# Anastas al-Karmali

Al-Ab Anastas Mari Al-Karmali (Arabic: الأب أنستاس الكرملي), also known as Anastas the Carmelite or Père Anastase-Marie de Saint-Élie (5 August 1866 – January 7, 1947), was a Lebanese Christian priest and linguist who made important contributions in Arabic linguistics and philology. His philology periodical, Lughat Al Arab لغة العرب, announced the discovery In 1914 of the lost text of the first Arabic dictionary, Kitab al-'Ayn.

## Life

Butrus ibn Jibrayl Yusuf 'Awwad's (Arabic: بطرس بن جبرائيل يوسف عواد) father came from Bharsaf, close to the town of Bikfaya in Lebanon, and moved to Baghdad where he married Butrus's mother, Mariam Maragharitta. Butrus was one of five sons and four daughters and he would go on to become a priest taking the name Father Anastas. He studied in Madrasat Al-Aaba' Al-Karmaliyin (The School of the Carmelite Fathers) and graduated from the Madrasat Al-Ittifaq Al-Kathuliki in 1882. He returned to the Madrasat Al-Aba' Al-Karmaliyin, to teach Arabic, and by the age of 16 was publishing articles.
In 1886, aged 20, he moved to Beirut to teach at the Kulliat Al-Aba' Alyasu'iyun (The college of Jesuit Fathers) and to continue his Arabic studies. There he studied Latin, Greek, French and French literature. In 1887 he continued his studies at a monastery in Chèvremont, near Liège, Belgium, adopting celibacy and the name Anastas Mari Al-Karmali. In 1889 he went to Montpellier, France, to study philosophy, theology, Biblical exegesis and the history of Christianity and was ordained a priest in 1894, taking the name Père Anastase-Marie de Saint-Elie. In the following period he toured Spain, visiting the Islamic monuments before returning to Iraq. As principal of the Carmelite school, the Madrasat Al-Aaba' Al-Karmaliyin, he taught Arabic and French, preached and counselled.
His published articles in the magazines of Egypt, Syria and Iraq, appeared under many pseudonyms:
    Satisna, 'Amkah, Kalda, Fahar al-Jabiri, al-Shaykh Buayth al-Khudry, Mustahilun ('Beginner'), Mutatafilin ('Intruder'), Muntahilun ('Start'), Mubtadi ('Novice'), Ibn al-Khadra', etc.
In addition to comparative studies of Latin and Greek in relationship to Arabic, he studied Aramaic (Syriac and Mandaic), Hebrew, Abyssinian (Habesha), Persian, Turkish, Sabthi (Sabian), English, Italian and Spanish. His Arabic language magazine was published three years before and six years after WWI. During the war the Ottomans refused him leave and he remain in Kayseri in Central Anatoli for a year and ten months between 1914 and 1916, when he was returned to Baghdad. He traveled to Europe many times and in the period of the British occupation of Iraq was a member on the Government Board of Education. He edited the "Dar es-Salaam" magazine for three years. He remained a conservative and wore monastic dress until his death in Baghdad on 7 January 1947.

## Membership of Academic Societies

* The Language Academy of Egypt (Cairo) (Arabic: مجمع اللغة العربية بالقاهرة)
* Arab Scientific Academy of Damascus (Arabic: المجمع العلمي العربي في دمشق)
* German Orientalist Group(Arabic: امجمع المشرقيات الألماني)

## Contributions to Arabic language studies

His observance of the omission of some Arabic terms used by poets and authors of antiquity in the traditional Arabic language dictionaries, led him to embark on authoring his own dictionary in 1883. He changed its title from "The Tail to Lisan Al-Arab" to "Al-Musa'id" ("The Helper"). In 1911 he founded Lughat Al Arab (Arabic: Arab Language) a philology journal.

## Work with the Mandaeans

For decades, Anastas al-Karmali was a close friend of the Mandaeans of Iraq and studied their language and culture in detail. He was a collector of Mandaic manuscripts, which were cited by E. S. Drower and Rudolf Macuch in their Mandaic dictionary. Anastas al-Karmali also played an instrumental role in defending the Mandaean community against accusations of star worship. Sheikh Dukhayil, a ganzibra (senior Mandaean priest) from Nasiriyah, had filed a lawsuit against the Iraqi historian Abdul Razzak al-Hassani, who had accused the Mandaeans of worshipping stars and planets in a 1931 book. Sheikh Dukhayil then presented a copy of the Ginza Rabba before a court of law in Baghdad. Anastas al-Karmali, who served as a translator and witness, translated passages from the Ginza Rabba in which worshipping the stars and planets was expressly prohibited.

## Works

* Dictionary Assistant - al-Majam al-Musaid (المعجم المساعد)
* On Language, Poets & Writers of Baghdad (Five vols.) - fi al-Lughata wa Shura Baghdad wa Ketabha (في اللغة، و شعراء بغداد وكتَّابها)
* Emergence of The Arabic language, Its Growth and Complexity - Nushu' al-Lughat al-Arabiat wa Numuha wa Iktihalaha (نشوء اللغة العربية ونموها واكتهالها)
* Mistakes of Ancient Linguists - Aghlat al-Lughwiiyn al-'Aqdamin (أغلاط اللغويين الأقدمين)
* Arab Money and the Science of Growth - al-Nuqud al-Arabiat wa Ilm al-Nmyat (النقود العربية و علم النميّات)
* Winning the Wanted on the History of Baghdad - al-Fawz bi al-Marad fi Tarikh Baghdad (الفوز بالمراد في تاريخ بغداد)
* Concise History of Iraq - Khilasat Tarikh al-Iraq (خلاصة تاريخ العراق)
* Arab Religions - 'Adyan al-Arab (أديان العرب)
* History of the Kurds - Tarikh al-Kurad (تاريخ الكرد)
* Population of Languages - Jamhrat al-Lughat (جمهرة اللغات)
* Historical and Scientific Illumination Allama at-Tarikhiat wa'l-Ilmiat (اللمع التاريخية والعلمية)
* Two Large Forms - Jazan Kabirana (جزآن كبيران)
* Attractions of Baghdad and Translations of Some Scholars - Mazarat Baghdad wa Tarajum badh al-Ulama' (مزارات بغداد و تراجم بعض العلماء)
* Sumer Magazine Report - Dhakartah Majalat Suamir (ذكرته مجلة سومر)
* The Arabs Before Islam - al-Arab qabl al'Islam (العرب قبل الإسلام)
* Proverbs of Baghdad, Mosul and Basra - 'Amthal al-'Awam fi Baghdad wa'l-Mawsil wa'l-Basrah (أمثال العوام في بغداد والموصل والبصرة)

## Library contributions

Around 1920, he became the first librarian of the ‘Maktabat as-Salam’ the Baghdad Peace Library, and introduced a system of modern management. He helped develop the Library's collection, donating printed materials from his private collection, when other collections in foreign languages remained in the monastery library. The Peace Library was later renamed the Baghdad Public Library, and in 1961 became the basis for the establishment of the Iraq National Library.
Shortly before his death, the Iraq Museum Library received a generous donation of 2,500 books and 1,500 manuscripts from Al-Karmali's personal library.