Girges bin Yousef bin Rafael bin Girges bin Michael bin Hanna Shalhat was a Syriac Catholic writer, poet, journalist, translator, teacher, Patriarch of Anitoch of the Syriac Catholics and a member of the Arab Academy in Damascus. Born in Aleppo, Girges received his education in Aintoura, Lebanon and later went on to open a school for Syriac Catholics called Madraset Al-Tarakki (The School of Advancement). In 1910, he founded Al-Warqaa magazine, in which he published most of his work during World War II. Among his notable writings are The Gist of Industry, Science, and Religion, The Cosmos and The Sanctuary or Fine Arts and The Church, The Cosmos, Golden Plates of Aleppo’s Proverbs, and Between the Golden Necklace in France and Arabs.