Mahmoud studies medicine
Mahmoud (far left) with his fellow AUB medical students. Standing next to Mahmoud is George Farah, a fellow Jerusalemite who graduated with Mahmoud in 1932. They practised in Jerusalem and remained close colleagues. Both men were instrumental in establishing PAMA. Source: American University of Beirut Archives and Special Collections.
Mahmoud joins the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1925. Amongst his classmates that year are Yahya Lababidi who is also a sophomore and Ibrahim Tuqan who is a freshman (and who will become one of Palestine’s most celebrated poets and nationalist figures). These three young men will cross paths with one another a few years later in Jerusalem: Yahya Lababidi will marry Mahmoud’s niece Rabiha and will also become a colleague and close friend of Ibrahim Tuqan.
In 1926 another student joins AUB. Her name is Nahil Habboub. By 1927 Mahmoud is a first-year medicine student and Nahil a first-year dentistry student. And the School of Medicine is adjacent to the School of Dentistry and students of both schools share almost the same curriculum. So they are classmates. And they fall in love.
Mahmoud is three years into his medical studies in 1929 when he is joined by his younger brothers Subhi and Ali. By now, Mahmoud is an active member of the student society at AUB and is elected as president of the Students’ Union (and remains so until his graduation).
Nahil graduates in the summer of 1931, joining the ranks of only a handful of female women to graduate from AUB’s schools of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, and from those few, Nahil was the first Muslim woman to graduate as a dentist. Mahmoud has one more year to go at AUB. And towards the end of his last year, on 30 March 1932, Mahmoud and Nahil get engaged in Jerusalem. Later on that summer, Mahmoud graduates with honour, along with his two brothers Subhi and Ali, all three on the same day.
A photograph of Medical School faculty and students, from the American University of Beirut 1928 yearbook. Beirut, 1928. Source: American University of Beirut Archives and Special Collections.Mahmoud, at the end of his first year at the School of Medicine. Beirut, 1928. Source: American University of Beirut Archives and Special Collections.
Mahmoud and Nahil maintained a lifelong connection with their alma mater, regularly writing to AUB about their latest news and visiting the student union’s office during their frequent travels to Beirut. This is an article about the couple published by al-Kulliyyah, the AUB alumni association periodical. al-Kulliyyah, 28(12), December 1953, p.38. Source: American University of Beirut Archives and Special Collections.
←