Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Muhammad Azza bin Abd al-Hadi Darwaza (June 21, 1887 - July 26, 1984) was an Arab thinker, writer, and nationalist. He was born in Nablus and died in Damascus. In addition to his political struggle, he was a writer, historian, journalist, translator and interpreter of the Qur'an. He is one of the founders of Arab nationalist thought along with Sati Al-Husri and Zaki Al-Arsuzi.
His struggle took a unitary form that transcended the conditions of fragmentation and artificial borders, so he participated in the establishment and activity of militant Arab independence unionist associations and parties in Greater Syria (before its division by colonialism in 1920), such as the Al-Arabiya Al-Fatat Association and the Arab Istiqlal Party, and opposed the policy of Turkification. He is a member of the General Syrian Congress (1919 AD), secretary of the Constituent Assembly, and one of the drafters of the first Syrian constitution. From the balcony of the Damascus municipality in Marjah Square, he announced the independence of Syria and the establishment of the Syrian Arab Kingdom on March 8, 1920. He led many activities against the British mandate over Palestine and the policy of dividing Arab lands, and called for the unification of Syria and Egypt in the fifties of the twentieth century. His autobiography is a history of the national struggle, independence and unionist movement during the twentieth century.
Darwazah left more than fifty books on various sciences related to Arabism, Islam and general history, including a series of books on the history of the Arab movement and the origins of Arab nationalism and Arab unity. His books, especially the book “Arab Unity,” are among the most important books on Arab nationalism and on ways to achieve Arab unity.
his family
Muhammad Azza (pronounced Izzat) grew up in a family from the “Al-Farihat” clan, which lives in the village of Kafranja in the Ajloun region, east of Jordan. It seems that a large part of the clan abandoned the village at the beginning of the eleventh century AH, and some of them headed to Nablus. His father, Abd al-Hadi ibn Darwish Darwaza, was a textile merchant in the famous old Khan al-Tijjar market in the Old City of Nablus, where he imported his goods from Beirut and Damascus, as Muhammad Azza reports in his memoirs. It is believed that his family name is derived from the work of some of his grandfathers in sewing.
his education and culture
Darwazah received his basic education in Nablus, where he obtained a primary certificate in the year 1900. After that, he joined the Rashadiya School (today's Fatimid), which is an intermediate secondary school, and graduated from it after three years, obtaining its certificate.
Darwazah educated himself and covered deficiencies by diligent reading and perusal to compensate for not completing his studies. He read the different books he had in the fields of literature, history, sociology and law, whether they were in Arabic or in Turkish and English, which he was fluent in. His work in the Postal Service allowed him to view the Egyptian periodicals circulating at the time, such as Al-Ahram, Al-Hilal Magazine, Al-Moayad Newspaper, Al-Moqattam Newspaper, and Al-Muqtataf Magazine, by virtue of the passage of these publications through the mail for distribution to subscribers. These periodicals carried a variety of cultural content and discussed hot issues at the time. They opened the horizons of thought to the bright young man's mind, broadened his perceptions, refined his talents, and made him aware of the events that were taking place throughout the Ottoman Empire.
He did not receive knowledge at the hands of specialized scholars except for short and intermittent periods during which he attended lessons in jurisprudence from Sheikh Mustafa Al-Khayyat at the Great Salahi Mosque in Nablus, and lessons on hadith from the book Sahih Al-Bukhari from Sheikh Suleiman Al-Sharabi, and others in grammar and morphology from Sheikh Musa Al-Qaddoumi, who was the director He attended the religious institute in Nablus until 1967. Darwazah continued to be interested in science and education while performing his job, and he carried his bookcase in all his travels and movements, and he did not leave the book in his hand for most of his day until he read, in a period not exceeding thirty years, one thousand five hundred books and volumes in various Topics include language, morphology, grammar, literature, poetry, stories, history, interpretation, biography and hadith.
his jobs and career
Darwaza in traditional Arab dress during the 1930s.
