Ḥubeika, Joseph (1878–1944) [Maron.]

Learned monk, teacher, and author.

He was born to ʿBeid Salmān Ḥubeika in Baskintā in the region of Metn. He attended the school of St. Joseph in Baskintā, and learned Syriac at the school of Sayyidat Baskintā. In 1893 he joined the monastery of Mar Mūsā al-Dawwār in Metn and became a novice. He was sent to study Syriac, Arabic, and French at the school of Dayr Qabriyānos in Kfīfān, and theology at the Lebanese school of Qarnat Shahwān from 1897–98. He was ordained a priest in 1898, and began teaching, especially Syriac, at a number of schools in the region. He performed a number of administrative positions in various schools and monasteries. In addition to his writings in al-Machriq (e.g., on Arabic names of villages derived from Syriac), he composed in Syriac a collection of poems under the title Recueil de poèmes syriaques (n. d., but according to Abūna published by his brother Peter Ḥubeika in 1952). He also wrote a pocket Syriac-Arabic lexicon Pire bašile (1958).