Khalil Beidas - Education and Career

Education and Career

Beidas was born in Nazareth in 1874 and studied at the Russian Orthodox ‘’al-Moscowbia’’ and the Russian Teachers’ Training Centre until his graduation in 1892. Beidas’ education was on a basis of classical Arab culture, and despite being a Christian Beidas was renowned as a hafiz. In his early twenties, Beidas was appointed headmaster of Russian missionary schools in many parts of Syria and Palestine. Later, he became the senior Arabic teacher at St. George’s Anglican School in Jerusalem.

Beidas travelled in Russia after his graduation in 1892 as a ward of the Russian Orthodox Church, where he was influenced by the ideas of the late-19th century cultural nationalists such as Dostoevsky, Gorky and Tolstoy. On returning to Palestine, Beidas became a prolific translator, introducing the major figures in Russian literature to the Arab reader. His technique in translation was distinctive—he translated freely, adding or omitting until he achieved what he considered to be the basic aim of the novel, that which is derived from everyday life and human nature. His style tended to be naturally elegant, humorous and sarcastic.

Given his strong connections with the Russian Orthodox Church, Beidas became a leading member of Palestine's Orthodox church, representing the Orthodox Christians of Northern Palestine at the Combined Council of Arab Orthodox and Greek Clergy which was charged to administer Orthodox affairs in Jerusalem.

Beidas was interested in European culture, especially with its humanitarian and social aspects and, prompted by the contemporary Russian cultural resurgence to which he had been exposed, called for a comprehensive cultural revival in the Arab world. His own cultural works were multi-faceted: literary criticism, educational textbooks, translation of major foreign works of fiction, works on linguistics, political speeches and articles and works of Arab and European history.

Beidas’ was a key proponent of the Palestinian national movement, through his journal An-Nafa’is as well as through a number of public speeches and articles in major Arabic (Egyptian) newspapers such as Al-Ahram and Al-Muqattam. Beidas tried to raise awareness of the threat from the Zionist immigrants, and urged the Ottoman authorities to treat the Arabs fairly.

Beidas established a unique library of old manuscripts, valuable books as well as a Stradivarius violin, all of which were lost when he was forced to flee to Beirut after the creation of Israel in 1948. Khalil Beidas’ library is thought to reside within the Jewish National Library at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.