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The Oriental Library and the Catholic Press at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut

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The Oriental Library and the Catholic Press at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut journal of jesuit studies 2 (2015) 248-264 brill.com/jjs The Oriental Library and the Catholic Press at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut Rafael Herzstein The Open University of Israel [email protected] Abstract This article traces the origins of the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut, the creation of the Oriental Library, and the beginnings of the Catholic press in Syria. The focus of this article is the importance of the Bibliothèque Orientale: its financing, its development, its publications, and its cultural significance throughout the entire Middle East. I examine the opening of the Oriental Faculty, its program of study, and its teaching staff, and describe the inauguration of the main journal of the faculty, Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale. The article concludes with a discussion of the creation of the Catholic press, along with its staff and various publications in Arabic and French, with attention to the influential periodicals al-Bashir and al-Mashriq. Keywords Saint-Joseph University – Beirut – Oriental Faculty and Library – Syrian Catholic press – Henri Jalabert – Louis Cheikho, S.J. – Ghazīr Seminary and College – Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale – al-Bashir – al-Mashriq The origins of the Université Saint-Joseph (usj) in Beirut date back to the Collège- Séminaire de Ghazīr, founded by the Society of Jesus in 1843. That institution, * Translated by Larissa Pires, Georgia Southern University, and edited by the journal's editors.. ** This article discusses the region “Syria,” a name used broadly in accordance with the termi- nology that prevailed in the period under study, as a geographical entity that includes Syria and Lebanon today. For this period, the sources used “Syria” for the region as a whole, while the word “Lebanon” appears only at the end of the Ottoman period. “Oriental” is used here © Herzstein, 2015 | DOI 10.1163/22141332-00202005 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 4.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 12:35:40AM via free access <UN> The Oriental Library and the Catholic Press at Saint 249 established to train local Maronite (Syriac Christian) clergy, was transferred to Beirut in 1875. Its center for graduate studies was called the Université Saint- Joseph and, on February 25, 1881, Pope Leo XIII granted this establishment the official status of pontifical university.1 This article examines the creation of the Oriental Faculty at the Université Saint-Joseph, its official journal, the Mélanges de la Faculté orientale, its Oriental Library, its Catholic press, and various pub- lications including the journal al-Mashriq (The Orient). The Establishment of the Oriental Faculty The college opened for teaching in November 1902, under the leadership of the father superior of the mission. His official title of chancellor was same as that of the head of the university’s Faculty of Medicine. A vice-chancellor, chosen from among the teaching faculty, served as assistant to the chancellor in the supervision of daily administrative tasks and the normal course of operations. That position was first given to Louis Cheikho, S.J. (1859–1927), a veteran of Arab studies at the university.2 in the more or less neutral meaning of “Middle Eastern” (and the college still retains that designation in its title). Hence its use does not mean to imply any particularly European interpretation of Levantine history or to revive a concept of “eastern” as monolithic. 1 For further information on the reasons for the foundation of the Université Saint-Joseph, see Rafael Herzstein, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Fondation et fonctionnement de 1875 à 1914 (Brussels: Le Cri Edition, 2008); Herzstein, “Une réconciliation entre Paris et la Compagnie de Jésus au Levant (1875–1914): Faux-fuyant ou nécessité ponctuelle?” Mémoire Spiritaine: Histoire, mission, spiritualité 22 (2005): 99–113; Herzstein, “La France et le retour des jésuites au Levant au sein de la communauté maronite: Un nouveau modèle de compromis pédagogique,” Middle East Review of International Affairs 2, no. 1 (2007): 95–105; Herzstein, “The Foundation of the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut: The Teaching of the Maronites by the Second Jesuit Mission in the Levant,” Middle Eastern Studies 43, no. 5 (2007): 749–59; Herzstein, “Saint-Joseph University of Beirut: An Enclave of the French-Speaking Communities in the Levant, 1875–1914,” Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction 32 (2008): 67–82; Herzstein, “Les pères jésuites et les Maronites du Mont Liban: l’Université Saint- Joseph de Beyrouth,” Histoire et Missions Chrétiennes 9 (2009): 149–75. 