Henri Philippe Pharaoun

Henri Philippe Pharaoun (or Henry Pharoun) (1901 – August 6, 1993), was a Lebanese art collector, sportsman, politician and businessman. He played a crucial role in securing Lebanon's independence from France and served as foreign minister and other Cabinet positions. He is also remembered as a champion of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims.

Pharaoun was born the son of a wealthy Lebanese Melkite Catholic merchant in Alexandria, Egypt. Four years later his family moved to Beirut, where he was educated in missionary schools. He attended college in Switzerland, and received a law degree at Lyons University in France. Pharaoun married Nawali Kassar, heiress of a wealthy Palestinian family from Jaffa, in 1922, while he was national tennis champion of Lebanon. They had one son, Naji.

For many generations the honorary-consuls to the imperial court in Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire came from his family. He founded the "Austro-Lebanese Association of Friendship".

Probably the richest man in Lebanon during much of his lifetime, he helped to found independent Lebanon and designed the Lebanese flag, which in its colors looks similar to the red-white-red Flag of Austria. Known as a Mediterranianist who encouraged cooperation between Christians and Muslims, Pharaoun opposed the pan-Arabist intentions of Riad El-Solh and helped temper the power of the Arab League. He served in the Lebanese Parliament from 1943 to 1946, and then as the Lebanese foreign minister intermittently from 1945 to 1947. After this he retired from politics to focus on business interests. During the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990 Pharaoun took no side, preferring instead to broker peace between the warring factions.

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