Sati 'al-Husri

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Sati 'al-Husri, between 1918 and 1920

Sati al-Husri ( Arabic ساطع الحصري, DMG Sātiʿ al-Ḥuṣrī ; * 1880 in Sanaa ; † December 1968 in Baghdad ) was a Syrian author, educationalist and civil servant. He was involved in the Young Turkish movement during the Ottoman Empire . He later became an important figure in Arab nationalism .

Origin and education

Sati al-Husri was born in Yemen to a wealthy Aleppo family. As a judge, his father was a senior civil servant in the Ottoman Empire. Al-Husri studied in Istanbul at the University of Administrative Sciences ( Mekteb-i-mülkye ). His mother tongue was Ottoman Turkish.

Political career in education

After graduation, he accepted a position as a history teacher in Sanaa. In 1905, al-Husri moved to Damascus, where he joined the Committee for Unity and Progress , although he already represented Arab nationalist ideas. Al-Husri broke with the Ottoman nationalists during World War I when they carried out reprisals against Arab nationalists. As a result, al-Husri supported the Arab revolt and in 1918 joined the court of Faisal I in Damascus. From March to July 1920, al-Husri served as education minister in Ali Rida ar-Rikabi's cabinet , until the state was crushed by the French colonial power. During the brief independence of the Kingdom of Syria, al-Husri occupied himself with the establishment of Arabic curricula, in particular through translations from Turkish. He also promoted the Arabization of the Medical Academy of Damascus and the co-founding of a legal academy. These two institutions were merged into Damascus University in 1923 .

After Faisal I came to power in Iraq, al-Husri moved with the king to the new state. In 1924 he took over the chairmanship of the Law Faculty of Baghdad University and held a director post in the Ministry of Education. During the military coup in Iraq in 1941 , Crown Prince Abd ul-Ilah accused al-Husri of collaborating with the coup plotters, and al-Husri was exiled in Lebanon . He was then called to Syria by President Shukri al-Quwatli , where he participated in the development of curricula, which enabled him to continue his work before the term of office.

After the Second World War , al-Husri entered the service of Monarch Faisal II as an advisor and in 1949 founded an Arabic study center at the University of Baghdad. During the 1950s he published numerous political books on Arab unity. Al-Husri supported both Michel Aflaq's Baath party and the unity of the free officers under Gamal Abdel Nasser . After the fall of the monarchy in Iraq following a military coup in 1958, al-Husri lost his public office. After the Ba'ath Party came to power in Iraq and Syria, al-Husri had good relations with both governments and was regarded in both states as one of the fathers of the Arab national movement.

Al-Husri died in Baghdad in December 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William L. Cleveland: The Making of an Arab Nationalist: Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati 'Al-Husri. Princeton 1971, pp. 13-19.
  2. ↑ a b c Sami Moubayed: Steel and Silk - Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000. Seattle 2006, pp. 437-440.
  3. ↑ Reid, Malcolm. "Husri, Abu Khaldun Sati Al-." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World , Volume 2, edited by John L. Esposito, 155-156. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Husri, Sati 'al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Husari, Sati al '; Mustafa Satı Bey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian politician and educationalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Sanaa
DATE OF DEATH December 1968
Place of death Baghdad