Fu'ad Shihab (1903-1973) was the Father of the Lebanese Army, which he organized after World War II and headed until his election as president of Lebanon in 1958. Although he worked hard to forge a sense of national unity among Christian and Muslim Lebanese, this legacy was lost in the period following his retirement and death.

Fu'ad Shihab (also spelled Chehab) was a scion of the princely family which had ruled Lebanon from 1711 to 1842. Fu'ad Shihab was born in 1903 in the town of Ghazir in Kisrwan and was the fourth generation descendant of Prince Hasan, the brother of Prince Bashir II (the Great) who was the ruler (Hakim) of Lebanon intermittently during the period 1788-1840.

Father of the Lebanese Army

Shihab studied at the School of Freres Maristes in Junya and after finishing his secondary school enrolled in the military academy in Damascus, from which he graduated as a...