Darwazah moved professionally in three fields: telegraph and mail, education, and endowments, before devoting himself to politics and then writing.
in telegraph and mail
The financial circumstances of his family did not enable him to complete his studies, so he joined government work as an employee in the Telegraph and Post Department in Nablus in 1906, then moved to Beirut to work in the Telegraph and Post Directorate in 1914, then became its director. He was promoted inspector of the civil telegraph and mail centers in Sinai and Beersheba, and he continued to advance in his positions until he became in the year 1921 secretary of the court of Prince Abdullah, the Emir of Transjordan, but he left him after a month, and turned to the field of education.
Darwazah's first attempts at writing began during his work in the Telegraph and Post Office, so he contacted the press, and participated in editing the Ottoman Brotherhood newspaper, which was published in Beirut by Ahmed Shaker al-Tibi. He used to write a weekly article dealing with a social or patriotic issue in the Beirut Al-Haqiqa newspaper, which was published by Kamal bin Sheikh Abbas. He also published articles in the Palestine newspaper, which was published by Issa Daoud Al-Issa in Jaffa, and the Al-Carmel newspaper, which was published by Najeeb Nassar in Haifa.
His national activity against Turkification
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the cultural and political atmosphere in Nablus (known as the Scholars' Nest) was rich with constant movement due to the presence of a large number of intellectuals and national figures of great weight such as Awni Abd al-Hadi, Hafez Bey Touqan, Suleiman al-Nabulsi, Ibrahim al-Qasim, Ibrahim Touqan, Adel Zuaiter, Akram Zuaiter and Asmaa Many others mentioned by Darwazah in his memoirs. This atmosphere opened horizons for Darwaza, and he found himself in the center of events. Muhammad Azza Darwazah began his political activity after the proclamation of the Ottoman constitution in 1908, when he was only twenty-two years old. The Arab nation and the elimination of its language and heritage. He hastened with a group of his friends in the city of Nablus to establish a branch of the Coalition and Freedom Party, which was established in Astana to be in opposition to the ideas of the Union and Progressive Group. In 1911, with some of the men of Nablus, he founded the Arab Scientific Association, and its aim was to open Arab schools to counter the wave of Turkification that was led by the Young Turk Association. In the year 1912, Darwazah, along with a number of his comrades with nationalist leanings, established a branch of the Administrative Decentralization Party established in Egypt, whose objectives were local independence from Ottoman dependency and resistance to the campaign to assimilate the Arabs and their language. The activity of this branch froze after the escalation of the authority’s oppression of the Arabs during the reign of Jamal Pasha the butcher, the Ottoman Empire’s accession to the German axis, and the declaration of emergency and a state of war. Darwazah participated in the founding of most of the Arab associations and parties aimed at achieving Arab sovereignty and restoring Syrian and Arab unity, such as the Reform Claim Movement in 1912, the First Arab Conference in 1913, the Arab Girl Association in 1916, the Islamic Christian Association in 1917, and the Arab Club.
His national activity against Western colonialism and his call for the unification of Syria
Darwaza (right) and Awni Abd al-Hadi (left) during their detention in a British army camp in Sarafand al-Amar, 1936.
After the defeat of the Ottoman Sultanate in World War I, Syria fell into the hands of the Allies, so the Darwazeh moved to the struggle against the French and British colonialists and was lovingly divided into the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Darwazah played a pivotal role in calling for the reunification of Palestine and Syria. In June 1919, the King-Crane Committee of US President Woodrow Wilson arrived to learn about the wishes of the people of Palestine. Before the arrival of the committee, Darwazah and Hafez Beik Kanaan made intense efforts to convince some key figures in Palestine of the need for unity with Syria and the refusal to separate Palestine from it. The two met with Sheikh Amin al-Husseini and his brother Kamel al-Husseini, one of the leaders of the Arab Club Party in Jerusalem. The latter two announced their immediate support for the idea and suggested that the Nabulsians meet with other leaders from the old generation, such as Ragheb al-Nashashibi, Hossam al-Din Jarallah, and Aref Dajani. The meeting took place in Nashashibi's house, and when the attendees learned of the approval of Musa Kazem al-Husayni, the most important leader of the old generation, they immediately agreed to the idea of Syrian unity. Thus, the committee reached Jaffa and visited Jerusalem, Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin, Nazareth, Haifa, Acre, Safed and Tiberias. The Arabs' demands were unity with Syria, while the Jews demanded the separation of Palestine and the implementation of the Balfour Declaration. The committee wrote in its conclusions on June 27 that it supports Syrian-Palestinian unity under the British Mandate. Thus, Darwazah played a pivotal role in preparing the Palestinian political arena to restore unity with Syria, but the French and British colonialism did not allow this.
