Achievements
In the social, national and political spheres, he founded associations with a view to forming a national élite and launched a series of appeals for unity in his magazine Nafir Suriya.
In the educational field, he taught in the schools of the Protestant missionaries at ‘Ubey before founding his own National School in 1863 on secular principles. At the same time, he compiled and published several school textbooks and dictionaries to become known famously as the Master and Father of the Arabic Renaissance.
In the cultural/scientific fields, he published a fortnightly review and two daily newspapers. In addition, he began work, together with Drs Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck of the American Mission, on a translation of the Bible into Arabic known as the Smith-Van Dyke translation. He founded the National School (Lebanon)|National School in Beirut.
His prolific output and groundbreaking work led the creation of modern Arabic expository prose. While educated by westerners and a strong advocate of western technology, he was a fierce secularist, playing a decisive role in formulating the principles of Syrian nationalism (not to be confused with Arab nationalism).
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