Shukri al-Quwatli was the first president of post-independence Syria, in 1943. He began his career as a dissident working towards the independence and unity of the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories and was consequently imprisoned and tortured for his activism. When the Kingdom of Syria was established, Quwatli became a government official, though he was disillusioned with monarchism and co-founded the republican Independence Party. Quwatli was immediately sentenced to death by the French who took control over Syria in 1920. Afterward, he based himself in Cairo where he served as the chief ambassador of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress, cultivating particularly strong ties with Saudi Arabia. He used these connections to help finance the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–1927). In 1930, the French authorities pardoned Quwatli and thereafter, he returned to Syria, where he gradually became a principal leader of the National Bloc. He was elected president of Syria in 1943 and oversaw the country's independence three years later.
Shukri al-Quwatli
Quwatli and members of his family in Beirut 1966. From Left: Huda, Mahmud, Shukri al-Quwatli, Hassan, Bahira al-Dalati, Hala and Hana.
Quwatli (first from the bottom left) seated with members of the Syrian nationalist movement, 1920s. Seated next to Quwatli are Said al-Ghazzi, Riad al-Shurbaji, Sheikh Saleh al-Ali. Standing left to right are Hajj Adib Kheir and Ibrahim Hananu
Quwatli declaring Syria's independence from France, 17 April 1946
Arab nationalism is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, glorifies the Arabic language as well as Arabic literature, and calls for the rejuvenation of Arab society through total unification. It bases itself on the premise that the people of the Arab world — from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea — constitute one nation bound together by a common identity: ethnicity, language, culture, history, geography, and politics.
The Aqaba Flagpole in Aqaba, Jordan bearing the flag of the Arab Revolt. The Aqaba Flagpole is the sixth tallest free standing flagpole in the world.
Ibrahim al-Yaziji (1847–1906)
Members of the Arab Higher Committee, 1936; clockwise, Jamal al-Husayni, Hussein Khalidi, Yaqub al-Ghusayn, Fuad Saba, Alfred Roke, Abdul Latif Es-Salah, Ahmed Hilmi, Amin al-Husayni, and Raghib al-Nashashibi.
Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser returns to cheering crowds in Cairo after announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, August 1956.