Director of the Beirut branch of the Arab Center for Research and Studies. A university professor and researcher in cultural history, he served as Lebanon's Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to the Arab League (2007-2016). Among his works of critical editions (in Arabic) and published by the Center: Muslims and European Modernity, Records of the Ottoman Shari’a Courts,The Eight Words Message by Hussein Morsfi, Causes behind the Ottoman Coup and the Young Turks by Muhammad Ruhi al-Khalidi, and Ottoman State Before and After the Constitution by Suleiman al-Bustani. Among his other works in Arabic: The Sultan’s Scribe, and Khasis and Nafis: Surveillance and Corruption in the Islamic City, The Arab City and Modernity.