| Birth Name: | John Louis Sabunji |
| Birth Date: | 1838 |
| Birth Place: | Diyarbakır, Ottoman Empire |
| Death Place: | Los Angeles, United States |
| Occupation: | Catholic priest Journalist |
| Years Active: | 1860s–1920s |
| Known For: | founder of Al Nahla |
Louis Sabunji (1838–1931) was a Catholic priest and political figure who founded and edited various publications, including Al Nahla (Arabic: The Bee). He was also one of the earliest photographers in Beirut.
Sabunji was born in Diyarbakır in 1838.[1] His family were Syriac Catholic. He had two brothers, Jurji and Daoud.[2]
Sabunji received education at the seminary in the Syriac Catholic Church in Mount Lebanon in 1850.[2] Then he attended the College of Pontifical Propaganda in Rome between 1853 and 1861 and received a PhD in theology.[1] [2] There he also learned photography.[2]
Following his graduation Sabunji became an ordained priest and was among the first Turkish and Latin instructors of the newly established Syrian Protestant College.[2] He established and headed a school named Al Madrasa Al Siriyaniyya (Arabic: the Syriac School) in 1864.[2] Then he began to work as a priest in Beirut where he launched a weekly journal entitled Al Nahla in 1870.[1] [3] In August 1871 Sabunji suspended his journalistic activity in Beirut due to his clash with Butrus Al Bustani, a Christian journalist, and traveled various countries until his return to Beirut in 1864.[1] Sabunji permanently left Beirut and settled in London in 1876 due to his anti-Ottoman political stance.[1]
In London Sabunji worked as the political editor of a publication entitled Mirat Al Ahwal which was launched by Rizk Allah Hassun on 19 October 1876.[1] Sabunji continued to publish Al Nahla in London from 1877.[3] He founded another weekly in London entitled Al Khalifa.[1] Sabunji became the professor of the Arabic language at the Imperial Institute in London in the late 1880s.[3]
Sabunji was the author of several unpublished manuscripts, including Diwan and his diary Yıldız Sarayında bir Papaz (Turkish: A Priest in Yıldız Palace).[2]
Sabunji settled in Egypt during World War I and then went to the United States where he lived in poverty.[2] In 1931, he was murdered by burglars in Los Angeles at age 93.[2]