Mr Al-Amīr Fāris Shihāb (Al Amir Fares Chehab) was born in al Hadath, Beirut, Syria (now Lebanon) around 1886.

He was born into an affluent family and was the son of Amīr Fāris ibn Sayyid Ahmad ibn Haydar Mūsa and Marwa al-Shihābī and had two known brothers, Najīb and Hāris, and a sister Helene. He was married to a lady named Hind Abi Yāghī but had no children.

A gifted musician, Fāris was on his way to New York to pursue a career in that field. He boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as a third class passenger on 10 April 1912 (ticket number 2631 which cost £7, 4s, 6d).

Reportedly fluent in English, Fāris may have helped explain the situation that was developing on the night of 14 April to his fellow countrymen whose speech were perhaps limited only to Arabic and French.

Al-Amīr Fāris Shihāb died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified. His widow Hind and his widowed mother benefitted from the Titanic Relief Fund.

His family home in Beirut is now the Brazilian Embassy and a plaque on an exterior wall of the building remembers Fāris Shihāb.