Petro Trad

Who was Petro Trad?

Petro Trad was a Lebanese lawyer, politician, and former President of the French Mandate of Lebanon for a brief period.

Trad was born to a Greek Orthodox family in Beirut and received a law degree from the University of Paris. He was an executive officer of the "Beirut Reform Movement," along with Salim Ali Salam. He was one of six signatories to a petition presented to the French Foreign Ministry in 1913 on behalf of Christian sects in Beirut, that demanded an end to Ottoman control of Syria and called for a separate entity run by "French emissaries." This petition so angered Ottoman military governor Djemal Pasha against Lebanese in general and Christians in particular, that he asked the War Council in Aley for the execution of the six signatories. They all fled Lebanon including Trad.

After World War I, Trad returned to Beirut as an ally of the French and founded the "League of Christian Sects", which comprised the elite of Beirut society and demanded a French Mandate of Lebanon and Syria. His law firm attained fame throughout the region, partly because he would defend the poor, who could not afford his fees.