Fawzi al-Qawuqji (Arabic: فوزي القاوقجي; 1890–1977) was the field commander of the Arab Liberation Army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and a rival of the principal Arab Palestinian leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.
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Biography
In 1890, Qawuqji was born in Beirut which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.[nb 1] An Arab nationalist, he served as an officer in the Ottoman Army during World War I.
After Syria became a French Mandate, Qawuqji joined the French-Syrian Army and received formal training at the French Military Academy at St. Cyr (École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr). During the rebellion of 1925–1927, he deserted the French Army to join the rebellion. Qawuqji remained an outlaw thereafter.[3]
Qawuqji fought against the British in the Mandate of Palestine during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. He was in the Kingdom of Iraq during the Rashid Ali coup of 1941 and, during the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War, he again fought against the British. When the Rashid Ali regime collapsed, Qawuqji and his irregular forces were targeted for destruction by the Mercol flying column and were chased out of Iraq. While still in Iraq, a British plane strafed and almost killed him.[4] After entering Vichy French-held Syria, Qawuqji made his way to Nazi Germany[5][6] to recuperate.[7] He remained there for the remainder of World War II. He served as an agent of the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) in Palestine and held a title of an officer of the Wehrmacht.[citation needed] In Germany, Qawuqji married a German woman (his third wife) and, after being captured, was held by the conquering Russians until February 1947.[8]
In early March 1948, according to Time Magazine, a "Teutonic looking" Qawuqji arrived in Palestine from Damascus at the head of some 10,000 Arab volunteers and said: "I have returned." Qawuqji was further described as "a redhaired, blue-eyed man, who looked more German than Arab."[9] Jacques de Reynier, the delegate of the International Red Cross in Palestine confirms that he crossed with his troops on March 6, 1948 the Allenby bridge and a day later he brought also his motorized troops into Palestine before the non-reacting Britisch troops. [10].
The tactics of Qawuqji during the 1948 war were aggressive, but entirely ineffective, and he failed to win a single important battle against Jewish forces often far outnumbered by his own men.[citation needed] His forces were driven out of Palestine and into Lebanon following the disastrous Battle of Sa'sa' on October 30.
Published works
- al-Qawuqji, Fauzi (1972): Memoirs of al-Qawuqji, Fauzi in Journal of Palestine Studies
See also
Notes
- Footnotes
- Citations
References
- Lyman, Robert (2006). Iraq 1941: The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad. Campaign. Oxford, New York: Osprey Publishing. pp. 96. ISBN 1-84176-991-6.
- Nafi, Basheer M. (1998), Arabism, Islamism and the Palestine question, 1908-1941: a political history, Garnet and Ithaca Press, ISBN 0863722350, http://books.google.com/books?id=WhCjkcZZK1AC&pg=PA254&dq=Mu%27in+Madi#v=snippet&q=Darwaza&f=false
External links
- Time Magazine, March 15, 1948. "I Have Returned.". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779710,00.html. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
- Time Magazine, April 19, 1948. "War for Jerusalem Road.". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798381,00.html. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
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