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Elias Skaff

Lebanese politician (1948-2015)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ729703
Source-derived summary

Elias Joseph Tohme "Elie" Skaff (Arabic: الياس سكاف; born 11 October 1948 – 10 October 2015) was a Lebanese politician and leader of the Popular Bloc.

Early years and education

Elias Skaff was born in Zahlé, Lebanon on 11 October 1948. He is the son of the leader and ex-minister Joseph Tohme Skaff. His mother is Helena Nilacos who is of the Greek nationality.

Elias Skaff received elementary education in Zahle and then in New Zealand. In 1965, he attended the Evangelical School in Zahle and then the International School of Choueifat – Lebanon. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Engineering from the American University of Beirut in 1975.

Political career

Skaff was elected to the Lebanese parliament in 1992 as head of the Popular Bloc list as well as in 1996, 2000 and 2005. He was appointed minister of industry in 2003 in the government of Rafic Hariri. Then he served as the minister of agriculture in 2004 and 2005 in the Omar Karami government.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Elias Skaff” as lebanese politician (1948-2015). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Elias, Skaff and Lebanese.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1948, 2015, 1965, 1975—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1948-10-11. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Elias, Skaff and Lebanese providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Elias Skaff”, the useful work is to connect “lebanese politician (1948-2015)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q729703. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2015, 1965 and 1975.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Elias Skaff”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Elias Skaff primary sources, Elias Skaff archive and Elias research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Elias Skaff”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Elias Skaff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.