# Jawad Boulos

Jawad Semaan Boulous (1 January 1900 – 16 September 1982) was a Lebanese Maronite lawyer, politician and historian. His work included Les peuples et les civilisations du Proche-Orient (five volumes) and L'histoire du Liban et des pays environnants.

## Biography

Boulous was born on 1 January 1900 in Zgharta, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Lebanon) to Semaan Boulos and Kattour Bacha. His paternal grandfather, Assad Boulos, was the leader of Youssef Bey Karam's army and led a rebellion against the Ottomans. His family, inclined towards politics and jurisprudence, were very devoted to their native land and owned vast properties in North Lebanon.
Boulos, at a young age, possessed exceptional gifts and the precocity of his mind led his parents to send him to the Collège Saint Joseph – Antoura, run by the Lazarist Fathers, to complete his secondary studies. Afterwards, Boulos enrolled in 1919 at the Faculty of Law in Beirut where he obtained his law degree in 1922.

### In Tripli

After the proclamation of the State of Greater Lebanon in 1920, Boulos returned to his hometown and settled in Tripoli. His legal studies led him to the bar. However, his taste for literature and politics also manifested itself very early in him with a vigor that never waned thereafter.
In 1933 and 1938, Boulous was elected president of the Bar Association of North Lebanon. His oratorical talent, his friendliness, his personal charm and his vast culture allowed him to exert a remarkable influence on the Lebanese socio-political evolution on the threshold of the Second World War. His study in Tripoli, which was the first of its kind in the history of North Lebanon, was the meeting place for the great minds of the time and the elite of this region.

### Politics

In 1938, he was elected deputy of North Lebanon and he demonstrated an astonishing eloquence and a rare patriotism. In 1943, he was appointed Minister of State in a triumvirate where he represented the Maronite community and held several portfolios, including foreign affairs. He had, with Dr. Ayoub Tabet and Emir Khaled Chehab, a responsibility and an overwhelming task to fulfill during this delicate period in the history of our country.

### Literary career

As historian, his major works included the five-volume Les peuples et les civilisations du Proche-Orient and L'histoire du Liban et des pays environnants.
In 1971, Boulos was nominated jointly with Georges Schéhadé for the Nobel Prize in Literature by academic Camille Aboussouan.

### Death

Boulos died on 16 September 1982 in Beirut, Lebanon.

## Recognition

On August 2015, a website bringing together Boulos' books, conferences, interviews, articles and various works to perpetuate his memory was created at the initiative of the Jouzour Simon Boulos Foundation and the former MP Jawad Boulos. Former Minister Charles Rizk paid tribute to Boulous as "one of the beacons not only of the history of Lebanon, but of the entire Middle East and the Arab world", and described his works as "precious references for many great Arab and international researchers."

## Publications

* De 1600 à 64 avant J.-C. (1962)
* De la conquête romaine à l'expansion Arabo-Islamique (64 av. J.-C. – 640 ap. J.-C.) (1964)
* De l'expansion Arabo-Islamique à la conquête turco-ottomane (640–1517) (1964)
* Le proche Orient ottoman (1517–1918) et postottoman (1918–1930) (1968)
* Les peuples et les civilisations du Proche Orient (1968)
* L'histoire du Liban et des pays environnants (1970)