Early in the nineteenth century western missionaries
began flowing into Lebanon, Catholics and Protestants,
Americans and Europeans, men and women of religious
orders, preaching the Christian faith, evangelizing,
teaching, and spreading learning and culture in a
receptive terrain.
The American University of Beirut, known simply as
the AUB, was founded in the Lebanese capital in 1866
by American Protestant missionaries, notably Daniel
Bliss, after whom the nearby street is named, and
Henri Honis Jessup. The AUB is an independent university
reputed for science, medicine and technology. Between
1870 and 2003, it awarded 66,107 degrees.
Et
vous les Missions, qui rapportiez naguère
A nos pauvres hameaux l’Evangile et la Croix,
que notre apostolat au début de notre ère
Vous portait autrefois ; And you the missionaries who once brought
our poor hamlets the Gospel and the Cross that our
apostolate gave you in early times.
Rappelez-vous
comment, Lazaristes, Jésuites,
Maristes, Franciscains, Frères et Capucins,
comment nous, réclamions d’apprendre tout de
suite,
Et d’apprendre sans fin. Remember, you Lazarists, Jesuits, Marists
Franciscans, Brothers and Capuchins, how we demand
to learn with no delay and without any end.
Quel
désir de savoir, quelle ardeur de connaître...
caractérise en nous même les paysans
qui surpassent parfois dans les arts et les lettres
leurs maîtres bienfaisants!... What keenness to know, what ardor to learn...
marks us, even our peasants, who sometimes surpass
in the arts and in letters our beneficent masters...!
(La Montagne Inspirée by the poet Charles Corm)
In 1862 missionaries working in Lebanon and Syria
asked Dr. Daniel Bliss to leave aside his Christian
missionary work and to devote himself to founding
a university for the training of medical doctors.
As a result, the same year saw Dr. Bliss in the United
States, where he collected USD 100,000.
In 1863 the State of New York granted him a charter
for The Syrian Protestant University, which on December
3rd, 1868 opened with sixteen students.
The foundation stone for the central University Hall
was laid on December 7th, 1871 by the Honorable William
E. Senior. Dr. Bliss defined the basic principles
of the University: “For all, without distinction of
social class, color, nationality or religion. Any
man, white, black or yellow, Christian, Jew, Muslim
or atheist, may register and enjoy all the advantages
of this establishment during three, four or eight
years, and come out of it believing in God, in many
gods, or in no god at all. But it is impossible for
him to stay any length of time with us without knowing
what we think and what are the reasons for our belief.”
The year 1867 saw the inauguration of the Faculty
of Medicine, while November 1871 saw the founding
of the Faculty of Pharmacy and of a preparatory school.
In 1873 the central building and the first building
of the medical school were completed and in 1874 the
first chimes rang out from the bell in the tower of
the former.
1879 saw the erection of Marquand Hall and 1880 the
founding of the School of Business.
In 1905 the present hospital was set up together with
a school of nursing, while the dental school followed
in 1910.
The AUB Campus covers about 180 acres on a height
overlooking the sea. To this must be added some 620
acres attached to a farm in the Beqaa Valley housing
a faculty of agriculture for crops and livestock.
In Bliss Street facing the AUB there is an abundance
of restaurants which are much sought-after.
The violence of 1975, which some call a civil sectarian
war but which others call a proxy war of outside influences,
had tragic consequences for the AUB. In 1976, Dean
Ghosn of the FEA was murdered on the steps of his
faculty and Dean Njeimi died at the hands of the same
assassin in an office of the Administration. The President
of the AUB Dr. Malcolm Ken was murdered in 1984. In
1991 the central building was demolished by a bomb
together with its famous clock tower, symbol of the
University and already 125 years old. This was rebuilt
and inaugurated in 1999.
In 2002 Charles Hodtier donated 11.7 million US dollars
for the creation of a Sports Department which now
bears his name. In 2003 Prince Al-Waleed ben Talal
donated 5.5 million US dollars for a Research Center.
In 2007 a building for the Business School was put
up and named after Suleiman S. Olayan.
5.2
million US dollars were donated for the Issam Fares
Institute for Public and International Affairs, which
was inaugurated in 2014. Generous benefactors have
been many.
The AUB now proposes to re-launch its programs in
Arabic for Oriental Studies, Biology and Chemistry.
Its department for Oriental Studies is considered
one of the best in the world.
Buildings just opposite the University offer hundreds
of small, well-equipped apartments and studios to
provide accommodation for students. The University
itself has many projects in mind to upgrade its capacities
and its activities. Hundreds of scholarships are granted
to enable students to pursue their studies in the
USA. There is a fine library, together with archives
and conference, concert and exhibition halls. In the
beautifully kept Campus grounds with their thousands
of trees one seems in another world, far removed from
the Beirut just outside of concrete, glass, and iron
all blanketed with pollution.
The Faculties of the Campus include the following:
The Faculty of Agriculture and Nutritional Sciences,
FAFS; The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FLB; The Faculty
of Engineering and Architecture, FEA; The Faculty
of Health Sciences, FHS; The Faculty of Medicine,
FM; The Suleiman S. Olayan School of Business, OSB.
The AUB is a major active contributor to the evolution
and development of Lebanon and the Middle East, having
formed thousands of key professionals in the Middle
East and the whole Arab World, and being a source
of enlightenment, culture and knowledge.
From manuscripts to printed books, from schools to
universities, from Plato to the computer and all the
techniques of civilization, Man has proceeded to the
mastery of space, electronics, the internet, and much
else. He finds himself master of the Universe with
responsibility for constructing and improving, for
a technique for a life of abundance and love, far
removed from the world of destruction, hate, and death.
The AUB is a second Eden and a lighthouse for Lebanon.
Joseph Matar
Translation from the French: Kenneth Mortimer
-
American
University of Beirut
1:
>> View Movie <<
(2014-07-01) -
American
University of Beirut
2:
>> View Movie <<
(2014-07-01) -
American
University of Beirut
3:
>> View Movie <<
(2014-07-01)
