- Rafiq al-Tamimi
-
Rafiq al-Tamimi 
Member of Central Committee of al-Fatat In office
1918–1919Chairman of al-Najjada In office
1945–1947Personal details Born 1889
Nablus, Ottoman EmpireDied 1957 Nationality Palestinian Arab Political party Palestine Arab Party Other political
affiliationsal-Fatat Occupation Arab nationalist political activist Profession Administrative leader and educator Committees Arab Higher Committee Religion Sunni Islam Muhammad Rafiq al-Tamimi (Arabic: محمد رفيق التميمي, 1889-1957)[1] was a Palestinian Arab educator and political figure in the 20th century. He was appointed to the Arab Higher Committee in 1945 and was the chairman of al-Najjada.
Contents
Early life
Al-Tamimi was born in Nablus to a Sunni Arab landowning family in 1889. He attended elementary and secondary school in the city and then at the Marjan Preparatory School in Istanbul, Turkey. Because of his well-rated performance at Marjan, he entered and won an academic contest. He enrolled at the Mulkiyya College in Istanbul as a result. He was consequently recognized by the Ottoman Education Ministry and given a grant to learn at the Sorbonne in Paris. There he received a degree in literature and education.[2]
Political career
Al-Tamimi served in the local administration of the Ottoman Empire as a principal of a government-run school in Beirut.[2] Despite working for the Ottoman government, in 1911, while in Paris, he and his colleague Awni Abd al-Hadi founded the underground organization, al-Fatat, which called for Arab independence from the empire.[3] In 1916, during World War I, Ottoman officials ordered al-Tamimi to gather information for a general "guide book" on the southern half of the Beirut Province, namely Jabal Nablus.[4]
He was elected to the central committee of al-Fatat in December 1918. In July 1919, following the Great Arab Revolt which succeeded in gaining Arab independence, al-Tamimi along with Izzat Darwaza, Sa'id Haydar and other members of al-Fatat's inner circle formed the group in the General Syrian Congress that rejected the establishment of any foreign mandate (British or French) in Greater Syria, claiming it would only be a "disguised form of imperialist penetration."[5]
He later joined the Palestine Arab Party in the early 1940s, representing the party in the Arab Higher Committee of 1945.[6] He also became chairman of the Jaffa branch of the National Committee. Al-Tamimi was known to be a close associate of Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the chairman of the AHC.[7] He led efforts to merge the al-Najjada and Futuwwa youth movements in Palestine. Al-Tamimi left the AHC after the Bloudan Conference in 1946, but was reappointed by Jamal al-Husayni on January 5, 1947.[8] He was made part of the Palestinian delegation to the Arab League in February 1948 aimed at obtaining military, political, and moral support for the Palestinian cause from the Arab states.[9]
References
Bibliography
- Abu-Ghazaleh, Adnan (1973), Arab cultural nationalism in Palestine during the British Mandate, Volume 34, Institute of Palestine Studies, http://books.google.com/?id=b_e6AAAAIAAJ&q=Rafiq+al-Tamimi&dq=Rafiq+al-Tamimi
- Doumani, Beshara (1995), Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, University of California Press, ISBN 0520203704, http://books.google.com/?id=zry-tpH3rz8C
- Khalaf, Issa (1991), Politics in Palestine: Arab factionalism and social disintegration, 1939-1948, SUNY Press, ISBN 079140708X
- Levenberg, Haim (1993), Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine, 1945-1948, Routledge, ISBN 9780714634395, http://books.google.com/?id=sxvHK-Cq2RwC&pg=PA69&dq=Izzat+Darwaza
- Muslih, Muhammad Y. (1989), The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism, Columbia University Press, ISBN 9780231065092, http://books.google.com/?id=OOsv1423_JYC&pg=PA146&dq=Rafiq+al-Tamimi&q=Rafiq
Categories:- 1889 births
- 1957 deaths
- University of Paris alumni
- Arab nationalist politicians
- Arabs in Ottoman and British Palestine
- People from Nablus
- Palestine Arab Party politicians
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