Birth: 1/1/1864 Death:1/1/1913
Born in Jerusalem in 1864; aspired to study in Istanbul despite his family’s opposition; tried to go there secretly through Jaffa but was forced by his parents to remain in the country where he worked in the Court for a while; eventually managed to attend the Sultanic School in Istanbul in 1893; later taught in Jerusalem and held many administrative positions during the Ottoman rule; studied Philosophy of Islamic Sciences and Oriental Literature at the Sorbonne University in Paris; became teacher at the Society for Foreign Language Publications; served as Consul General of the Ottoman Empire in Bordeaux, France, from 1898-1908; was a liberal reform advocator for Ottoman decentralization; returned to Jerusalem in 1908 as member of the Ottoman Parliament; was Vice-Pres. of the Parliament and representative of the Jerusalem District from 1912 until his death a year later; was a pioneer in writing detailed manuscripts in Arabic on the dangers of Zionism and other issues, at times under the pen name Al-Magdini for fear of the Ottoman authorities; his publications include An Introduction to the Eastern Question (1897), Victor Hugo and A Comparative Study of Arabic and French Literature (Arabic, first published 1904; republished 1912), Chemistry Among the Arabs (Arabic, 1953); died in Istanbul, Turkey, on 6 Aug. 1913.
