Said Choucair
Said Pasha Shoucair, KBE | |
|---|---|
سعيد باشا شقير | |
| 1st Director of Finance of Syria | |
| In office October 1918 – January 26, 1920 | |
| Monarch | Prince Faisal (later King Faisal I) |
| Prime Minister | Ali Rida al-Rikabi |
| Succeeded by | Fares al-Khoury |
| Financial Advisor and Director-General of Accounts of Sudan | |
| In office 1907–1921 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1868 |
| Died | 1938 (aged 69–70) |
| Party | Moderate Liberal Party |
| Alma mater | Syrian Protestant College |
| Occupation | Economist, statesman, journalist |
Said Pasha Shoucair, KBE (Arabic: سعيد باشا شقير; 1868–1938), also spelled Said Choucair or Said Shuqayr, was a Levantine financier, journalist, and statesman who served as the first head of the Ministry of Finance of modern Syria during the post-World War I Arab administration under King Faisal I.[1][2]
Prior to his foundational ministerial role in Damascus, Shoucair built an extensive career within the British-administered financial institutions of Egypt and Sudan, eventually being granted the title of Pasha and appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his extensive administrative and economic reforms in the region.[3][4]
Early life and education
[edit]Said Shoucair was born into a prominent Protestant family in Choueifat (Shwayfat), Mount Lebanon, in 1868.[3] He received his higher education at the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, graduating in 1886. Following his graduation, he remained at the college as an instructor of Arabic literature from 1886 until 1889.[5]
Journalism and early career (Egypt, USA, Sudan)
[edit]In late 1889, Shoucair emigrated to Cairo, Egypt, where he entered the field of journalism, contributing regularly to prominent Levantine émigré publications such as Al-Muqattam and Al-Muqtataf.[3]
Historical records also link Shoucair to the early Arab-American press; during a brief period of political exile from the Levant due to his vocal criticism of the Ottoman Empire, he co-founded and served as the initial editor of Kawkab Amirka (Star of America) in New York in 1892—which was the first Arabic-language newspaper published in North America—before the Arbeely brothers assumed full financial control.[6]
Upon returning to Egypt, Shoucair entered civil service under the British administration, initially working within the Egyptian Ministry of Finance and subsequently transferring to the military Intelligence Department in Cairo.[3] Following the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of Sudan, Shoucair was stationed in Khartoum under Lord Kitchener's administration. In 1907, he was promoted to Director-General of Accounts for the Sudan Government, a critical post he held until 1921 when he was elevated to chief Financial Advisor to the government.[3][7]
Minister of Finance in Syria (1918–1920)
[edit]Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I and the entry of the Hashemite Arab Army into Damascus in October 1918, Prince Faisal sought out experienced Arab administrators to construct a modern sovereign state infrastructure. Because of his vast financial expertise in Egypt and Sudan, Shoucair was invited to Damascus to organize the newly independent country's financial system.
He was appointed **Director of Finance** (the historical equivalent to the Minister of Finance) in the provisional Arab government headed by military governor Ali Rida al-Rikabi.[2]
On August 4, 1919, Prince Faisal formally established the "Council of Directors" (Majlis al-Mudirain) under his personal presidency to replace the military cabinet. Shoucair was officially retained as the Director of Finance.[1] Within this cabinet, Shoucair aligned with the Moderate Liberal Party (Al-Hizb al-Hurr al-Mu'tadil), a political faction composed of secular intellectuals and veteran bureaucrats who pragmatically favored accepting a temporary British or American mandate over Syria as a strategic tool to build state institutions and stave off the aggressive colonial ambitions of France.[2]
During his ministerial tenure, Shoucair faced immense logistical hurdles, including catastrophic post-war inflation, regional famine, and the complex challenge of detaching Syria from the collapsed Ottoman monetary framework. In late 1919, he traveled to London as part of a formal Syrian diplomatic delegation to negotiate Syria's post-war financial autonomy, specifically lobbying British authorities regarding the Levant's legal share and exemption from the historic Ottoman public debt.
Shoucair held his ministerial office until January 26, 1920, when the Council of Directors dissolved amidst rising nationalist pressures, paving the way for the declaration of the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria and the appointment of Fares al-Khoury as his successor.[1]
Later life and death
[edit]Following his service in Syria, Shoucair returned to his high-level administrative consultations between Egypt, Sudan, and London, remaining an active figure within the intellectual and literary circles of Cairo, where he was highly regarded as an essayist and poet.[8] He died in 1938 at the age of 70.
Honors
[edit]- Pasha (Egypt)[4]
- Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE; 1924)[4][9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "The Government of Rida Pasha al-Rikabi (Council of Directors)" (in Arabic). People's Assembly of Syria. Retrieved June 26, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Said Shoucair". The Contemporary History of Syria (in Arabic). Retrieved June 26, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 An Arabian Diary. University of California Press. 1980. pp. 240–242. ISBN 978-0520312098.
- 1 2 3 Foreign Office: Confidential Print Egypt and the Sudan (FO 407-210). British Foreign Office. 1930. p. 85.
- ↑ That They May Have Life: The Story of the American University of Beirut 1866–1941. Princeton University Press. 1941. pp. 182–185.
- ↑ "Kawkab Amirka Newspapers, 1892-1896". North Carolina State University Libraries. Retrieved June 26, 2026.
- ↑ Shuqayr, Naoum (2021). The History and Geography of Sudan (in Arabic). Hindawi Foundation. pp. 114–116.
- ↑ "The Literary Legacy of Said Pasha Shoucair". Al-Muqtataf (in Arabic). Cairo. November 1, 1927.
- ↑ Redrawing the Middle East: Sir Mark Sykes, Imperialism and the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Bloomsbury Academic. 2019. p. 238. ISBN 978-1786734068.