Najeeb M. (Najeeb Mitry) Saleeby

Born in 1870, Najeeb Mitry Saleeby was a Lebanese-born physician and scholar who later worked in the Philippines during the American colonial period. He is best remembered for studying the languages, history, and legal traditions of Muslim Filipinos, especially in Mindanao and Sulu.

Saleeby wrote influential works including Studies in Moro History, Law, and Religion and The History of Sulu. His writing helped preserve important historical and cultural material, and it remains a point of reference for readers interested in Philippine history, anthropology, and the Moro world.

Alongside his medical career, he developed a reputation as a careful observer of the communities he studied. Even today, his name is closely linked with some of the earliest English-language scholarship on Moro society.