The Khayrallah Center

08/26/2026

Conference registration is LIVE for our Public History in the Middle East conference with the Qatar National Library from October 19-20th! For more information and to register, please visit their website:

The Role of Public History in Shaping the Middle East’s Collective Memory 19 - 20 October 2026 Organizers: Qatar National Library’s Heritage Library & North Carolina State University’s Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies Location: Qatar National Library, Doha Contact: Dr. Akram Kha...

08/19/2026

The Tripoli Peace Initiative is a UN agency-implemented program aiming to enhance community-led initiatives that foster stability and social cohesion, with a particular focus on youth, women, persons with disabilities, and individuals from diverse backgrounds.

We are proud to show our support for this initiative. Read more about the initiative and its causes here: https://tripolipeaceinitiative.org/en/home/ Or, follow SHIFT - Social Innovation Hub for updates!

08/15/2026

Are you in the Ohio area? Make sure to visit us at our Roots & Routes workshop, where you'll learn easy, accessible ways to preserve your family history with FamilySearch and the Khayrallah Center! RSVP at the link in our bio!

08/11/2026

🌍 Labibee Courie [Khoury] and Rasheed Saleeby, inspired by relatives and hoping to save their sons from service in the Army of the Ottoman Empire, planned to gradually move their family to North Carolina from Souk el Gharb, Syria (modern-day Lebanon) in the early twentieth century. Their eldest son, Gibran (G.R.) moved to North Carolina, planning to establish a family business.

After Rasheed's sudden death in 1912, the family abandoned their plan of gradual immigration and left Souk el Gharb to join G.R. In December 1912, Nasry Rasheed “Charlie” Saleeby arrived in the United States with his mother, Labibee Khoury Saleeby, and younger siblings Michael, John, Elijah, George, and Mary. The Saleeby family purchased a house in Wilson, North Carolina, and started a candy shop and soda fountain located on Nash Street.

Read more about the Saleeby family and view the collection, which includes photos, a family crest, and documents here: https://lebanesestudies.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/collections/show/38

08/08/2026

"Powered by a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) model, Fihris, which means index/catalog in Arabic, allows users to search through the Nassour Archive’s Arabic manuscript images, transcribe them into digital text, and translate them. The program offers translation into English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, providing a resource for the Lebanese diaspora in North and South America to search and read Arabic content without needing to know the language."

We are thrilled to share that Fihris has been featured on History@Work, the peer-edited, multi-interest blog of the National Council on Public History - NCPH!

Read it here: https://ncph.org/history-at-work/fihris-the-revolutionary-arabic-manuscript-transcription-tool/ #0

08/05/2026

New on History@Work. Discover Fihris.org—a free resource for searching and translating thousands of pages of Arabic manuscripts held within the The Khayrallah Center’s Nassour Archive of Lebanese Diaspora.

“Fihris, which means index/catalog in Arabic, allows users to search through the Nassour Archive’s Arabic manuscript images, transcribe them into digital text, and translate them. The program offers translation into English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese.”

Read the full article: https://ncph.org/history-at-work/fihris-the-revolutionary-arabic-manuscript-transcription-tool/

Photo: The Khayrallah Center Archive Assistant, Rama Khalifeh, reviews ScribeArabic’s transcriptions in May 2026. Credit: The Khayrallah Center

08/03/2026

“Letters, diaries, account books and other Arabic handwritten documents that sat silent in a box or on a shelf can now tell us a great many new things about the intimate lives of Arab Americans.”

A huge thank you to the NC State College of Humanities and Social Sciences for their brilliant article about Fihris, our Arabic language transcription and translation tool!

👉 Read it here: https://chass.ncsu.edu/news/2026/07/29/nc-state-web-platform-unlocks-arabic-family-histories/

07/25/2026

RESCHEDULED! ⏰

Want to learn how to document your family history and discover resources for tracking your genealogy? Do you live in Cincinnati? Join us at our Roots and Routes workshop at St Anthony of Padua Maronite Church in partnership with FamilySearch!!

For more info, or to RSVP, click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roots-routes-cincinnati-oh-tickets-1993829452565

07/15/2026

🎙️ Our interactive oral history webinar is just a week away!! Don't miss out on this free opportunity to polish your interviewing skills and learn about why oral history is such an important form of historical documentation.

RSVP here: https://ncsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/mUXTT6spSoOkdQef5NZ7sg #/registration

07/08/2026

Your thoughts and interests are important to us! Help us better preserve and share the history of Lebanese immigrants across the world by giving us your feedback: go.ncsu.edu/khayrallah-survey