Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib

Muhibb-ud-Deen Al-Khatib in 1930s

Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib (Arabic: محب الدين الخطيب, romanized: Muḥibb al-DÄ«n al-Khaá¹­Ä«b; 1886 – 30 December 1969) was a Syrian Islamic scholar of Salafism.[1][2][3][4] He was the maternal uncle of Ali al-Tantawi[5] and was the author of the "hate filled" anti-Shia pamphlet entitled al-Khutut al-Arida (The broad lines of the foundations upon which the religion of the Imami Twelver Shiites is based).[6] He has been described as "one of the most influential anti-Shiite polemicists of the twentieth century."[7]

In 1916, he was made the editor of Al Qibla, the official newspaper of Sharif Hussein.[8]

Early life and education

Born in Damascus in July 1886 Al Khatib was the son of a Damascene ulema Abu Al Fath Al Khatib.[9][10] Al Khatib received secondary education in his hometown and attended Maktab Anbar, a very well-known educational institute, where he studied modern sciences, Ottoman Turkish, French and some Persian.[10] During his studies in Damascus he became one of the pupils of Salafi scholar Tahir Al Jazairi.[10] Al Khatib continued his education at a state school in Beirut.[9][10] In 1905 he went to Istanbul to study law and literature[11] and also, founded the Society of Arab Awakening with Aref Al Shihabi there.[9]

Career and activities

In 1907 Al Khatib moved to Yemen where he served as a translator for the British consulate[10] and became a member of Rashid Rida's Ottoman Council Society based in Cairo.[9] Al Khatib returned to Istanbul in 1909 and established a literary society.[9] He was named the assistant general secretary of the Decentralization Party which was founded in Syria in 1913.[9] Next year while he was going to Najd and Iraq he was arrested by the British and deported to Basra where he was jailed until July 1916.[9] Following his release he first went to Egypt and then to Mecca where he met Sharif Hussain and cofounded a newspaper entitled Al Qibla in 1916 which he edited until 1920.[12] In November 1917 Al Khatib launched another weekly newspaper, Al Irtiqa.[9] In 1919 he moved to Damascus where he participated the Arab Youth association and became a member of its central committee.[9] The same year he also served as the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Al Asima.[13]

Al Khatib settled in Cairo in 1921 as result of his clash with the King of Syria and Iraq Emir Faisal.[9] He was appointed editor-in-chief of Al Ahram and served in the post for five years.[9] He and another Syrian émigré Abdul Fattah Qattan established a publishing company, Salafi Publishing House, and a bookstore with the same name in Cairo.[10] Al Katib launched Al Zahra and Al Fath magazines.[14] In 1928 he assumed an editorial role for another magazine, Al Minhaj, which was banned by the government in 1930.[15]

Khatib also published a book, Al Khuttut al-’Arida li al Shi‘a al Ithna ‘Ashiriyya (Arabic: Petitions against the Twelve Shiites).[16]

Views and death

Al Khatib was an Arab nationalist[11] and was part of Arabist-Salafi circles in Cairo.[15] He died in Cairo in December 1969.[9][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Muḥibb al-Dīn al-K̲h̲aṭīb". referenceworks. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  2. ^ Brünner, Rainer (2004). Islamic Ecumenism In The 20th Century: The Azhar And Shiism Between Rapprochement And Restraint (revised ed.). BRILL. p. 265. ISBN 9789004125483.
  3. ^ Mervin, Sabrina; Brunner, Rainer; Legrain, Jean-François; Alagha, Joseph; Visser, Reidar; Pierret, Thomas; Meijer, Roel; Wagemakers, Joas; Dudoignon, Stéphane A. (29 May 2013). The Dynamics of Sunni-Shia Relationships: Doctrine, Transnationalism, Intellectuals and the Media. Hurst Publishers. p. 105. ISBN 9781849042178.
  4. ^ Maréchal, Brigitte; Zemni, Sami, eds. (29 May 2013). The Dynamics of Sunni-Shia Relationships: Doctrine, Transnationalism, Intellectuals and the Media. Hurst Publishers. p. 18. ISBN 9781849042178.
  5. ^ Salahi, Adil (19 June 2001). "Scholar of renown Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi". Arab News. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  6. ^ Brünner, Rainer (2004). Islamic Ecumenism In The 20th Century: The Azhar And Shiism Between Rapprochement And Restraint (revised ed.). BRILL. p. 331. ISBN 9789004125483.
  7. ^ Maréchal & Zemni 2013, p.105
  8. ^ Rizvi 1991, p. 37.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Amal N. Ghazal (2008). "Power, Arabism and Islam in the Writings of Muhib al-Din al-Khatib in al-Fath". Past Imperfect. 6: 135. doi:10.21971/P73K50.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Henri Lauzière (2010). "The construction of salafiyya: Reconsidering Salafism from the perspective of conceptual history". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 42 (3): 370, 376–377. doi:10.1017/S0020743810000401. S2CID 145322064.
  11. ^ a b Muhammad Muslih (1991). "The Rise of Local Nationalism in the Arab East". In Rashid Khalidi; et al. (eds.). The Origins of Arab Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 174–175. ISBN 978-0-231-07435-3.
  12. ^ M. Talha Çiçek (2014). "Visions of Islamic Unity: A Comparison of Djemal Pasha's al-Sharq and Sharīf Ḥusayn's al-Qibla Periodicals". Die Welt des Islams. 54 (3–4): 467–468, 473. doi:10.1163/15700607-05434P07.
  13. ^ Lamia Malik Abdul Karim Al Shammari (2021). "The political vision of Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein in The Syrian Press, The (Al-Asimah) newspaper, Damascus, as an example". Lark Journal. 4 (43): 256.
  14. ^ Mehdi Sajid (2018). "A Reappraisal of the Role of Muḥibb al-DÄ«n alKhaá¹­Ä«b and the YMMA in the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood". Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations. 29 (2): 194, 196, 201–204. doi:10.1080/09596410.2018.1455364. S2CID 149627860.
  15. ^ a b Amal N. Ghazal (February 2010). "The Other Frontiers of Arab Nationalism: Ibadis, Berbers, and the Arabist-Salafi Press in the Interwar Period". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 42 (1): 110,112–113. doi:10.1017/S0020743809990559. S2CID 162778703.
  16. ^ Noorhaidi Hasan (2007). "The Salafi Movement in Indonesia: Transnational Dynamics and Local Development". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 27 (1): 89. doi:10.1215/1089201X-2006-045.
  17. ^ Umar Ryad (2016). "Salafiyya, Ahmadiyya, and European Converts to Islam in the Interwar Period". In Bekim Agai; et al. (eds.). Muslims in Interwar Europe: A Transcultural Historical Perspective. Leiden; Boston, MA: Brill. p. 50. ISBN 978-90-04-28783-9. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctt1w8h1hd.7.

Bibliography