2 Louis Cheikho or Shaykhū [born Theodore Rizqallah] (1859–1927) was known as “The Sultan of the Arabic language.” Cheikho was a Chaldean Catholic born in Mardin (Kurdistan, Turkey). He enrolled in the Ghazīr Seminary in 1867 at the age of eight, and at about fifteen (in 1874) he entered the Society of Jesus. As a scholar in Beirut from 1877 to 1888, he published the first volume of Majâni al-adab fi hadaiq al-ʾArab [Harvests of Literature in the Gardens of the Arabs, or Literary Fruits from Arab Gardens] (Beirut: Matbaʾat al-Aba al-Yasuʾiyin, 1882– 1884) which radically transformed the teaching of the Arabic language. He stayed in Europe journal of jesuit studies 2 (2015) 248-264 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 12:35:40AM via free access <UN> 250 Herzstein From the beginning of its work in 1902, the Oriental Faculty successfully attracted a diverse and supportive public, evidence that the institution filled a need and was responding to expressed wishes. Some public courses, such as the history and geography of the Middle East, along with an upper-level course in Arabic literature, were especially popular with an audience from the city of Beirut (e.g., European residents, high consuls, and seminarians), as well as among the more traditional students of the Université Saint-Joseph.3 The curriculum entailed the study, over three years, of classical Semitic languages (Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac), Coptic, and Ethiopic, along with local history and geogra- phy and Oriental archaeology. The in-depth course on Arabic was very well devel- oped. A special degree called “Doctor of the Oriental Faculty” was created for those candidates who, after obtaining their primary degree, successfully wrote and defended an original dissertation. Excursions and research trips, guided by a professor, were organized for students who sought further experience in the aca- demic study of Oriental archaeology, epigraphy, and topography.4 One year after the Oriental Faculty’s opening, Professor George Kampffmeyer (1864–1936), a German orientalist from the University of Marburg, praised the new “creation of the fathers of Beirut, which Oriental studies richly deserved.” In his opinion, the focus on Arabic within the college’s program should be endorsed without any reservations. Those familiar with the works of Jesuits in the field of Orientalism know how they combine the in-depth study of Arabic literature with the most extensive training known to the West […]. What better opportunity—and under what better qualified from 1889 to 1894, and became a priest in 1891. He later returned to Beirut and remained there until his death. His main desires were to further develop Arab studies and to improve the relationship between Muslims and Christians in the East. The true founder of the Oriental Library, he discovered a large number of original works and manuscripts dating from the pre- Islamic period. He also introduced Orientalists to the Nahda, the Arab Renaissance of the nineteenth century, which included the work of Christians from Lebanon and Egypt. For more information on the life of Cheikho, see Henry Jalabert, Jésuites au Proche-Orient. Notices biographique (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq-Librairie orientale, 1987), 1:29; Henri Lammens, “Le Pere Louis Cheikho,” Lettres de Fourviere, 3rd series, 2 (1929): 251–83. John W. Padberg describes Lettres de Fourviere as “a periodical ‘for private circulation only,’ dealing with the history, spirituality, theology, and current problems of the French Jesuits,” in Colleges in Controversy: The Jesuit Schools in France from Revival to Suppression, 1815–1880 (Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 1969), 293. 3 Archives Jésuites de Vanves, France (ajv), rpo 52, “Université Saint-Joseph, Faculté orientale.” 4 Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (arsi), 1007-vi, n. 52, “Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth (Syrie). Faculté orientale.” Beirut, March 1, 1913. journal of jesuitDownloaded studies from 2 Brill.com09/25/2021(2015) 248-264 12:35:40AM via free access <UN> The Oriental Library and the Catholic Press at Saint 251 guidance—have we on-site to learn more about the Orient? […] For all our scholarly questions we may rest assured that we will find in the Jesuits’ work the most extensive and effective understanding [of the region.]”5 The first dissertation defenses began in June 1906, with a committee of profes- sors from the Oriental Faculty. Prominent among those in attendance were the French consul in Syria, Fouques Duparc (1897–1966); the Syrian Catholic patri- arch in Antioch, Ignatius Dionysius Ephrem II Rahmani (1848–1929); and the German consul-general to Beirut, Paul Schroeder (1844–1915), author of Die phönizische Sprache.6 Edmond Power, S.J. (1878–1953) received the doctoral degree following a defense of his research on the Poésies religieuses d’Omayya ibn Abis-Salt, a study of the religious poetry of the medieval Andalusian scholar, whose work was widely known in Europe and the Islamic world.7 When Pope Pius X founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1909), he recruited several professors from the college of Beirut who had caught his attention to teach Oriental languages at his new establishment.
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