Prince Mustafa Al-Shihabi ( ar, الأمير مصطفى الشهابي; 1893 – 1968) was a

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indig ...

agronomist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...

, politician, writer and the third elected director of

Arab Academy of Damascus Arab Academy of Damascus ( ar, مجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق) is the oldest academy regulating the Arabic language, established in 1918 during the reign of Faisal I of Syria. It is based in al-Adiliyah Madrasa and is modeled on the ...

(1959–1968). "Prince" title was only of a social background, with no real principality under his control.

Biography

Al-Shihabi was born in 1893 in

Hasbaya Hasbeya or Hasbeiya ( ar, حاصبيا) is a town in Lebanon, situated at the foot of Mount Hermon, overlooking a deep amphitheatre from which a brook flows to the Hasbani. In 1911, the population was about 5000. Hasbaya is the capital of the W ...

Ottoman Syria Ottoman Syria ( ar, سوريا العثمانية) refers to divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and so ...

, in what is today

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 Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. Sami Moubayed, ''Steel and Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000'', pg. 120. Part of the Bridge between the cultures series. Cune Press, 2006. After getting his degree in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

in 1915, he initially resided in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

while working for the Ministry of Agriculture of the

Ottoman Government The Ottoman Empire developed over the years as a despotism with the Sultan as the supreme ruler of a centralized government that had an effective control of its provinces, officials and inhabitants. Wealth and rank could be inherited but were ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, al-Shihabi joined the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...

in an attempt to free the

Levant The Levant () is an approximation, approximate historical geography, 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 an ...

region from Ottoman Turkish control. In 1928, while serving as the director of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, al-Shihabi joined the National Bloc in opposition to the

French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate foun ...

. He later served as the head of the Syrian Ministry of Education under

Prime Minister of Syria The prime minister of Syria (Arabic: رئيس وزراء سوريا), formally titled the president of the Council of Ministers ( ar, رئيس مجلس الوزراء), is the head of government of the Syrian Arab Republic. Nomination The prime ...

Ata al-Ayyubi Ata Bey al-Ayyubi ( ar, عطا الأيوبي, ʿAtā al-Ayyūbī; 25 March 1877 – 21 December 1951) was an Ottoman civil servant who served as president and prime minister of Syria. Born to a prominent political family in Damascus, Syria, h ...

as well. In 1936,

President of Syria The president of Syria, officially the president of the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: رئيس سوريا) is the head of state of the Syrian Arab Republic. They are vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at their sole discretion, to ...

Hashim al-Atassi Hashim al-Atassi ( ar, هاشم الأتاسي, Hāšim al-ʾAtāsī; 11 January 1875 – 5 December 1960) was a Syrian nationalist and statesman and the President of Syria from 1936 to 1939, 1949 to 1951 and 1954 to 1955. Background and e ...

appointed al-Shihabi as the governor of Aleppo, a post al-Shihabi was to hold until 1939. In January 1943, al-Shihabi was appointed as the head of the Syrian Ministry of Finance by Prime Minister Jamil al-Ulshi, though he stepped down that March due to what he perceived as al-Ulshi's pro-French views. When al-Ayyubi took the position of Prime Minister for a second term, al-Shihabi retook his position in the Ministry of Finance. He was appointed as the governor of

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

by President Shukri al-Quwatli, and was instrumental in the defeat of

Sulayman al-Murshid Sulayman al-Murshid ( ar, سليمان المرشد; 1907 – 16 December 1946) was a Syrian Alawi religious figure, political leader, and the founder of al-Murshidyah religious sect. Early beginnings Sulayman al-Murshid was born as Sulayman Yunus ...

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Is ...

uprising. Al-Shihabi was promoted to the rank of secretary-general of the Syrian Council of Ministers in addition to second terms as the governor of both Aleppo and Latakia. Unlike other Quwalti-era officials, al-Shihabi remained in favor with Husni al-Za'im after the latter's

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

-supported

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, ...

. After the subsequent coup of Adib Shishakli, al-Shihabi was designated as Syria's ambassador to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

. He died in 1968 in Damascus and was buried there.

Legacy

He exerted strong efforts for

Arabization Arabization or Arabisation ( ar, تعريب, ') describes both the process of growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations, causing a language shift by the latter's gradual adoption of the Arabic language and incorporation of Arab culture, aft ...

and modernizing the

Arabic language 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 ...

by writing many comprehensive modern term indices of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scie ...

in Arabic. He also has many writings regarding

Arab nationalism Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language an ...

and the struggle against

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their rel ...

. Al-Shihabi was a critic of

Turkification Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization ( tr, Türkleştirme) describes a shift whereby populations or places received or adopted Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly a ...

under the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, viewing the 1908 Ottoman constitution as a blow to the status of Arabic.Sami Ayad Hanna, ''Arab Socialism. l-Ishtirakīyah Al-ʻArabīyah A Documentary Survey'', pg. 88.

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

: Brill Publishers, 1969.

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shahabi, Mustafa 1893 births 1968 deaths Shihab family Syrian ministers of education Agriculture ministers of Syria Syrian ministers of finance 20th-century Syrian writers Syrian people of Arab descent Arab grammarians People from Damascus Ambassadors of Syria to Egypt Syrian Freemasons