Michel Chiha

Michel Chiha (* 1891 in Mekkin ( Aley ), † December 29, 1954 in Beirut ) was a Lebanese politician, publisher, banker and thought leaders.

After the school years at a Jesuit high school and studied at the Université Saint -Joseph in Beirut, he traveled to the UK where he completed an internship at a trading house in Manchester. In 1907 he took up his work at the bank Pharaon and Chiha, which was founded by his father Anton and his uncle in 1876.

In 1915, he fled to Egypt to avoid serving in the Ottoman army. He settled in Cairo and ended there his law studies. With some compatriots such as Youssef Saouda, Béchara el- Khoury, Hector Klat, Alphonse Kahla, Gabriel Yared Elder. , Émile Eddé, Daoud Ammoun, Choucri Cardahi, Alfred Naccache, Béchara Tabbah, Amine Gemayel the Elder prepared together with two other groups in Paris ( Chékri Ghanem, Charles Debbas, Georges Samne, Dr Farah, Dr Khoury and Khairalla Khairalla ) and in New York ( with the brothers Moukarzel, Elia Abou Madi, Abdel Massih Haddad, Nassib Arida, Mikhail Noaimé and Khalil Gibran ) the establishment of a free and independent Lebanon ago. Finally, he returns in 1918 back to Lebanon and takes over the management of the bank.

After the proclamation of the Grand Lebanon by the High Commissioner Henri Gourand, Chiha makes contact with his closest collaborators Robert de Caix. In 1925 he was elected as an MP in the Lebanese Parliament. He is a member of a thirteen- member commission to draft the Lebanese constitution. It also deals with the Lebanese financial system.

In 1937 he acquires with friends, the newspaper Le Jour, (these merged in 1979 with the newspaper L' Orient - Le Jour L' Orient ), in which he published his ideas on society and politics until his death in the editorial. In 1929, he lays down his mandate, but he remains the structure of the public service obligation and is making on behalf of the government participated in several conferences, for example, in Paris in 1946 and established diplomatic relations with Lebanon to the Vatican.

His name is strongly associated with the modern Lebanon. He is known as author of the self-designation of the Lebanese as Phoenicians, which is often used today by the Maronite Christians. A daughter of his three daughters is with the politician Pierre Hélou (* 1928) married.

Today, there is a foundation Michel Chiha.

Works

• ESSAIS I & II
• FACE AND PRESENCE DU LIBAN
• PALESTINE
• POLITIQUE INTERIEURE
• PLAIN CHANT, intitulé également " PROPOS DOMINICAUX »
• LA MAISON DES CHAMPS
• PROPOS D' ECONOMIE libanaise