Khalaf Family of Baskinta, Lebanon

Dear John Leslie the son of Mary Lee the daughter of Najib Khalaf

The family tree began with Gerges Khalaf who came from Ras Baalbek a town in north east of Lebanon and dwelt in the west of Shouf area, middle of Mount Lebanon, that was in the 16^th century. Gerges begat Habib, Habib begat Michael, Michael begat Gerges, Gerges begat Simeon, Simeon begat Khalil, Khalil begat Nasr.

Nasr came in 1732 and dwelt in Baskinta town, near mount Sannine, to the north of Shouf Area. He begat Milane, Milane begat Gerges, Gerges begat Nehmeh, Nehmeh begat Ibrahim in 1847. Ibrahim was appointed mayor of the town Baskinta. In 1871, Ibrahim married Martha the daughter of Abdallah son of Shahin Khalaf.

Ibrahim Khalaf, the mayor, begat:

Milhim on July 6, 1875   the father of Adel and Emile

Nihmeh on January 24, 1878  the father of Michel, Habib and Ramez

Najib on April 12, 1882  the father of Mary Lee

Yousef on March 17, 1885   the father of Ibrahim

Banayout on July 27, 1888

Athena (aunt of Mary Lee) [I have added Athena’s name here, no information about the date of her birthday]

Those names were taken from a family tree prepared by Mayor Ibrahim Khalaf in 1912. This family tree was updated by Najib Khalaf.

The Source: History of Baskinta and its Families, by Archimandrite Boutros Hobeika, printed in Baskinta, Lebanon in 1946, pages 282-287.

Note: In the Middle East, as you notice, women are not mentioned in family trees (like the Bible times).

I hope that this list of your forefathers is enough for your purpose. More details of the history of Khalaf family in Baskinta are contained in the 6 pages of the source-book. The book is in Arabic.

Happy to help you in this investigation

Yours in Christ

Ghassan Khalaf

October 8, 2012

Special thanks to Ghassan Khalaf for sharing

Letter received from Ghassan Khalaf about Najib Khalif

Dear John
Greetings in Jesus name
Nice to know you. I have visited your mother sister
Mary lee few years ago in San Diego. I am Ghassan
Khalaf a Lebanese a Baptist. I have been told about
Najib Khalaf by his sister Athena who was a member at
the same church I go to in Beirut. I have met your
grandmother May when she visited Beirut in mid
seventies, your mother too visited Lebanon at that
time.
It happened that as Athena used to speak to me about
Najib; I was so impressed by his personality and
commitment to God and his country Lebanon. I started
to gather information about Najib from old magazines
and newspapers and lips of those who knew him. I have
collected enough material to compose his biography.
Najib was a Baptist minister and a famous lawyer. He
was a man of literature. A poet. He had written a
dictionary of the Arabic language that exceeds 30,000
pages, with an introduction to the Arabic language
that exceeds 3,500 pages.
He also translated the New Testament with the help of
Bishop Boulos Abou Adal who was an expert in Greek.
They finished their work in 1923.
The manuscript of the translation is entrusted to the
Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. I am now the
president of ABTS and we are now processing it into
the computer in order to publish it later.
Your grandfather Najib died in 1944 and I was born in
1945. Since I am also a dictionary-concordance
compiler and New Testament translator and Baptist
pastor and a man of literature and a Khalaf and a
Lebanese, I feel because of these similarities that I
am called by God to care for publishing his books and
keep his legacy.
This is just an introduction. I am ready to answer any
questions you may have.
Greetings to sister Mary Lee
Cordially
Ghassan Khalaf