Khalil Ahmad Khalil

Khalil Ahmad Khalil (Arabic: خليل أحمد خليل; born November 12, 1942) is a Lebanese intellectual, researcher, translator, prolific, and academic. He was born in 1942 in Sur, South Lebanon. He has many works in the fields of sociology in religion, politics, culture and philosophy, as well as a great number of translations, including Lalande's Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the glossary of philosophical terms. He is considered one of the most prominent Arab intellectuals of the 20th century, and a leading member of the Progressive Socialist Party. He joined the Party in 1968, and retired all organizational politics work after the assassination of Party leader Kamal Jumblatt. He received a prize for his published works and translations, which enriched the Arabic library, as well as his academic achievement in the Lebanese University.

Early life Khalil Ahmad Khalil was born on 12 November 1942 in Sur. The death of two of his siblings had been a traumatizing event for his mother. He initially lived in this city, but later moved to live in a village with his grandmother Souda Al Shamiya, in Gaana, South Lebanon. However, he mostly lived with his aunt Mila’a.

Khalil studied in the English School in Sur, one of the oldest missionary schools in the city. He then received Quranic education when he was in the care of his uncle Ash Sheikh Muhammed Ali As Saaya. He also studied grammar, learning eloquence and the richness of the Arabic language. Afterwards, he studied in Hanouiyeh School, where he learned French in the first and second grade of his elementary school. He returned to his parents' home in Sur when he turned ten years old and enrolled in the Jafaria School, where he received his official certificate. Khalil then lived some of his teenage years in a boarding school in Bahamdoun (the Arabic Institution), there he studied two grades of his senior year in one academic year. Before the end of the school year, he returned to Sur. Khalil was the only student that passed their baccalaureate examinations.

In France, Khalil discovered Sartre's philosophy and was "deceived by it and by existentialism," until he read Sartre's book Reflections on the Jewish Question. The book acted as a declaration of support for Israel, which made Khalil feel betrayed. He wondered why Arabs translated his works and was surprised by Sartre's dualism, as he supported the Algerian Revolution and had advocated for peoples' rights but apparently also supported the colonization of Palestine. He later discovered that the book was in fact a response to Marx's book On the Jewish Question. Around that time, Khalil published his book Sartrism: The Paradox of Politics and Ethics (original: Ālsārtryā wthāft ālsyāsā walāẖlāq).

After this Parisian stage of his life, Khalil started doing research on sociology. He continued working on his intellectual, cultural, social, and political books and translations, as well as his contributions to writing and cooperating with other Lebanese intellectuals to create a cultural magazine and periodical.

Kamal Jumblatt After the student protest in France in 1968, Khalil realized that individual political action "is meaningless." Khalil adds, "If you want to work in politics, you need to belong to a party. If there is no party, create your own." This stage was Kamal Jumblatt's, one of the founders of the Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon. Khalil got to know Jumblatt well, and they were brought together by discussions and debates that lasted for six months and eventually assembled the Progressive Socialist Party. Khalil once described Jumblatt as a "a great mind that insisted on reaching other minds, his legacy is the proof of that persistence." When Jumblatt was martyred, Khalil retired organizational politics work, and devoted himself for academic work, writing, and translations. Through that encyclopedia, he attempted to convey the European and global mind in Arabic. He spent four years working on the project. With the help of Ahmad Oueidat, Oueidat Editions & Publications owner, who funded the project after taking out a mortgage on his apartment for 1 million Lebanese pounds, Khalil was able to complete his work. In addition, it can be said that he has composed a set of foundational books, these include:

