One cannot speak of the nineteenth-century Beirut Nahḍa and not mention Muʿallim Buṭrus al-Bustānī (1819–83). This article examines how al-Bustānī utilized the Arabic oratorical tradition and the innovative medium of print to create the Muʿallim brand. The first section analyses his Khuṭba fī Ādāb al-ʿArab (An Oration on the Culture of the Arabs, 1859) to illustrate how he operationalized the Arabic rhetorical style to position himself as an eloquent public intellectual. This article next discusses how he built parts of this lecture on sariqāt (literary thefts/legitimate borrowings) from his contemporaries and participated in the collective practice of knowledge production. Lastly, al-Bustānī's advertising tactics in print to promote his public persona are explored. This article demonstrates that al-Bustānī successfully established himself as the Muʿallim by coupling the enduring cultural power of Arabic oration with the modern might of print.

Buṭrus al-Bustānī (1819–1883) was one of the leading figures of the Nahḍa period. In most studies on the Nahḍa, his activities, work and projects are seen as having made an important contribution to the revival of the Arabic language by transforming it to meet the needs of modern times. Although his lexical contribution has been researched there is no comprehensive research on his grammatical contribution to the Arabic language. This article shows that al-Bustānī's Encyclopedia reflects a conservative approach toward grammar in that he confined himself to abridging the grammatical rules enshrined by traditional grammarians. However, he took a liberal and reformist approach to the lexicon that drew on both classical and Western sources.