Shibli Shumayyil ( ar, شبلي شميل) (b. 1850–d. 1917) was a Lebanese doctor who published on topics such as

Islamic socialism Islamic socialism is a political philosophy that incorporates Islamic principles into socialism. As a term, it was coined by various Muslim leaders to describe a more spiritual form of socialism. Islamic socialists believe that the teachin ...

and

social Darwinism Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...

in leading Arabic-language journals of his day.

Early life and education

Shibli Shumayyil was born in 1850 to a Greek Catholic family in

Kfarshima Kfarshima ( ar, كفرشيما), also spelled Kfarchima, is a town in the Baabda District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, southeast of Beirut and is part of Greater Beirut. The town is populated by Lebanese Christians: mainly Melkite Greek Ca ...

, Lebanon.Reid, Donald M. “The Syrian Christians and Early Socialism in the Arab World.” ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'', vol. 5, no. 2, 1974, pp. 177–193. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/162588. After leaving Kfarshima, Shumayyil would go to the

Syrian Protestant College The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a Private University, private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York (state), New York with its campus in Beirut, Leban ...

in Beirut.

Career

Trained as a doctor at college, he would practice in

Tanta Tanta ( ar, طنطا ' , ) is a city in Egypt with the country's fifth largest populated area and 658,798 inhabitants as of 2018. Tanta is located between Cairo and Alexandria: north of Cairo and southeast of Alexandria. The capital of Gharbia ...

for a decade before moving to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. In Cairo, he would continue practicing as a doctor, and, in 1886, he would start a medical journal called ''Al-Shifa''. This journal would fail five years later, though he would write for other journals, such as ''al-Muqtataf''.

Politics

Shumayyil classed himself as a socialist Darwinist. This included his argument that rather than competition, that man relied on cooperation to progress. As part of his socialist beliefs, Shumayyil thought that the government should guarantee employment, provide education, medical care, and control wages. He also advocated against the current legal system and advocated for its removal. Historian

Fawaz Gerges Fawaz (sometimes, Fawwaz or Fawez) is a masculine Arabic given name and a surname. Its literal meaning is "winner", as it is the masculine adjective from the verb ''fāz'', meaning "he won". Therefore, it can be thought of as the equivalent to the ...

describes Shumayyil as "an ardent proponent of Darwinism, materialism, and socialism" and names him as a key contributor to influential scientific journals of his time.

Death

Shumayyil died in January 1917.

External links

Shibli Shumayyil, portrait d’un darwiniste révolté par Marwen Bouassida, Kapitalis, 27 juillet, 2017

Secularism and Secularization in the Arab World Bingbing Wu∗

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shumayyil, Shibli 1850 births 1916 deaths Greek Catholics Lebanese writers Lebanese writers by century Nahda Arab history