Farah Antun (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Farah Antun also spelled Farah Antoun (b.1874, d. 1922), was among the first Syrian Christians to openly argue for Secularism and equality regardless of religious affiliation, although he also, uncommonly for his background, argued against Arab Nationalism. Antun is most popular for his magazine "Al-Jami'ah" and his public debate with Muhammad Abduh over conflicting world views. Farah Antun was born in 1847 to a Syrian, Eastern Orthodox Christian family. He had three sisters, Rose, Mariana and Ramza, and a younger brother. His father, Ilyas Antun, was a lumber merchant in Tripoli, where only a forth of the population was Christian and the rest was Muslim. His father traded mostly by sea, and so Antun's family lived in a Christian dominated area of Tripoli near the sea named al-Mina. American Protestant and Catholic missionaries opened schools in Syria, but after attaining a primary certification in 1888, he enrolled in Kiftin in Tripoli, a boy's school attached to the Orthodox monastery.