The preeminent Palestinian leader during most of the British mandate over Palestine, 1922 to 1948, was Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni (1895-1974), the mufti of Jerusalem. As a Moslem scholar/leader he sought to establish an Arab state in Palestine. Unable to end Jewish immigration, he led a violent Arab revolt (1936-1939) against the Zionists and the British but failed, as did his attempt to stop the creation of Israel in 1948.

Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni was born in 1895 in Jerusalem to a prominent Palestinian Muslim family. He studied in Cairo at al-Azhar and at the military academy in Istanbul. He served in the Ottoman army in 1916 but, because of Turkish attempts to impose their language and culture on their Arab subjects, he left for Palestine. There he assisted in the 1916 Arab revolt against the Ottomans and in the effort to form an Arab nation. Because he feared Zionism would cause the eventual domination or expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland, he participated in an anti-Zionist demonstration in 1920. He fled to Damascus, but a year later he was pardoned and appointed to succeed his brother as mufti of Jerusalem.

In 1922 the new mufti was appointed president of the Supreme Muslim Council, with authority over religious institutions and with a budget of 50,000 pounds annually. These resources allowed him to extend his influence throughout Palestine. During the 1929 riots he was perceived as having stood up to the Zionists. The disturbance made him famous among Palestinians and infamous among Zionists.

In reality, he neither organized nor led the riots. Indeed, he cooperated with the British Palestine government in the 1920s and early 1930s, attempting to change British policy by appealing to the British and by holding a General Islamic Congress in 1931 to galvanize the Arab and Islamic world against Zionism and to goad them to pressure Britain. Instead, the British allowed Jewish immigration to increase to 61,854 in 1935, which radicalized the Palestinians. That year a revolutionary, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, was killed by British troops, which further embittered the Palestinians, who challenged the mufti's methods of cooperation. Until 1936 the mufti served two masters: his British employers, and his people. However, when the Arab revolt began in 1936, activists called on him to lead them against Zionism and British rule. As soon as he agreed to lead the revolt, as president of the Arab Higher Committee, he put himself on a collision course with the British government.

The British stripped him of his offices and tried to arrest him in 1937. He fled to Lebanon, from where he continued the revolt until it was suppressed in 1939. He then fled to Iraq, where he encouraged a pan-Arab revolt against the British in 1941. Prime Minister Winston Churchill authorized his assassination in Baghdad but the British and Zionist mission to assassinate him failed. Once again he fled, this time to Rome, then Berlin, where he negotiated with Hitler. The Nazis promised to help the Arab countries liberate themselves from British rule, for which the mufti helped with anti-British and anti-Jewish propaganda and recruited Muslim volunteers for the war effort. He sought but failed to limit the number of Jews leaving for Palestine. His association with the Nazis tainted his name and cause.

After the war he escaped to the Middle East to resume his struggle against Zionism and to establish a Palestine state. Subsequent to a British announcement of their intent to leave Palestine, the United Nations passed a partition resolution in 1947. The Zionists accepted but the Arabs, including the mufti, opposed it because it gave the Zionists 55 percent of Palestine although they owned only 7 percent. In the war that followed the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Arab armies were defeated and some 725,000 Palestinians left or were expelled. Within a few years the mufti lost his political following and became a Muslim leader, settling first in Cairo, then in Beirut, where he died in 1974.

An assessment of Husayni's political role indicates that both his policy of cooperation and, after 1935, of resistance failed to achieve any nationalist goals. Yet the overriding factors that frustrated the Palestinians had less to do with the mufti than with historical processes and the balance of forces. Vigorous Zionist efforts to establish a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine and the sometimes pro-Zionist British policy enabled the Zionists to grow from 50,000 to 600,000 and to establish quasi-governmental and military institutions. The Palestinians were a weak and traditional society and never a match for the occupying British and later the Zionists.

Further Reading

Until the 1970s biographies of the mufti were written by Zionists, such as Moshe Pearlman, Joseph Schechtman, and Eliahu Elath, who attempted to vilify him, or by Arab nationalists, such as Zuhayr al-Mardini, who praised him. An early scholarly account of the mufti's rise to power in the 1920s was a chapter in Y. Porath's Emergence of the Palestinian Arab-National Movement, 1918-1929 (1974). Majid Khadduri wrote a critical biographical sketch in his Arab Contemporaries (1973). A revisionist account is found in the author's succinct biography of Husayni's life, The Mufti of Jerusalem (1988, revised in 1992).

Additional Sources

Elpeleg, Z. (Zvi), The grand mufti: Haj Amin al-Hussaini, founder of the Palestinian national movement, London, England; Portland, Or.: Frank Cass, 1992.

Jabarah, Taysir, Palestinian leader, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, Mufti of Jerusalem, Princeton, N.J.: Kingston Press, 1985.

