Arab Bank's history is interlinked with that of the Shoman family and its founder Abdel Hameed Shoman, whose personal life reads as an extraordinary tale of success for his time and age.

Born in 1890 in the Palestinian village of Beit Hanina, four miles North of Jerusalem, Shoman was raised in a stone hut, where he began his career at the age of seven as a stone mason working in construction sites.

With ambitions exceeding his age and spanning further than the borders of his village and country, Shoman emigrated to the United States of America at the age of 20 with only USD 32 in hand and became a door-to-door salesman, selling dry-good products in New York and Baltimore. His consecutive successes led him to expand and start a dress-making factory in Manhattan’s garment district.

Despite his success, Shoman was feeling home-sick and began to be consumed with an even larger vision: The establishment of a bank with joint Arab participation, a bank that would play a significant role in shaping the lives of nations and their economies.