Darwazah's nationalist unionist activity extended to Haifa, where he was giving nationalist lectures there at the invitation of his comrade in the Istiqlal Party and Haifa leader Rashid Hajj Ibrahim.
His role in the first Palestinian conference
Through his functional movements, he contacted many prominent national and national figures and formed national associations, which have become the base of the national movement in Palestine. He worked on establishing the Islamic Christian Association, whose aim was to clarify that opposition to Zionist ambitions comes from Muslims and Christians alike, and he assumed the position of the general secretariat of the association. Darwazah was one of those who called for unifying the national societies operating throughout Palestine and coordinating their efforts. The first Palestinian conference was held in Jerusalem in January 1919 under the chairmanship of Aref Dajani. The most important thing that came out of it was the affirmation of national demands for independence and unity, the consideration of Palestine as part of Syria, the rejection of French ambitions, the renewal of relations with Britain on the basis of cooperation only, and the rejection of any promise or treaty that was truly made. The country and its future, and Darwazah undertook with a colleague to prepare a memorandum on this matter and submit it to the country's military ruler to send it to the government in Britain, and to the peace conference held in Paris.
His relationship with Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein
During the reign of Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein in Damascus, Darwazah was a member of the central body of the Al-Arabiya Al-Fatat Association, then he assumed secretarial work in it, and he was the link between the association on the one hand, and Prince Faisal on the other hand, and between the association and the political forces on the other. As a result of the narrow scope of the organizational work of the Al-Arabiya Al-Fatat Association, the Arab Independence Party was established in Damascus in 1919 as a political front for the association, and Darwazah was a founding member of it, in addition to his activity and some of his Palestinian comrades in establishing the Palestinian Arab Association, as a working body for the Palestinian struggle, with his relations With the Palestinian national movement, to resist the Balfour Declaration and the Zionist plans to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine. He was one of the founders of the Palestine Boy Association, which sought to prepare for armed action against the Jews and the English, since approximately 1919.
Darwaza with a number of leaders of the Palestinian national movement.
Darwazah and some of his comrades in the Al-Arabiya Al-Fatat Association opposed the Faisal-Clemenceau agreement, which took place after Faisal's visit to France. He defended his opposition within the central body of the association, so that body submitted a written objection memorandum to Faisal, which was drafted by Darwazah, so Faisal approved this memorandum, and he also agreed to declare the independence of Syria within its natural borders, and issued a decision to that effect in response to the recommendation of the General Syrian Congress at a meeting in Damascus on the 7th March 1920.
His role in the General Syrian Congress
Darwazah contributed to the establishment and activities of the General Syrian Conference, which was held between late June 1919 and late July 1920. Darwazah participated as one of the four delegates from Nablus, along with Adel Zuaiter, Ibrahim al-Qasim Abd al-Hadi and Amin al-Tamimi. Confronting the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot partition agreements and affirming that Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Muhammad Azza Darwazah recited this decision to the masses gathered in front of the municipality building in Damascus, on March 8, 1920, from the balcony of the municipality. After the conference became a constituent assembly, Darwazah contributed to drafting the first Syrian constitution.
His relationship with important national figures
During his continuous activity, Darwazah built personal relationships and friendships with influential personalities such as Hashem al-Atassi, who later became President of Syria, Riad al-Sulh, who became Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Allah al-Jabri, leader of Aleppo, Prime Minister of Syria in 1944 and Speaker of its Parliament in 1949, and Ibrahim Hanano, leader of the revolution against the French in northern Syria. And Nuri Al-Saeed, who became Prime Minister of Iraq.
A painting showing the delegates of the Syrian regions participating in the Syrian General Conference, in which Darwazah appears in the center directly under the image of King Faisal, second from the left
His role in the Palestinian revolutions
A map showing the Arab lands that were divided during the Sykes-Picot agreement, which was opposed by the Darwaza and the Arabs in general and called for one state.
