al-Muntada al-Adabi

A pro-Arab club founded in Istanbul in 1909; centered in Jerusalem after 1918.

Al-Muntada al-Adabi (Literary Society) was originally founded in Istanbul in 1909 by Abd al-Karim al-Khalil of Tyre, Lebanon, to act as a meeting place for Arab visitors and residents in the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The club played a role in the prewar reformist Arab movement in late Ottoman times. Membership of the club included politically conscious Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians. After the dissolution of the Ottoman state, the club reemerged in Jerusalem in November 1918 with new members and a new political program. It was largely dominated by prominent members of the Nashashibi family, most notably Isʿaf, a man of letters. Adopting a stance in favor of Arab nationalism, the club demanded complete Arab independence and Palestinian-Syrian unity. From its major center in Jerusalem, the club helped organize an anti-Zionist movement whose activities spread in Lebanon and Syria, where the club had branches. With the fall of the Syrian Arab government of Faisal I ibn Hussein (1920), the club lost a major source of support and was eclipsed by the emergence of the Arab Executive in 1920.

Bibliography

Muslih, Muhammad. The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

— MUHAMMAD MUSLIH