Constantin Zureiq
Constantin Zurayk (Arabic: قنسطنطين زريق; 18 April 1909 – 11 August 2000) 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.
Constantin Kaysar Zurayk قنسطنطين زريق | |
|---|---|
| Acting President of the American University of Beirut | |
| In office 1954–1957 | |
| Preceded by | Stephen Beasley Linnard Penrose, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | J. Paul Leonard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 18, 1909 Damascus, Syria Vilayet, Ottoman Syria |
| Died | August 11, 2000 (aged 91) Beirut, Lebanon |
| Relatives | Afaf Zurayk Dimitri Zurayk Camille Zurayk Sami Zurayk Ibrahim Zurayk Michelle Zurayk Michel Zurayk Gilbert Zurayk Kamil Zurayk |
| Alma mater | American University of Beirut, Princeton University, University of Michigan |
| Profession | Politician, diplomat, professor, academic administrator |
He is credited with coining the term Nakba to refer to the flight and expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands in 1948 and the Palestinian catastrophe in his 1948 book Maʿna an-Nakba.