Rashid Karami

Rashid Karami was born in Tripoli, North Lebanon, on 31 December 1920 into one of Lebanon's most prominent Sunni political families.

He was the eldest son of Abdul Hamid Karami, an architect of Lebanese independence from France.

Rashid Karami (رشيد كرامي; 30 December 1921 – 1 June 1987) was a Lebanese statesman.

His father was also the Grand Mufti, or supreme religious judge, of Tripoli, and served as Prime Minister in 1945.

Rashid Karami graduated from Cairo University with a law degree in the 1946.

Following his graduation, Karami practiced law in Cairo for three years.

On his return to Lebanon, he established a legal practice in Tripoli.

During the 1950s, he was a political follower of the Pan-Arabism of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

He was first elected to the National Assembly in 1951 to fill a vacancy caused by the death of his father.

In 1953, he was also appointed minister of the economy and social affairs in Abdallah El-Yafi's government.

From 1955 to 1987 Karami held office eight times as prime minister, under every President.

These terms were from 1955 to 1956, 1958 to 1960, 1961 to 1964, 1965 to 1966, 1966 to 1968, 1969 to 1970, 1975 to 1976, and from 1984 until his death.

Karami was thirty-four years old when he first became Prime Minister in 1955.

He was first appointed Prime Minister by President Camille Chamoun on 19 September 1955.

By the following year, however, he had seriously fallen out with Chamoun over the latter's refusal to sever diplomatic relations with the western powers that had attacked Egypt in the 1956 Suez Crisis of 1956.

He was the Minister of Finance from 1958 to 1960, 1961 to 1964, 1965 to 1966, 1966 to 1968, 1969 to 1970 and 1975 to 1976.

He was the Minister of Defense from 1958 to 1960, 1965, 1975 to 1976.

He also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs several times.

He had a stormy relationship with Lebanon's Presidents, who appointed him because of his political connections, despite substantial political differences.

He was popularly known as a man for all crises because of a penchant of Lebanon's presidents to turn to him in times of major national strife or political upheaval.

What made the lawyer from the northern port city of Tripoli so often the man of the hour was a talent for leading the opposition without burning his bridges with the Lebanese president.

Mr. Karami enjoyed political prominence, and an unparalleled popularity.

Unlike Nabih Berri of the Shiite Muslims and Walid Jumblat, the Druse leader, he had no militia.

While his public statements were often in the florid style common among Arab politicians, he was a skillful practitioner of the intricacies of Lebanese politics.

He repeatedly strove to remain as leader of the Government until he decided it was useless to carry on amid the turmoil and violence of Lebanese politics.

While he was fluent in French and had a good command of English, he was always accompanied by an interpreter in interviews with foreign correspondents, because he insisted on speaking Arabic.

He was celebrated for being a Statesman with courtly manners, soft-spokenness and taste in clothes.

He [...] was often described in the Lebanese press as al effendi - the gentleman.

Karami was a strong proponent of increasing political power of Lebanon's Muslim community, which in his time increased to outnumber the Christian population for the first time in Lebanese history, causing major ripples in the social fabric of the country.

He attempted, without success, to gain greater representation for Muslims in the National Assembly, where they were allocated 45 percent of the seats, a figure that was not adjusted to take account of changing demographics.

He again opposed Chamoun in the 1958 Lebanon Crisis, a Nasserist uprising with considerable support in the Muslim community which erupted in May 1958 and attempted to topple the government and join Egypt and Syria in the new United Arab Republic.

By September, when Chamoun had quelled the uprising with the aid of United States Marines, Karami formed a government of national unity under the new president, Fuad Chehab.

Karami served four more times as prime minister throughout the 1960s.

One concession that was made by Christian politicians was to allow legislation signed by the President to be countersigned by the Prime Minister, from 1974 onward, giving the Prime Minister (always a Sunni Muslim) an effective veto.

Karami was a part of the Muslim-Leftist faction in Lebanese politics.

He is considered one of the most important political figures in Lebanon for more than 30 years, including during much of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), and he served as prime minister eight times, making him the most democratically elected prime minister in history according to the Guinness Book of World Records 2005.

In 1976, Karami helped broker an agreement to provide for equal parliamentary representation of Christians and Muslims, but this agreement was never implemented.

He was assassinated in 1987.

He retained this seat until his death in 1987.

One month after being elected he was appointed minister of justice in the government led by Prime Minister Hussein Al Oweini.