A Syriac printing press in Lebanon

ARAMAIC WATCH: A Syriac printing press in Lebanon:

Old school printer exploits his passion for languages to the last letter

July 27, 2011 02:00 AM
By Annie Slemrod
The Daily Star

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[Abdel-Karim] Chahan’s dexterity and memory is extraordinary, but even more so given that he is 85. He is Lebanon’s only Syriac printer, but he’s more than that. His tan printer’s smock also contains a linguist, author, teacher and polyglot.

When Chahan asks his young assistant to get the old press rolling, he does so in Aramaic. The assistant is a refugee from a part of Iraq where modern Aramaic is still spoken. Chahan easily switches between Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic and English.

Languages, and Syriac in particular, are Chahan’s passion. But they began as a necessity. Born in Allepo’s Syriac quarter to a family from Odessa, he spoke Armenian with his mother, Turkish with his father, and Syriac in church. School was in French, and government activities were carried out in Arabic, so “from the age of 7 you needed to speak five languages,” he says.

[...]

Lots of interesting details in this article. Mr. Chahan's and his business partner's printing projects include Syriac translations of works by Dickens and Hemingway.