AUB Press

​AUB's 125th anniversary celebrations in 1992 coincided with the beginnings of Lebanon's return to peace after sixteen years of civil war, throughout which AUB continued to function. This book is a special anniversary tribute to the founders of the university, originally the Syrian Protestant College, who laid the foundations on which the college could grow and develop into one of the leading institutions of higher education in the Middle East. The book documents seven of the original faculty: Daniel Bliss, the first president; David Stuart Dodge; Edwin R. Lewis; Harvey Porter; George E. Post; Cornelius Van Dyck; and John Wortabet. Sections in English and Arabic include speeches, official papers, letters, and articles – some contemporary, others more recent – that demonstrate the values and principles these founding fathers sought to put into practice.

This translation from the Arabic of the Tahdīd is based on Dr. P. Boljakoff's edition of the Istanbul Manuscript, Sultan Fatih No. 3386, published in 1962 by the Cultural Department of the Arab League in Cairo. The text deals with geographical-mathematical subjects, the determination of latitude, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the measurement of time, lunar eclipses, longitudinal differences, and methods for the determination of the Qibla, the direction of prayer for Muslims. Please note that this book has signs of wear and aging.

This is a critical essay describing and evaluating the poetry of the end of the nineteenth century and its importance in the development of the modern aesthetic. To quote the Times Literary Supplement, this book “has the merit of hitting most of the nails involved firmly on their proper heads."