Al-Ab Anastas Mari Al-Karmali, Anastas the Carmelite, or Père Anastase-Marie de Saint-Élie, a Lebanese Christian priest and linguist who made important contributions in Arabic linguistics and philology. His philology periodical, the "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 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 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 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 Liege, 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: In addition to comparative studies of Latin and Greek in relationship to Arabic, he studied Aramaic, Hebrew, Abyssinian, Persian, Turkish, Sabthi, 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
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". In 1911 he founded "Lughat Al-'Arab" a philology journal.
Works of Classification
Dictionary Assistant - al-Majam al-Musaid
On Language, Poets & Writers of Baghdad - fi al-Lughata wa Shura Baghdad wa Ketabha
Emergence of The Arabic language, Its Growth and Complexity - Nushu' al-Lughat al-Arabiat wa Numuha wa Iktihalaha
Mistakes of Ancient Linguists - Aghlat al-Lughwiiyn al-'Aqdamin
Arab Money and the Science of Growth - al-Nuqud al-Arabiat wa Ilm al-Nmyat
Winning the Wanted on the History of Baghdad - al-Fawz bi al-Marad fi Tarikh Baghdad
Historical and Scientific Illumination Allama at-Tarikhiat wa'l-Ilmiat
Two Large Forms - Jazan Kabirana
Attractions of Baghdad and Translations of Some Scholars - Mazarat Baghdad wa Tarajum badh al-Ulama'
Sumer Magazine Report - Dhakartah Majalat Suamir
The Arabs Before Islam - al-Arab qabl al'Islam
Proverbs of Baghdad, Mosul and Basra - 'Amthal al-'Awam fi Baghdad wa'l-Mawsil wa'l-Basrah
Library Contributions
About 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 the Carmelite's, or Al-Karmali's personal library.
