[4] His father was killed in the 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon, and he moved with his mother to Beirut, then to Jerusalem.
[7] In 1876, he founded the monthly Arabic popular science magazine Al Muqtataf with Yaqub Sarruf in Beirut.
[2][8] They managed to restart the magazine after they were permitted to resume its publication by the British authorities in Egypt.
[8] In 1889, Nimr founded Al Muqattam, an Arabic, Cairo-based daily newspaper with Yaacoub Sarrouf and Shahin Makaryus.
[11] Nimr's sister, Maryam, married Shahin Makariyus who was a merchant and the founder of a magazine entitled Al Lataif.