistry, thus creating the building blocks of an Academic School in Damascus. He also presented to students and specialists a translation from a French book entitled ''Research in Ophthalmology for Trainees''—one of the most important references of Ophthalmology at the time. In addition to this, he continued to push the teaching team to "arabise" medical terms. Most importantly, Said succeeded in persuading the French occupation authorities not to close the Institute and began to work on its expansion, defying the difficult political, economic and military conditions of the occupation. He succeeded in establishing the Syrian University (modern-day Damascus University) in 1923 and became its first President. He worked on the qualification of its scientific and administrative staff and opened the way to the establishment of the Institute of Law, becoming the first academic law school department in the Arab world. The University persisted in teaching in Arabic, despite academic and political difficulties, thus making it the first and only university in the world to study science in Arabic.


Arabization of the Institute of Medicine in Damascus

After the end of the
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and the withdrawal of the Ottoman forces from Damascus, an Arab government was formed headed by Prince Faisal bin al-Hussein, son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the leader of the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. The prince met with a delegation of Syrian doctors, who asked him to reopen the Ottoman Medical Institute in the Baramkeh neighborhood, which had been closed due to the circumstances of the war. Faisal accepted their request and ordered the institute to reopen on January 23, 1919, after its name changed to become the Institute of Arab Medicine. A small committee of prominent doctors was formed, with the aim of Arabizing curricula and converting them from the
Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...
into
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
. Said chaired this committee, which included Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar, a graduate of the
American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...
, Dr. Ahmad Munif al-Aidi, a graduate of the Ottoman Medical Institute in Istanbul, Dr. Murshid Khatir, a graduate of
Saint Joseph University Saint Joseph University of Beirut (; French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', commonly known as USJ) is a private Catholic research university in Beirut, Lebanon, founded in 1875 by French Jesuit missionaries and subsidized by the Go ...
in
Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
, Dr. Abd al-Qadir Zahra, one of Sharif Hussein's physicians, and Dr. Mahmoud Hammouda, one of the prominent Damascene doctors in the Hijaz.


Dean of the Arab Medical Institute

Said was appointed Dean of the Institute of Arab Medicine and assigned the
Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
jurist Abd al-Latif Salah to the Deanship of the Institute of Law, which opened its doors to Syrian students in September 1919, that is, a year after the Ottoman forces had evacuated from Damascus. On the day he assumed the deanship, Said searched for local doctors to fill the gap in the educational staff, given the travel of all Turkish doctors, so Dr. Mustafa Shawqi (who later became the dean of the Faculty of Medicine) came and appointed him as a teacher of
histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...
and
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
, and he assigned his friend Dr. Ahmad Munif al-Aidi to teach
pediatrics Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many o ...
and
physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
. The
pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
course was assigned to Murshid Khatir. As for Dr. Sami as-Satti (who also became the dean of the faculty after years), he taught
internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...
, and Dr. Ibrahim as-Satti became a specialist in
gynecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the Female reproductive system, female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obste ...
, and Dr. Jamil al-Khani, a graduate of the Ottoman Medical Institute, taught
dermatology Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the Human skin, skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A List of dermatologists, ...
, at the time that Professor Abd al-Wahhab worked Channels and Shawkat surgeon on the advancement of the Department of
Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
. Dr. Michel Shamandi taught
herbal medicine Herbal medicine (also called herbalism, phytomedicine or phytotherapy) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of many herbal treatments ...
, and Dr. Ahmad Hamdi al-Khayyat, a graduate of the French
Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Th ...
, taught
microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...
.


Minister of Education and President of the Syrian University

In 1924, Said took over the Ministry of Education in the first Syrian government, formed under the French mandate by President Subhi Bey Barakat but he resigned after the beginning of the
Great Syrian Revolt The Great Syrian Revolt (), also known as the Revolt of 1925, was a general uprising across the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria and Greater Lebanon during the period of 1925 to 1927. The leading rebel forces initially comprised figh ...
. In 1925, Said returned to his position as President of the University, and continued his efforts to gain recognition of the Syrian secondary certificate (which was eventually recognised in 1929) as well as the French baccalaureate as a condition of entry to the university. His great ambition was to strengthen and raise the level of the Syrian University, especially in the field of medicine, to compete with the French and American medical institutes in Beirut. In 1936, Said requested from the first president of the Mandatory Syrian Republic, Muhammad Ali Bey al-Abid, to approve his retirement from the presidency of the university. This resulted in the President issuing a presidential decree.


Death

Said died on 28 October 1945 in Damascus and was buried there. Syria bid farewell to a scientific and patriotic figure, who earned enormous respect for his great achievements including his efforts to establish the Syrian University. Years later the Syrian University placed his name on the main street adjacent to Damascus University in the centre of the capital. His son is the international businessman and philanthropist Wafic Said.


Memorials and honors

Rida Said Conference Centre was named after him.


Decorations

During his life and career, he was awarded many honours and medals including the Ottoman
Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...
, the Majidi Medal, the Ottoman War Medal, the Iron Crown Medal from the Government of Austria, the Paris Medal in the French
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
and the Commandor Medal, the Egyptian Medal of Knowledge, the Red Cross Medal and the Syrian Order of Excellence. * Ottoman Order of Merit * Medal Majidi, the Ottoman War Medal * Iron Crown Medal from the Government of
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
* Medal of Paris in the French
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
* Commander Medal * Egyptian Knowledge Medal *
Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
Medal * Syrian Order of Merit, of the excellent class


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Said, Rida 1876 births 1945 deaths People from Damascus Syrian ophthalmologists Syrian educators