Constantin Zureiq
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Dr. Constantin Zureiq قسطنطين زريق |
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| 6th President of the American University of Beirut | |
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In office 1954–1957 |
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| Preceded by | Stephen Beasley Linnard Penrose, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | J. Paul Leonard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1909 Damascus, Syria Vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | August 11, 2000 (aged 90–91) Beirut, Lebanon |
| Alma mater | American University of Beirut, Princeton University, University of Michigan |
| Profession | Politician, diplomat, professor, academic administrator |
| Religion | Greek Orthodox Christian |
Constantin Zureiq (Arabic: قسطنطين زريق) (born Damascus 1909 – August 11, 2000 in Beirut) was a prominent and influential Syrian Arab intellectual who was one of the first to pioneer and express the importance of Arab nationalism. He stressed the urgent need to transform stagnant Arab society by means of rational thought and radical modification of the methods of thinking and acting. He developed some ideas, such as the "Arab mission" and "national philosophy", which were to become key concepts for Arab nationalist thinkers, and in more recent years was a strong proponent of an intellectual reformation of Arab society, emphasizing the need for rationalism and an ethical revolution.
He is credited with coining the term Nakba to refer to the expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands in 1948.
Constantin Zureiq was born in Damascus, Syria Vilayet on April 18, 1909 during the waning years of the ruling Ottoman Empire, to a Greek Orthodox Christian family. He received his primary and secondary education in the Orthodox school systems and had an obsession with acquiring knowledge. He continued his education at the American University of Beirut, and eventually received his PhD at Princeton University all by the age of twenty-one. He immediately turned to teaching, and became a Professor of History at the American University of Beirut.
After receiving his PhD, Zureiq focused his aims in teaching and politics. Alongside his work as a tenured professor, Zureiq experimented as the 1st Counselor to the Syrian Legation of the United States in 1945, and acted as the Delegate to the UN Security Council and to the UN General Assembly in 1946.
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