Muhammad Kurd Ali - in Politics

In Politics

Muhammad Kurd 'Ali returned to Damascus in 1908 after the pronouncement of the Ottoman Constitution, and published the Al-Muqtabas magazine in addition to another daily newspaper he called Al-Muqtabas in collaboration with his brother Ahmed; he also founded its own press. But,under the Ottoman rule, he was subject to continuous harassment and restriction in the form of censorship and close monitoring of his writing and thinking; and as an example of that his newspaper was closed after one of the Turk rulers accused him of discussing the Sultan’s family in one of his articles. Kurd 'Ali again fled to Egypt and then to Europe, but he returned later after he had been exonerated. These forms of harassment continued to haunt him until Kurd 'Ali finally handed the responsibility for the daily newspaper to his brother Ahmed and dedicated himself to the magazine. He became increasingly more apprehensive after the declaration of the First World War and the start of a revenge campaign by the Ottoman rulers against the ‘free Arabs’, who sought more political freedoms; so he closed the magazine and the newspaper. During this campaign Kurd 'Ali himself was almost driven to the gallows like many other freedom advocates and critics of the Ottoman regime; he was, however, spared thanks to a document found in the French consulate in Damascus written by a worker in the French Foreign Ministry before the war. According to the document, the French agent had approached Kurd 'Ali and, exploiting his dislike to the pro-Ottomans, he induced him to take a more positive approach towards the pro-French policy in the Middle East; but Kurd 'Ali's response was rather negative and he urged the French to alter their policy in Algeria and Tunisia. Similar documents like this included the 'official publication of confidentiality' that had been sent by the French ambassador in Istanbul to French consuls in Syria warning them from Kurd 'Ali and stating that: 'he only works with the Turks'. This came as a favourable evidence together with other papers of this kind found during the inspection of foreign consulates early in the war. Following this, Djemal Pasha summoned Kurd 'Ali and jubilantly informed him of this news but also warned him that should Kurd 'Ali turn to opposition again, Djamal Pasha threatened to kill him with his own pistol. He then ordered the newspaper to open again and gave Kurd 'Ali financial assistance; he then appointed him editor of Al-Sharq (the East) newspaper which was issued by the army.

After entering the Faisali Covenant and the independence of Syria from the Ottoman Empire, Kurd 'Ali found the opportunity to fulfill the dream that he had had for long: the establishment of an Arab Academy in Damascus in a similar manner like in other civilized nations with the aim of saving the Arabic heritage and protecting and developing the Arabic language as a vehicle for disseminating literature and sciences. So, he presented the idea to the military ruler then Rida Pasha al-Rikabi, who agreed to convert the Court of knowledge into an Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus. This was achieved in the eighth of June 1919, and Muhammad Kurd 'Ali was appointed president of the Assembly and continued to be so until his death.