Michel Chiha
Encyclopedia
Michel Chiha is a Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 thinker . He was a banker, a politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. Along with Petro Trad
Petro Trad
Petro Trad was a Lebanese a lawyer and a politician and former Lebanese President of the Republic for a brief period ....

 and Omar Daouk, he is considered one of the fathers of the Lebanese Constitution. His ideas and actions have had an important influence on the shaping of the modern Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

.

Biography

Michel Chiha was born in 1891 in a Christian family of Mekkine, in the Aley District
Aley District
Aley is a district in Mount Lebanon, Lebanon, to the south-east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The capital is Aley. Aley city was previously known as the "bride of the summers" during the 1960 and 70s, when Aley and neighboring Bhamdune were attractive tourist locations for Gulf tourists and...

, in the Mount Lebanon Governorate
Mount Lebanon Governorate
Mount Lebanon is one of the Governorates of Lebanon. Its capital is Baabda. The overwhelming majority of its population is Maronites, Greek Orthodox, and Melkite Greek Catholic Christians...

. His father, Antoine, was a banker who has founded in 1876 the Pharaon and Chiha Bank in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, in modern day Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

. His mother belonged to the rich Melkite
Melkite
The term Melkite, also written Melchite, refers to various Byzantine Rite Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , and the Arabic word Malakī...

 family of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, the Pharaons.

Early life

After completing his studies in the Université Saint-Joseph
Université Saint-Joseph
Saint Joseph University is a private Catholic higher institute of education founded by the Jesuits in 1875 in Beirut, Lebanon, known for its school of medicine and its hospital, Hôtel-Dieu de France. The Lebanese state officially recognizes the university and the diplomas it grants in accord with...

, he joined in 1907 the family business, the Banque Pharaon & Chiha
Banque Pharaon & Chiha
Banque Pharaon & Chiha S.A.L. is a Lebanese bank, founded in 1876, and headquartered in Achrafieh, Beirut. The bank was founded by Antoine Chiha during the French Mandate of Lebanon. It is oldest lebanese bank still operating in Lebanon....

 in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. With the outbreak of the First World War and the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 occupation of the autonomous Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

, Chiha left Beirut to settle in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 in 1915. In addition to pursuing Law studies, he started there with a group of friends his political career and developed his political view about the future of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

.

At the end of the war, he returned to Lebanon to lead the family bank. But soon afterwards, the French Mandate of Lebanon
French Mandate of Lebanon
The state of Greater Lebanon, the predecessor of modern Lebanon, was created in 1920 as part of the French scheme of dividing the French Mandate of Syria into six states....

 gave him the opportunity to put into practice his vision for his country Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

.

Political Life

In August 1920 the state of Lebanon was created out of Ottoman Syria
Ottoman Syria
Ottoman Syria is a European reference to the area that during European Renaissance from the late 15th to early 18th century was called the Levant within the early period of the Ottoman Empire, the Orient until the early 19th century, and Greater Syria until 1918...

.

On September 1, 1920, the Greater Lebanon was proclaimed by the French High Commissioner. Michel Chiha played an important role in this proclamation, especially concerning the setting up of its borders and the establishment of its first institutions.

In 1925, Chiha was elected as the representative of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 in the Lebanese parliament. During his mandate that ended in 1929, he was very instrumental in the establishment of the Lebanese Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

 and the Monetary and fiscal
Fiscal policy
In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection to influence the economy....

 systems.

In 1926, he married his cousin Marguerite Pharaon, the sister of Henri Pharaon
Henri Philippe Pharaoun
Henri Philippe Pharaoun , was a Lebanese art collector, sportsman, politician and businessman. He played a crucial role in securing Lebanon's independence from France and served as foreign minister and other Cabinet positions...

. They had three daughters, Micheline (d. 1940), Madeleine and Marie-Claire.

In 1929, Michel Chiha left all his political responsibilities without, however, stopping the promotion of his vision of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

.

