Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Sheikh Suleiman Al-Taji Al-Farouqi (1882-1958) was called by some the Ma’ari of Palestine. He is a Palestinian politician, writer and poet, one of the founders of the “Ottoman National Party” in 1911, and the founder of the “Islamic University” newspaper in 1933. He was known for his strong opposition to the leadership of Hajj Muhammad Amin Al-Husseini.
Suleiman Abd al-Majid al-Taji al-Faruqi was born in the city of Ramla, Palestine, in 1882. His father is Abd al-Majid al-Taji. The sources mention his brother Shukri, and that Suleiman had a son called Harith. He received his primary education at the hands of Sheikh Youssef Al-Khairy, and some sources mention that Suleiman had lost his sight at the age of nine. Later, his father sent him to Al-Azhar Mosque to learn the sciences of jurisprudence, language and history, so he learned from Sheikh Muhammad Abduh, and the sources mention that Suleiman “drew Sheikh Muhammad Abd for his intelligence and speed of understanding.” He spent 9 years in Al-Azhar, then returned to Palestine, and later left for Istanbul, where he obtained a law degree in 1909. There he mastered the Ottoman Turkish, French and English languages, and used to sit to interpret the Qur’an in the Hagia Sophia Mosque.
He returned to Palestine during the First World War, and he had written a number of articles in the Filastin newspaper in 1911, and his article entitled “The Danger of Zionism” was a reason for monitoring the newspaper, as he wrote, “You must first be patriotic and second loyal to the Ottomans.” He had criticized the authority For its leniency with regard to the immigration of Jews to Palestine. He founded the “Ottoman National Party” in 1911, but Jamal Pasha exiled him to the city of Konya with his brother Shukri. Because of their opposition to the seizure of agricultural crops to supply the army. Suleiman had written a number of poems, including the poem “The Fall of the First Plane Over Jaffa,” which he wrote in 1912 when the first Ottoman plane fell over Jaffa Beach.
Suleiman later went to Egypt and joined the French Institute of Law, where he obtained a doctorate in law in 1919. After World War I, he returned to Palestine again, where he worked as a lawyer. On May 18, 1933, he published the daily newspaper, “The Islamic University,” which was researching political, scientific, and literary topics, and revealing Zionist ambitions in Palestine, where he defined it as “Palestinian in origin, Islamic sect, oriental,” but in 1938 he canceled it. The British Mandate licensed and suspended it.
At the end of 1920, Suleiman had published an article calling for the convening of a "Palestinian National Conference". He was one of the participants in the Third Palestinian Arab Conference that was held in Haifa in the period between 13-19 December 1920, and he was elected a member of the committee. Arab executive that emerged from that conference. He also participated in the work of the Fifth Palestinian Arab Conference, which was held in Nablus from August 20 to September 1, 1922. Suleiman was also one of the poles of the opposition movement to the leadership of Hajj Muhammad Amin al-Husayni.
Suleiman delivered the speech of the Palestinian delegation that met the British Colonial Minister Leo Amiri in April 1925, as he was a representative of the opposition movement when the minister visited Jerusalem. In July 1926, Suleiman invited the leaders of Palestine to hold the Seventh Palestinian Arab Conference. As a result, a preparatory committee of 40 members was formed. Suleiman was one of the participants in it in June 1928. Suleiman participated in the Palestinian Islamic Nation Conference that was held on the 11th. December (December) 1931 at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
Suleiman immigrated to Jordan after the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, and settled in the town of Sweileh, then moved to Zarqa and finally settled in the city of Jericho, where he re-issued his newspaper “The Islamic University” and explained in it the causes of the Nakba, and its first issue was published on March 15, 1949, but Officials later closed it. He presided over the Amman Conference in October 1948, then participated in the Jericho Conference in December 1948, in which King Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein was sworn allegiance and in which it was agreed to annex the West Bank of the Jordan River to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. On September 1, 1951, Suleiman was appointed as a member of the Jordanian Senate.
The writer Suleiman bin Saleh Al-Kharashi mentioned in his book “Celebrities and Prisons”: “Sheikh Suleiman Al-Taji Al-Farouqi wrote wonderful poems before and after his exile to the mainland of Anatolia, and we wanted to publish some of them, but some of their selections, which we promised to send a friend of ours, fell behind.”
his death
Suleiman did not stay long in the Senate, as he died in Jericho in 1958 AD, corresponding to 1378 AH, at the age of 76, and was buried in the Bab al-Rahma cemetery, east of the Lions Gate in Jerusalem.
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