Munib Shahid

Munib Jalal Shahid (Arabic: منيب جلال شهيد, romanized: Munīb Jalāl Shahīd; 1908–1973) was Chairman of Hematology and Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine of the American University of Beirut.^[1][2] He built the hematology laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine, a development that increased research output significantly.^[3] The Dr. Munib Shahid Award is presented annually at the American University of Beirut to the fourth year medical student demonstrating the best performance in internal medicine and a mature character.^[4]

Munib Shahid was born in 1908 in Acre, Palestine to a prominent Baháʼí lineage. He was the great-grandson of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder-prophet of the Baháʼí Faith. His parents were Jalal, an Afnán, and Rúḥá, a daughter of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. His paternal grandfather was Muhammad-Hasan, titled "King of the Martyrs".^{[citation needed]} In 1944, he married Serene Husseini according to the Muslim rites. She was related to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem^[which?], an enemy of the Baháʼís. Shoghi Effendi, Munib's cousin and then head of the Baháʼí Faith, labeled this marriage a "treacherous act" and excommunicated Munib Shahid as a Covenant-breaker.^[5][6]

Munib and Serene Husseini continued to live in Beirut, where he pursued his academic career, and she promoted cottage industries among Palestinian refugees. Serene Shahid wrote a critically acclaimed autobiography of her childhood, titled, Jerusalem Memories.^[7] The couple had three daughters, including Leila Shahid.^[8]

Among Shahid's publications were:^[2]

• (with H.A. Yenikomshian) "Typhoid Fever in Inocculated and Noninocculated Persons," Journe'es Medicales Libanais de Beyrouth (May 1938) 241–247.
• "The Use of Nitrogen Mustard in Neoplastic Diseases of the Bone Marrow," Rev. Med. Liban. I (1961?): 45–51.
• (with E. Stephan) "Perarterite noueuse-Maladie de Kussmaul." Rev. Med. Moy. Or. VI (1949): 295–303.
• "ACTH et cortisone en hematologie." Rev. Med. Moy. Or. XI (1954): 279–291.
• "Quelques considerations sur le favisme au Liban." Rev. Med. Moy. Or. (1960): 83–86.
• (with N.A. Abu-Haydar) "Sickle Cell Disease in Lebanon and Syria." Acta Haemat., Basel XXVII (1962):268-273.
• (with G.I. Abu-Haydar and N.A. Abu-Haydar) "Thalassemia Hemoglobin E. Disease. A Case Report from Quatar." Persian Gulf, Man., CLV (1963):129.
• "Hemoglobinopathies in Lebanon and Arab Countries." Proc. IXth Congr. European Soc. Haemat., II (1963):496-500.
• "Iron Absorption in Thalassemia." Abstr. IXth Congr. Int. Soc. Haemat. (Stockholm, 1964.)