In 1937, he acquired with a group of friends the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 newspaper Le Jour. Until his death in 1954, Michel Chiha delivered daily his editorial du Jour, exposing his political views and vision. During this period he started publishing poems, essays and lectures in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. In 1940, he participated in the foundation of the Beirut Stock Exchange and founded a newspaper in English, the Eastern Times.

In 1943, his brother-in-law, Bechara El Khoury
Bechara El Khoury
Bechara El Khoury was the first post-independence President of Lebanon, holding office from 21 September 1943 to 18 September 1952, apart from an 11-day interruption in 1943...

, became the president of the newly independent Lebanese Republic. Chiha will play an important role as advisor during Khoury's Mandate (1943–1952).

One important cause interested him until his death, the Palestinian cause especially after 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

. He took an active role in defending this cause.

Death and afterward

Michel Chiha died in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 on December 29, 1954.

The Palestinian Question

In May 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed on a portion of the land of Palestine. This debacle was repeatedly commented by Michel Chiha in his editorials. In 1945 he had already written:

“No political preoccupation should turn our attention from Palestine! In our backyard, is currently developing one of the most anguishing questions of this world.”

For him this problem represents a direct menace for Lebanon, Michel Chiha writes in December 1947:

“(…) The decision to partition Palestine by creating the Jewish State, is one of the most serious mistakes of world politics. The most surprising consequences are going to result from an apparently small thing. Nor is it offensive to reason to state that this small thing will have its part to play in shaking the world to its foundations.”

In his editorials, the question of Palestine would recur often. Michel Chiha insists relentlessly on the dangers that would jeopardize the newly born state of Lebanon. We find in his editorials the following phrases:
  • “There is no other country that recruits its population this way, by giving to strangers, wherever they came from and only because they’re jewish, the right to be citizens!”
  • “We forget often that the State of Israel is a racist and confessional issue.”
  • “The mistake is enormous.”
  • “The future of Palestine is being handled between the United States and the USSR exactly as if Palestine was inhabited!”
  • “In a few month inter-confessional cohabitation in Palestine would become impossible, forever.”
  • “We have ahead of us a permanent danger, a hatred without end.”
  • “A mistake of this size committed in the middle of this century, our grand-children will reencounter it in the middle of the next one.”


A text from 1946 would take today a particular value in the sense that it relates directly to current events:

“…The American interventions in Palestine are increasingly looking like they’re dealing with a purely American question. It’s a pity that the people of the United States, today the most powerful in the world, would cover-up from their vantage point such an adventure; they are putting themselves in a definitive contradiction with their most sacred moral and political principles.”

Published works

  • Politique intérieure (1964), Éditions du Trident, Beyrouth, .
  • Palestine (1969), Tridant Publications, Beirut,
  • La maison des champs, suivie de Poèmes inédits (1965), Imprimerie catholique, Beyrouth,
  • Essais (1950), Éditions du Trident, Beyrouth,
  • Visage et présence du Liban (1964), Cénacle Libanais, Beyrouth,
  • Lebanon : a rapid survey of Lebanon, yesterday and today in sixty-four photographs (1948), Paris,
  • Liban d'aujourd'hui : 1942 (1949), Editions du Trident, Beyrouth,
  • Variations sur la Méditerranée (1994), Fondation Chiha, Beyrouth,
  • Images du Liban : un aperçu en soixante-quatre photographies du Liban d'autrefois et d'aujourd'hui (1948), Éditions Lumière, Paris,
  • Propos d'économie libanaise (1965), Éditions du Trident, Beyrouth,
  • Lubnān fī shakhṣīyatihi wa-ḥuḍūrih(1962), al-Nadwah al-Lubnānīyah, Bayrūt,
  • Lebanon at home and abroad (1966), Cénacle Libanais, Beirut,
  • Filasṭīn (1960), Muʼassasat Mīshāl Shīḥā, Bayrūt,
  • Plain-chant, propos dominicaux (1954), Éditions du Trident, Beyrouth,

External links

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