Salama Obeid is a towering figure in Jabal al-Arab; he was a writer, novelist, historian, translator, and linguistic researcher, and the first person to author a major Chinese-Arabic dictionary in the world.
Salama Obeid was born in 1921. His father, Ali, was one of the pillars of the Great Syrian Revolt. He studied in Lebanon from primary school until he graduated from the American University, where he received his Master's degree with distinction.
Obeid returned to As-Suwayda in 1951, where he worked in teaching and administration, then as Director of Education from 1953 to 1960. He was elected as a member of the National Assembly during the union between Egypt and Syria.
Obeid visited China for the first time in 1964 as part of a delegation for the Afro-Asian Writers' Association. He then traveled there in 1972, where he oversaw the establishment of the Arabic Language Department at Peking University. He worked in teaching there and authored a large number of educational books for Chinese students.
During his stay in China, Obeid completed the Great Chinese-Arabic Dictionary, which is the first of its kind in the world. He also completed many other dictionaries, including the "Classified Dictionary," a Chinese-Arabic dictionary containing more than twenty chapters, each dedicated to a specific field of words, which took ten years to write, and the "Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs" with explanations and their potential Arabic equivalents.
Salama Obeid has many literary works, including: "The Great Syrian Revolt in Light of Unpublished Documents," "Abu Saber: The Revolutionary Forgotten Twice" (novel), "Flame and Scent" (poetry collection), "God and the Stranger" (poetry collection), "Nabati Poetry in the United Arab Emirates," "The Weaver and the Cowherd" (Chinese legend - translation), and "A Journey in Mount Hauran - Excerpts by Reverend Porter" (translation).
Obeid returned to As-Suwayda and passed away one day after his arrival on March 25, 1984.
Source: Salama Obeid Website
