Shiblī Shumayyil

Shiblī Shumayyil ( Arabic شبلي شميل, DMG Šiblī Šumayyil ; * 1850 in Kafršīmā in today's Lebanon ; † January 1, 1917 in Cairo ) was a doctor and intellectual of Greek Catholic origin who was one of the first to popularize the ideas of Darwinism and socialism in the Arab world . Like many intellectuals of the Ottoman Empire of his time, Schumayyil received the Darwinian theory of evolution in a form shaped by materialists such as Ludwig Büchner or Ernst Haeckel . In addition to Büchner's writings, Schumayyil also translated Hippocrates into Arabic and commented on the Islamic philosopher Avicenna . His journalistic work includes social reform and scientistic writings as well as novels, plays and poems. He also emerged as a critic of the politics of the Ottoman Empire in Syria. Together with Salāma Mūsā , Shumayyil brought out the magazine al-Mustaqbal (the future) in Cairo , which was banned by the British in 1914 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marwa Elshakry : "Early Arabic Views on Darwin". In: David Marshall (ed.): Science and Religion. Christian and Muslim Perspectives. A Record of the Eighth Building Bridges Seminar Convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, June 16-18, 2009 . Washington: Georgetown University Press 2012, pp. 128-133; here: p.129.
2. ^ Arthur Goldschmidt Jr .: Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt . Cairo 2000, p. 196.