Muhibb ud-Din al-Khateeb (or Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib) (1886–1969)[1] was a Syrian Salafi writer.[2][3] He was the maternal uncle of Ali al-Tantawi[4] and was the author of the "hate filled" anti-Shia pamphlet entitled al-Khutoot al-‘Areedah (The broad lines of the foundations upon which the religion of the Imami Twelver Shiites is based).[5] He has been described as "one of the most influential anti-Shiite polemicists of the twentieth century."[6]
In 1916, he was made the editor of Al Qibla, the official newspaper of Sharif Hussein.[7]
Born in Damascus in July 1886 Al Khatib was the son of a Damascene ulema Abu Al Fath Al Khatib.[8][9] Al Khatib received secondary education in his hometown and attended Maktab Anbar, a very well-known educational institute, where he studied modern sciences, Ottoman Turkish, French and some Persian.[9] During his studies in Damascus he became one of the pupils of Salafi scholar Tahir Al Jazairi.[9] Al Khatib continued his education at a state school in Beirut.[8][9] In 1905 he went to Istanbul to study law and literature[10] and also, founded the Society of Arab Awakening with Aref Al Shihabi there.[8]
In 1907 Al Khatib moved to Yemen where he served as a translator for the British consulate[9] and became a member of Rashid Rida's Ottoman Council Society based in Cairo.[8] Al Khatib returned to Istanbul in 1909 and established a literary society.[8] He was named the assistant general secretary of the Decentralization Party which was founded in Syria in 1913.[8] Next year while he was going to Najd and Iraq he was arrested by the British and deported to Basra where he was jailed until July 1916.[8] Following his release he first went to Egypt and then to Mecca where he met Sharif Hussain and cofounded a newspaper entitled Al Qibla in 1916 which he edited until 1920.[11] In November 1917 Al Khatib launched another weekly newspaper, Al Irtiqa.[8] In 1919 he moved to Damascus where he participated the Arab Youth association and became a member of its central committee.[8] The same year he also served as the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Al Asima.[12]
Al Khatib settled in Cairo in 1921 as result of his clash with the King of Syria and Iraq Emir Faisal.[8] He was appointed editor-in-chief of Al Ahram and served in the post for five years.[8] He and another Syrian émigré Abdul Fattah Qattan established a publishing company, Salafi Publishing House, and a bookstore with the same name in Cairo.[9] Al Katib launched Al Zahra and Al Fath magazines.[13] In 1928 he assumed an editorial role for another magazine, Al Minhaj, which was banned by the government in 1930.[14]
Khatib also published a book, Al Khuttut al-’Arida li al Shi‘a al Ithna ‘Ashiriyya (Arabic: Petitions against the Twelve Shiites).[15]
Al Khatib was an Arab nationalist[10] and was part of Arabist-Salafi circles in Cairo.[14] He died in Cairo in December 1969.[8][16]