Mattar, Philip, The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

Taggar, Yehuda, The Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine: Arab politics, 1930-1937, New York: Garland, 1986, 1987.

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Al Sabziwari, Al-Hajj Mula Hadi (1797/8-1873) Influential Iranian theologian and teacher. A follower and interpreter of Mulla Sadra, his principal work is the Ghurar al-fara'id (The Blazes of the Gems), a poem in which he gives a systematic and complete presentation of the philosophy of this school, together with the Sharh al-manzuma, his own commentary on this poem.

(ämēn' äl hʊsā'nē) , 1896?–1974, Arab political and religious leader. He was inveterately opposed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, and, suspected of complicity in anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem (1920), he fled to avoid punishment. He returned under an amnesty and was appointed Grand mufti of Jerusalem by the British in 1921. He fled (1937) to Lebanon after being arrested for provoking violence between Arabs and Jews. Just before World War II, Husseini moved on to Iraq. After the abortive pro-Axis Iraqi revolt of 1941, he was flown to Rome. Then, in Berlin, Husseini broadcast Nazi propaganda and helped recruit Arab supporters for the Germans. In 1946 the mufti, escaping from house arrest near Paris, arrived in Egypt, where he lived until the early 1960s, when he moved again to Lebanon. Also called Haj Amin al-Husseini, he retired from public life after serving as president of the 1962 World Islamic Congress, which he had founded in 1931.

1895 - 1974

Palestinian leader during the British mandate.

Born in Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni (later often referred to as Hajj Amin) was the scion of a prominent Palestinian Muslim family, which included landed notables and religious officeholders such as the mufti (Islamic legal expert). He studied in Cairo briefly at al-Azhar University and at the Dar alDaʿwa wa al-Irshad of Rashid Rida, the Muslim reformer and precursor of Arab nationalism, and at the military academy in Istanbul. He served in the Ottoman army in 1916, but his loyalty to the Ottoman Empire was shaken by Turkish attempts to impose their language and culture on their Arab subjects. Upon returning to Palestine in 1916, he participated in the British-supported Arab Revolt of 1916 against the Turks and worked for the establishment of an independent Arab nation. In 1918, he was elected president of al-Nadi al-Arabi (the Arab Club), a literary and nationalist organization opposed to Zionist claims on Palestine. After participating in a violent anti-Zionist demonstration in 1920, he escaped to Damascus, Syria, where he worked for the short-lived Arab nationalist government of Amir (later King) Faisal. The first high commissioner of Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, pardoned him from a ten-year sentence in absentia for his role in the 1920 demonstration, and appointed him to succeed his brother as mufti of Jerusalem in 1921.

Al-Husayni's political career can be divided into two distinct phases: the Palestine years of 1917 to 1936, when he cooperated with the British while opposing Zionism, and the exile period after 1936, when he became intransigent and cooperated with Nazi Germany.

Palestinian Phase

The fundamental explanation for al-Husayni's cooperation with the British can be traced to the politics of the class from which he emerged. The notables were defenders of the status quo and worked with the imperial government to guarantee or enforce stability while representing their society's interests and demands to the ruling power - first the Ottomans, then after 1917 the British. Before being appointed mufti, al-Husayni assured Samuel that he and his family would maintain tranquility in Jerusalem. In early 1922, he was appointed president of the Supreme Muslim Council, which gave him control over Muslim courts, schools, and mosques, and an annual budget. During the 1920s al-Husayni used his office to extend his influence in religious and political affairs within and beyond Palestine. His rise to power coincided with the decline of the Palestine Arab Executive, which led the Palestinian national struggle from 1920 to 1934, and with the perception that he had stood up to the Zionists during the 1928 through 1929 Western (Wailing)Wall controversy and riots. In fact, he neither organized nor led the riots, according to the British Shaw Commission, which investigated the disturbances.

From 1929 to 1936, al-Husayni cooperated with the British while attempting to change British policy. He opposed militant activities against British rule and sent his secretary to London to propose a representative government. For their part, the British proposed, in the Passfield White Papers of 1931, restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchase but withdrew the proposal because of Zionist pressure. The mufti convened a general Islamic Congress in December 1931 to galvanize Arab and Muslim opposition to Zionism and to caution Britain that support for Zionism would jeopardize her interests in the Arab and Muslim world.

British policy did not change, however. Jewish immigration rose in 1935 to a record annual high of 61,854, which helped radicalize the Palestinian community. The British killing of an insurgent, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, further embittered Palestinians, who began to challenge the mufti's ineffective methods. Until 1936, al-Husayni was able to serve two masters: his British employers and his people. But in April 1936, a general strike was declared and violence spread. The public urged him to assume the leadership of the strike, which protested Jewish immigration and land purchase and demanded a national government. His acceptance put him on a collision course with the British.

