Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib (Arabic: محب الدين الخطيب, romanized: Muḥibb al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb; 1886 – 30 December 1969) was a Syrian Islamic scholar of Salafism. He was the maternal uncle of Ali al-Tantawi 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). He has been described as "one of the most influential anti-Shiite polemicists of the twentieth century."
In 1916, he was made the editor of Al Qibla, the official newspaper of Sharif Hussein.
Early life and education
Born in Damascus in July 1886 Al Khatib was the son of a Damascene ulema Abu Al Fath Al Khatib. 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. During his studies in Damascus he became one of the pupils of Salafi scholar Tahir Al Jazairi. Al Khatib continued his education at a state school in Beirut. In 1905 he went to Istanbul to study law and literature and also, founded the Society of Arab Awakening with Aref Al Shihabi there.
Career and activities
In 1907 Al Khatib moved to Yemen where he served as a translator for the British consulate and became a member of Rashid Rida's Ottoman Council Society based in Cairo. Al Khatib returned to Istanbul in 1909 and established a literary society. He was named the assistant general secretary of the Decentralization Party which was founded in Syria in 1913. 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. 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. In November 1917 Al Khatib launched another weekly newspaper, Al Irtiqa. In 1919 he moved to Damascus where he participated the Arab Youth association and became a member of its central committee. The same year he also served as the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Al Asima.
Al Khatib settled in Cairo in 1921 as result of his clash with the King of Syria and Iraq Emir Faisal. He was appointed editor-in-chief of Al Ahram and served in the post for five years. He and another Syrian émigré Abdul Fattah Qattan established a publishing company, Salafi Publishing House, and a bookstore with the same name in Cairo. Al Katib launched Al Zahra and Al Fath magazines. In 1928 he assumed an editorial role for another magazine, Al Minhaj, which was banned by the government in 1930.
Khatib also published a book, Al Khuttut al-’Arida li al Shi‘a al Ithna ‘Ashiriyya (Arabic: Petitions against the Twelve Shiites).
Views and death
Al Khatib was an Arab nationalist and was part of Arabist-Salafi circles in Cairo. He died in Cairo in December 1969.
See also
References
- "Muḥibb al-Dīn al-K̲h̲aṭīb". referenceworks. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- Brünner, Rainer (2004). Islamic Ecumenism In The 20th Century: The Azhar And Shiism Between Rapprochement And Restraint (revised ed.). BRILL. p. 265. ISBN 9789004125483.
- 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.
- 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.
- Salahi, Adil (19 June 2001). "Scholar of renown Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi". Arab News. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- Brünner, Rainer (2004). Islamic Ecumenism In The 20th Century: The Azhar And Shiism Between Rapprochement And Restraint (revised ed.). BRILL. p. 331. ISBN 9789004125483.
- Maréchal & Zemni 2013, p.105
- Rizvi 1991, p. 37.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mehdi Sajid (2018). "A Reappraisal of the Role of Muḥibb al-Dīn alKhaṭīb 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.
- ^ 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.
- 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.
- 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.
External links
Bibliography
- Rizvi, Sayyid Muhammad (1991). Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib: A Portrait of a Salafi-Arabist (1886-1969) (PDF) (MA). National Library of Canada. Retrieved 25 June 2019.