PERSONAL GENEOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY

  RUNNING LONG in Mr. Al-Assa'ad’s line is a duality of diplomacy and defiance: Unrelated to Syrian or Palestinian Al-Assads, he is among very few living legacies today of the El-Assaad dynasty, whose lineage defended fellow denizens of history’s Jabal Aamel (Mount Amel) principality – today southern Lebanon – for 36 generations, throughout the Arab caliphate by Sheikh al Mashayekh (Saintly Chief of Chiefs) Nassif Al-Nassar (the Invictor) ibn Al-Wa’ili, Ottoman conquest under Shabib Pasha Al Assaad, and colonial French administration by his grandfather Hassib Beyk—also supreme Judge and grand Speaker at halls across the Levant.

  His patriarchy originated when the kin of the Najdi (today Saudi) traveling bedouin Ali El Sagheer (Seger, the Young) were proclaimed Al Assaad (the Most Rejoiceful) by their adopting people of Jabal Aamel after liberating Sidon & Tyre, its ancient and Biblical capitals, from Byzantine tyrants (wherefrom the term originated). His tribe, the Rwala a side of the Anazzah (of Bani Wa’il), as are the Al-Saud royalty and other Najdis… yet, a branch that caravaned northwest in search of arable farmland (one cluster headed by Emir Mejhem ibn Meheid, holder of a Croix de Légion d’Honneur and taken Lady of Ellenborough, Jane E. Digby.

  Having for generations thereafter bloodmixed to the point of synosanguinity with the local Mediterranean population, during their Al-Assaad era, they, as provincial governors by consent, were given Khuwwa (brotherly voluntary crop-sharing) by local clans to finance protecting their co-operative trade from outside occupation, peacefully upholding the autonomy of a laborious few in the midst of one massive imperial taxation hegemony after another. This continued until contemporary domestic belligerence and foreign interferences led to rapid depredation of the Al-Assaads’ popularity-base and ability to deliver its constituency from external subjugation, ultimately resulting in the exodus of Mr. Al-Assaad's immediate family upon Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, perhaps returning in better times, if at all, meanwhile connecting to new international causes— letting go of the past unless birthed new context.

  Today, the Al-Assaad name is carried by a handful of perseverants in the fragmented Lebanese electoral landscape, such as his cousins Riyad (businessperson, as Independent), Maan (human rights lawyer and propagator of the Tayyar Al Assaadi current), and Ahmad (founder of the Lebanese Option Party and SNG)… as well as those in international service, such as Nael (cousin) – envoy for HM King Abdullah of Jordan and former husband of late Saudi magnate Adnan Khashoggi’s sister Soheir. Mr. Al-Assaad's sister Hoda, an organizer of IMF’s 2003 Annual Meetings and ex-Clearstream Banking, Dubai Holding, and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, recently joined the Arab Media Group after running the office of Fouad Makhzoumi – the ultra-HNW industrialist behind the National Dialogue Party. His brother Habib, also residing in Dubai, is Intercessor and Advisor to Sheikha Latifa MBM espoused to His Highness Sheikh Hasher bin Ahmed Al Maktoum.

  Other deceased notable relations in modernity included the much renowned Kamel Beyk – Speaker of the House of the Lebanese Parliament and genitor of the Social Democratic Party (grandcousin); Haidar (father) – historian and among the first official delegates to visit the new People’s Republic of China in the 1960’s following Ministerial civil service – later serving as a Director at the FAO of the United Nations and consultant to TRW and the World Bank; his passed uncles… namely His late Excellency Sa'id, Ambassador of Lebanon to France and Belgium who was wed to Bahija El-Solh, the aunt of HRH Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of K.S.A. and daughter of Riyad El-Solh, architect of Lebanon’s independence from French mandatehood and drafter of the newly formed republic’s first constitution (leading to the small country’s becoming an exceptional example of economic and touristic freedom in its wider region until Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war); and Hazaa – who entered Middle East Airlines into alliance with Pan Am (led by Najeeb Halaby, father of Lisa Halaby, who later became HM Queen Noor of Jordan). Surviving them —last of the elder circle—are esteemed power-broking socialites such as Bassam and Madame Zahye. Mr. Al-Assaad himself has no partisan affiliations or political aspirations. To this day Mr. Al-Assaad remains solely Lebanese and has not sought other citizenship, albeit depending on scenarios he is currently monitoring.