Exile Phase

Over the next few years, several events radicalized al-Husayni. When the British proposed, in the 1937 Peel Commission Report, to partition Palestine, he rejected the proposal because the Jews, who owned 5.6 percent of the land, would receive many times that area and in the most fertile region, from which most Palestinians would be expelled; the British would remain in control of the third holiest city of Islam, Jerusalem; and the rest would be attached to Amir Abdullah's Transjordan. Faced with the mufti's refusal to cooperate, the British stripped him of his offices and sought to arrest him.

He escaped to Lebanon in 1937, continued to lead the revolt, and most likely acquiesced in the assassination of his Palestinian opponents. The revolt was finally suppressed in 1939, after more than three thousand Palestinians had been killed, their leaders exiled, and the Palestinian economy shattered. Al-Husayni became bitter and uncompromising, rejecting the 1939 White Paper even though its terms were favorable to the Palestinians: It proposed a limitation on Jewish immigration and land purchases and a Palestine state with a representative government based on ratio of two Arabs to one Jew. He again escaped, this time from Lebanon to Iraq, where he encouraged a pan-Arab revolt against British rule in 1941. British prime minister Winston Churchill approved his assassination, but a British and Zionist mission to assassinate him in Baghdad failed.

Al-Husayni fled to the Axis countries, where he conferred with Mussolini and Hitler. He cooperated with the Nazis in exchange for German promises that the Arab nations would be liberated and given their independence after the war, and he assisted in anti-British and antisemitic propaganda campaigns and in recruiting Muslims for the war effort. The mufti, fearing that Jewish immigration to Palestine would lead to the domination or dispossession of his people, tried unsuccessfully to persuade Nazi officials not to allow Jews to leave Axis countries for Palestine. By doing so, he endangered the lives of thousands of Jews, mostly children, who probably would have been sent to concentration camps. Israeli writers and their supporters were so eager to indict him as a war criminal who participated in the Holocaust that they exaggerated his activities, whereas Arab writers, especially Palestinians, were so intent on justifying his actions in Axis countries that they ignored his cooperation with a barbaric regime. What is certain is that his association with the Nazis tainted his career and his cause and limited his effectiveness during the critical period from 1946 to 1948.

In 1946, al-Husayni returned to the Arab world with the aim of continuing his struggle against the Zionists and establishing an Arab Palestine. But he misjudged the balance of forces. He rejected the UN General Assembly's partition resolution (181) of November 1947 largely because it gave the Jews 55 percent of Palestine when they owned only 7 percent of the land. In the civil strife and war that followed, about 725,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled by Israel forces. After the Arab - Israel War of 1948, al-Husayni gradually lost political influence and became a religious leader, settling first in Cairo and then in Beirut.

Assessment

Although astute, incorruptible, and dedicated to the welfare of his people, al-Husayni's policies during both phases of his career were a failure. From 1917 to 1936, despite his rhetoric about the ominous threat of Zionism to Palestinian national existence, he cooperated with the British and rejected an overt struggle, preferring petitions, delegations, and personal appeals. In the meantime, the Zionists' numbers increased from 50,000 in 1917 to 384,000 in 1936. It was only after 1936 that al-Husayni participated in active measures to stop Jewish immigration, which if unchecked, the Palestinians felt, would result in their expulsion or domination. But by then it was too late: The Zionists had become too powerful, and the British had lost their discretionary authority in the country. Conversely, the Palestinians, especially after the suppression of the Arab Revolt, were too weak.

Al-Husayni did not adjust his demands to the realities and made little effort to reach an accommodation with the British and the Zionists. His rejection of the 1947 UN resolution was a missed opportunity that contributed to Palestinian dispossession. However, even had he accepted the resolution, it is uncertain that a Palestinian state would have been established because of a 1946 and 1947 agreement, supported by the British, between Amir Abdullah ibn Hussein and the Jewish Agency to divide Palestine between them.

The overriding factors that frustrated Palestinian nationalists have as much to do with al-Husayni's intransigence as with the balance of forces. The 1897 Basel Zionist program and the 1917 Balfour Declaration policy, backed by the British military and by Western support, gave Palestine's Jewish community time to grow through immigration and land purchases and to establish modern quasigovernmental and military institutions. The Palestinians were a weak, divided, and traditional society and never a match for the British and the Zionists.

Bibliography

Elpeleg, Zvi. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem: Haj Amin al-Husayni, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement. London: Frank Cass, 1993.

Khadduri, Majid. "The Traditional (Idealist) School - the Extremist: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni." In Arab Contemporaries: The Role of Personalities in Politics. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.

Mattar, Philip. The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement, revised edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

Porath, Yehoshua. "Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni, Mufti of Jerusalem: His Rise to Power and Consolidation of His Position." Asian and African Studies 7 (1971): 212 - 256.

Schechtman, Joseph B. The Mufti and the Fuehrer: The Rise andFall of Haj Amin el-Husseini. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1965.

— PHILIP MATTAR