Ahmad al-Sharabati

1905 -

Syrian politician.

Ahmad al-Sharabati, the son of nationalist Dama-scene merchant Uthman al-Sharabati, studied engineering at the American University of Beirut and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He started his career by running a tobacco factory for his father and later became involved in the import trade, especially of motor vehicles. His political career started in the early 1930s when he joined the National Action League, a pan-Arabist movement that was anticommunist. Harassed by the French Mandatory authorities in Syria, Sharabati fled to Transjordan (now Jordan), where he stayed for several years. In 1943, he became a member of the Syrian parliament, running as a nationalist. In 1945, he became minister of education and then minister of national economy in the ministry of Faris alKhuri. After his resignation from the cabinet that year, in 1946 he was appointed minister of national defense in the cabinet of Jamil Mardam. In 1948 he resigned as a result of the poor performance of the Syrian army in the Arab-Israel War. In 1951, he was implicated in a conspiracy against Adib Shishakli, the military ruler in Syria, and was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

Bibliography

Khoury, Philip. Syria and the French Mandate: The Politics of Arab Nationalism, 1920 - 1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Seale, Patrick. The Struggle for Syria: A Study of Post-War ArabPolitics, 1945 - 1958. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.

— ABDUL-KARIM RAFEQ