Maḍmūn al-usṭūrah fī al-fikr al-ʻArabī, 1973. [translation: Mythology in the Arab Mentality]. Naḥwa sūsyūlūǧīya li't-taqāfa aš-šaʻbīya: numūdaǧ Lubnān, 1979. [translation: Toward a Sociology of Popular Culture in Lebanon]. Ālǧbhā ālwṭnyā wālʿml ālšʿby, 1979. The book was made in collaboration with Farhan Saleh. [translation: The National Front and People's Action Party]. The Origins of Ismailism: A Study of the Historical Background of the Fatimid Caliphate by Bernard Lewis. Reviewed and presented by Khalil Ahmad Khalil, 1980. Mustaqbal al-falsafah al-ʻArabīyah, 1981. [translation: The future of Arab Philosophy]. La dialectique de la durée by Gaston Bachelard. [translation: The Dialectic of Duration]. Translated by Khalil Ahmad Khalil, 1981. Ālʿrb wāldymqrāṭyā: bḥṯ fy syāst ālmstqbl [translation: Arabs and Democracy: A research on the Future of Politics] (192 pages), and Ālʿrb wālqyāda: bḥṯ āǧtmāʿy fy mʿnā ālslṭā wdwr ālqāʿd [translation: Arabs and Leadership: A Social Research on the Meaning of Power and the Role of a Leader] (a foundational work on political sociology) (288 pages), 1984. Ālmfāhym ālasāsya fy ʿlm ālaǧtmāʿ, 1984. [translation: The Principles of Sociology]. Kamāl Junblāṭ: thawrat "al-amīr al-ḥadīth", 1984. [translation: Kamal Jumblatt: The Revolution of the Modern Prince]. Ālmrā ālʿrbya wqḍāyā āltġyyr, 1985. [translation: The Arab Woman and Social Change]. Al-ʻaql fī al-Islām, 1993. Originally a scientific research that was presented in Lebanese University. Jadalīyat al-Qurʼān, 1994. [translation: The Dialectic of Qur'an]. Muʻjam al-muṣṭalaḥāt al-falsafīyah: ʻArabī-Faransī-Inklīzī, 1995. [translation: Arabic-French-English Dictionary of Philosophical Terms]. Sūsyūlūjīyā al-Junūn al-siyāsī wa-al-thaqāfī : musāhamah fī naqd al-ḥiwār al-dīnī bayna al-Islām wa-al-Masīḥīyah, 1997. [translation: The Sociology of Political and Cultural Madness: A Contribution to the Critique of religious discourse of Islam and Judaism]. Mʿǧm ālmṣṭlḥāt ālasṭwryā, 1997. [translation: Dictionary of Mythological Terms]. Naqd al-ʻaql al-siḥrī: qirāʼah fī turāth al-thaqāfah al-shaʻbīyah al-ʻArabīyah, 1998. [translation: A Critique of the Magical Mind: A Reading on the Heritage of Arab Folk Culture]. Muʻjam al-muṣṭalaḥāt al-siyāsīyah wa-al-diblūmāsīyah: ʻArabī-Faransī-Inklīzī, 1999. [translation: Arabic-French-English Dictionary of Political and Diplomatic Terms]. Mwswʿt aʿlām ālʿrb ālmbdʿyn fy ālqrn ālʿšryn, 2001. [translation: Encyclopedia of 20th Century Arab Luminaries]. Naqd al-taḍlīl al-ʻaqlī: Shīʻat Lubnān wa-al-ʻālam al-ʻArabī: Hal hum ākharūn fī al-niṣf al-ākhīr min al-qarn al-ʻishrīn?, 2001. [translation: A Critique on Misinformation: The Shia of Lebanon and the Arab World: Are They "Others" in the Latter Half of the 20th Century?]. Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie by André Lalande. [translation: Encyclopedia of Philosophy]. Translated by Khalil Ahmad Khalil, 2001. [translation: Political Heredity in Contemporary Republican Arab Regimes]. Mulḥaq mawsūʻaẗ al-siyāsaẗ, 2003 (739 pages). [translation: Encyclopedia of Politics]. Sūsiyūlūjiyā al-jumhūr al-siyāsī al-dīnī fī al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ al-muʻāṣir, 2005. [translation: The Sociology of the Political-Religious in Contemporary Middle East]. Al-Ightiyāl: ḥarb al-ẓilāl wa-al-ʻunf al-muqaddas, 2011. [translation: Assassination: The War of Shadows and Sacred Violence]. Li-mādhā yakhāfu al-ʻArab al-ḥadāthah? baḥth fī al-badūqrāṭīyah, 2011. [translation: Why are Arabs Afraid of Modernity? A Research on Bedoucracy]. Jadalīyāt al-sulṭah wa-al-fatwá ʻashīyat thawrāt al-rabīʻ al-ʻArabī, 2014. [translation: The Dialectics of Power and Fatwa: The Revolutions of Arab Spring]. ʿql alʿlm wʿql alwhm, 2015. [translation: Reason and Illusion].