Butrus al-Bustani
Butrus al-Bustani ( Arabic بطرس البستاني, DMG Buṭrus al-Bustānī ; * January 1819 in the village of Dibbiyeh near Beirut ; † May 1, 1883 in Beirut) was a Lebanese writer, lecturer, editor and philologist .
He came from a Maronite family in the village of ad-Dibbiya near al-Charrub (now Lebanon ). He first attended a Christian school in Ain Warqa , converted to the Presbyterianism of his American teachers at the age of 20 and served the American mission as a language teacher. Eli Smith and Cornelius van Dyck had in him an assistant with the Arabic translation and edition of their Bible. Al-Bustani founded a higher boys' school Madrasa Wataniyya (national school) in 1863 and published several newspapers from 1870 on. He is known for the publication of the first modern Arabic-language encyclopedia in seven volumes and as the author of an Arabic dictionary. He was the author of many literary works.
Although al-Bustani had been trained by Western scholars and valued Western technology, he was an Arab nationalist. His nephew was the Ottoman politician and historian Suleyman el-Büstani .
literature
- Georg Graf: History of Christian Arabic Literature. Fourth volume: The writers from the middle of the 15th to the end of the 19th century. In: Studi E Testi 147. Citta Del Vaticano. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana MCMLI. 1996
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | al-Bustani, Butrus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | بطرس البستاني (Arabic) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Arab-Christian writer, lecturer, editor and philologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1819 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dibbiyeh near Beirut |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1883 |
| Place of death | Beirut |