View source for Émile Eddé

{{short description|Lebanese politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Family name hatnote|Ibrahim|Eddé|lang=Lebanese}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| caption             = Official portrait of Émile Eddé
| name                = Émile Eddé
| native_name         = {{nobold|إميل إدّه}}
| honorific_prefix    = [[His Excellency]]
| honorific-suffix    = [[Order of Merit (Lebanon)|OM]], [[National Order of the Cedar|ONC]]
| image               = Émile Eddé Official portrait.jpg
| office1             = [[President of Lebanon]]
| term_start2         = 20 January 1936
| term_end2           = 4 April 1941
| predecessor2        = [[Habib Pacha Saad]]
| successor2          = [[Alfred Georges Naccache]]
| primeminister2      = [[Khayreddin al-Ahdab]]<br/>[[Khaled Chehab]]<br/>[[Abdallah Yafi]]<br/>[[Abdallah Beyhum]]
| status1             =
| term_start1         = 11 November 1943
| term_end1           = 22 November 1943
| predecessor1        = [[Bechara El Khoury]]
| successor1          = [[Bechara El Khoury]]
| office3             = [[Prime Minister of Lebanon]]
| term_start3         = 11 October 1929
| term_end3           = 25 March 1930
| predecessor3        = [[Bechara El Khoury]]
| successor3          = [[Auguste Adib Pacha]]
| president3          = [[Charles Debbas]]
| office4             = [[Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon]]
| term_start4         = 21 October 1924
| term_end4           = 13 January 1925
| predecessor4        = [[Naoum Labaki]]
| successor4          = [[Moussa Namour]]
| president4          = [[Charles Debbas]]
| prime_minister4     =
| citizenship         = [[Ottoman Empire]] (1883–1918)<br>[[Arab Kingdom of Syria]] (1918–1920)<br>[[Greater Lebanon]] (1920–1943)<br>[[Lebanon]] (1943–1949)
| birth_name          = Émile Ibrahim Eddé
| birth_date          = 5 May 1883
| birth_place         = [[Damascus]], [[Ottoman Syria]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| death_place         = [[Sawfar]], Lebanon
| death_date          = 27 September 1949
| children            = 3, including [[Raymond Eddé|Raymond]]
| residence           = [[Alexandria]] (1915–1918)
| party               = [[National Bloc (Lebanon)|National Bloc]]
| education           = [[Saint Joseph University]]<br>[[Aix-Marseille University]] (PhD in law)
| native_name_lang    = ar
}}
'''Émile Eddé''' ({{langx|ar|إميل إدّه|translit=Imīl Iddah}}; 5 May 1886 – 28 September 1949) was a Lebanese lawyer and politician who served twice as the [[President of Lebanon]].
==Early life and education==
Émile Eddé was a member of a [[Maronite]] Christian family that originated from [[Beirut]] which participated in the Lebanese politics mainly during the [[Ma'n dynasty|Ma'anids]] and [[Shihab dynasty|Shihabs]] rule. He was born in Damascus, where his father, Ibrahim Eddé, was working as a translator in the French Consulate. He attended [[Saint Joseph University]], and moved to France to study law in Aix-en-Provence, in 1902, and graduated three years later. Because of his father’s health conditions, he was forced to return to Beirut in 1909, before submitting his doctoral thesis. In 1912, he was appointed as a lawyer for the French Consulate in Beirut.
Before the First World War, he sought to separate Mount Lebanon from the Ottoman Empire, for which he was sentenced to death. However, Edde was able to escape and took refuge in Alexandria. He participated in the establishment of the Eastern Unit in the French Army, which consisted of Lebanese and Syrian volunteers. During this period, he maintained contacts, with the French authorities, via his brother Joseph, residing in France.
