RAHMĀNĪ, IGNAZIO EFREM II. - Catholic Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians, orientalist, b. 12 Oct. 1848 at Mossul, d. 7 May 1929 at Cairo. After his studies at the Seminary of the Dominican Fathers at Mossul, and his philosophical and theological studies at the College of
resources, at Meyerbusch and Heddersdorf in 1846-47, the first mutual agricultural credit fund and, subsequently, in other centres, aid societies and credit institutions which took on the character of cooperatives. R., in fact, intended through such bodies to strengthen social relations among the inhabitants of the various rural centres at first, in order subsequently to renew the moral conditions of the people themselves. Therefore, R. conceived these institutions in such a way that the activity of each of them was confined to a limited territorial area, so that their members might know and esteem one another well, this being a fundamental condition for the security of credit; moreover, he wished all speculation to be excluded and mutuality to be emphasized instead. R.’s contribution to this cooperative movement was not merely material but chiefly intellectual, and was embodied in the publication, from 1878 onward, of a periodical, Landwirtschaftliches Genossenschaftsblatt, and in the work Die Darlehensvereine (7th ed., Neuwied 1889).