Darwazah immersed himself in Palestinian national activity since he settled in Nablus. He participated with great efforts in convening political conferences that were planning the national movement and following up on its activities. As a continuation of his unionist activity, in 1932 he actively contributed to the establishment of a branch of the Arab Independence Party in Palestine, which formed an extension of the original party in Damascus, and assumed its general secretariat from its founding until 1947. He participated in Palestinian conferences and assumed effective positions in them, as is the case in parties and associations, until It became one of the flags of the Arab national struggle against the English, the French and the Jews. He was at the head of the resistance to British politics and its various projects, so he, along with his comrades, launched a movement to boycott the constitution and elect a handcuffed legislative council. Which resulted in him killing the idea and killing it in its infancy, and led various demonstrations against British policy, and this led to his arrest, trial, and prison sentence, as happened to him in 1934, and Darwazah was one of the leaders of the Palestinian revolution in 1936 that called for a general strike It ended with a massive popular revolution against the British Mandate. He was also among those who demanded the adoption of the name Southern Syria for the British Mandate region in the Levant, instead of the name Palestine, which the British insisted on and imposed on the Arabs.
Darwazah called for escalating measures against the British authority unless it responds to the country's demands, and Britain found no choice but to arrest him and his colleagues in order to confront this revolution. Darwazah became responsible for the political planning of the revolution when it was renewed in 1937, and the directives of the revolution began to be issued from Damascus, where Darwazah and other Palestinian leaders resided, and lived a life similar to that of the Mujahideen. Darwazah remained in Damascus based on the Palestinian revolution until he was arrested by the French at the instigation of the British in 1939, and tried before a military court, which issued a prison sentence for him in Mezzeh prison in Damascus, then he was released in 1941 after the Nazi occupation of France. When the English, supported by the Gaullists, invaded Syria, Darwazah sought refuge in Turkey, where he spent four years, after which he returned to Palestine.
His death and appreciation
Muhammad Azza Darwazah gave the last interview to the Palestinian journalist Muhammad Musleh in the year 1983, over a period of 8 days, during which he was allowed to photograph all his memoirs without exception, and Musleh says that it was clear that Darwazah’s health was in constant decline. Muhammad Azza Darwazah died in the Al-Rawda neighborhood in Damascus on Thursday, July 26, 1984, corresponding to Shawwal 28, 1404 AH.
Darwazah was one of the most important early nationalist thinkers, along with Sati al-Husri and Zaki al-Arsuzi. Muhammad Azza Darwazah did not yet take the position he deserves among the great Arab nationalist writers, despite his great contribution to laying the foundations of traditional Arab national thought (especially in the books “Arab Unity” and “The History of the Arab Race”), and his tireless struggle within the Palestinian national movement during the first half. Of the twentieth century, his literary and intellectual achievements are evident. Perhaps this cultural blockade of the Druze and other nationalist thinkers is imposed as part of the program of the ruling Arab regimes (including the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization) to fight any unitary tendency and preserve the ruling chairs in scattered states. Darwazah himself did not like to appear, and he did not hold any government political positions, despite his intense political activity, his complex relationships, and his friendship with influential personalities. He always chose to leave the front ranks of others at a time when he was pushing the general trend strongly away from negligence and concessions and towards a more radical and unitary direction in the Palestinian national action, and at a time when he was taking risks and incurring hardship, and at a time when he was wasting hours at work Hardworking and spends the days traveling.
Interest in the books and heritage of Muhammad Azza Darwazah focused on a few writers who were his contemporaries. Recently, the era of the Internet and electronic books has contributed to unveiling Darwazah's contributions and major achievements in several fields. National, historical, cultural and Islamic. The following are the most important books and studies published on Darwazah and his contributions:
Muhammad Azza Darwazah: Pages from His Life, Jihad, and His Writings, written by Hussein Omar Hamadeh. General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists, Beirut. 1983.
“National Anthologies of Muhammad Azza Darwazah,” written by Naji Alloush. Center for Arab Unity Studies, Beirut. 1988. In the National Heritage Series.
Muhammad Azza Darwaza, ninety-five years of life, notes and recordings. Ali Jarbawi and Hassan Shakhshir.
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