== Political career ==
He was elected as a member of the first Lebanese delegation to the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]] that was formed on 9 October 1918, and was also appointed to the third Lebanese delegation formed in January 1920 under the chairmanship of Bishop Abdullah Khoury. The workmanship he demonstrated enabled him to make historical achievements on the level of the Lebanese national entity. Eddé urged the board of directors in Mount Lebanon – on the eve of the second delegation's departure, headed by [[Elias Peter Hoayek|Patriarch Elias Hoayek]] – to issue a decision demanding the recovery of territories taken from Lebanon. Émile Eddé signed memoranda and petitions in the framework of his activity within the third delegation, and faced the French current calling for Syrian federalism after the Faisal - Clemenceau agreement and the Zionists’ demands in a meeting attended by the third delegation under the chairmanship of Archbishop Abdullah Khoury and Weizmann, saying that Zionism aims to annex southern Lebanon up to the Litani to Palestine, which is rejected by the Lebanese people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=قانون الإنتخابات |url=https://www.nationalbloc.org/electoral_law |access-date=2022-05-09 |website=الكتلة الوطنية |language=ar}}</ref> Eddé served as the [[List of Speakers of the Parliament of Lebanon|speaker of the Parliament]] from October 1924 to January 1925,<ref name="lbparliament">{{in lang|ar}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20150801045413/https://www.lp.gov.lb/CustomPage.aspx?id=40&masterId=1 Republic of Lebanon – House of Representatives History]</ref>
Emile Eddé was [[1936 Lebanese presidential election|elected President]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Semaan |first=Eid |title=Raymond Edde: A Conscience that will not die |pages=43}}</ref> of the [[Lebanon|Lebanese Republic]] in 1936 and signed during his term the [[Lebanese Independence Day|Franco-Lebanese Treaty]] which provides for granting Lebanon its independence 5 years after ratifying the same. Nonetheless, the French government refused to ratify it thereafter.
He also developed during his presidential term the currently prevailing practice of nominating a Muslim [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] as Lebanese Prime Minister.
He ran in the [[1943 Lebanese general election|elections of 1943]] against the list of Sheikh [[Bechara El Khoury]], and issued an electoral statement on 9 August 1943, which became as a program for the Lebanese National Bloc. It was summarized in several points, chief among which are Lebanon's full democratic independence, Lebanon's attachment to the [[United Nations]]’ cause (which will replace the [[League of Nations]]), closer friendly ties with fraternal countries on the basis of mutual respect and full sovereignty, respect for all religions, equality between the Lebanese in terms of civil and political rights, equitable representation in public office based on competency, reform of the State's public administration, dissemination and mainstreaming of education, development of agriculture, industry and trade, safeguarding the Lebanese expatriates’ interests, bringing together all the Lebanese regardless of their different sects in a united nation – the Lebanese homeland. During that period, incidents succeeded each other and dangers exacerbated, rendering it necessary for Émile Eddé to establish a party that takes charge of defending Lebanon and conveying his ideas. Therefore, three deputies from his bloc: Amin Al Saad, Asaad Al Bustani and George Akl filed, on 15 May 1946, an application in order to be duly provided with a statement of notification from the Minister of Interior, and on the same day, they received the Minister of Interior's approval under No. 7582. Hence, the Lebanese National Bloc party was officially founded and was based on a program and an internal system. After that, Kesrouan El Khazen was elected President of the Party.<ref name="Ghhgbjlwire25may">{{cite news |date=25 May 2008 |title=Profiles of Lebanon’s presidents since independence |url=http://www.lebanonwire.com/0805MLN/08052502AGC.asp |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120060845/http://lebanonwire.com/0805MLN/08052502AGC.asp |archivedate=20 January 2013 |accessdate=21 March 2013 |newspaper=Lebanon Wire}}</ref><ref>[[James Barr (author)|James Barr]], ‘’A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914-1948’’ (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012) pp. 244–250</ref>
== See also ==
* [[List of political families in Lebanon]]
* [[National Bloc (Lebanon)]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
{{LebanonPres}}
{{Prime Ministers of Lebanon}}
{{Speakers of the Parliament of Lebanon}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=Lebanon|portal2=Politics|portal3=Biography|commons=y|commons-search=Category:Émile Eddé|d=y|d-search=Q275070}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edde, Emile}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:Saint Joseph University alumni]]
[[Category:Aix-Marseille University alumni]]
[[Category:Lebanese Maronites]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Lebanon]]
[[Category:Presidents of Lebanon]]
[[Category:Legislative speakers of Lebanon]]
[[Category:Syrian Maronites]]
[[Category:National Bloc (Lebanon) politicians]]
[[Category:Political party founders]]
[[Category:Lebanon under French rule]]
[[Category:Maronites from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century people from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Lebanese independence activists]]