Life
Al-Mallah was born in Aleppo. He graduated from the Galatasaray Mekteb-i Sultanisi (Galatasaray Imperial School) in Constantinople, in 1876.
Al-Mallah held major positions in Aleppo under the Ottoman (Turks), including:
- President of the Mixed Commercial Court (1885–1897);
- Mayor of Aleppo (1899–1900);
- District Attorney (1905–1906);
- Chairman of the Agro-Bank (1906–1907);
- Director of Endowments (1909–1911).
And he was Privy to Sultan Abdulhamid II.
He represented Aleppo in the Ottoman Parliament of 1908, and served as the last Ottoman Interim Governor of the Province of Aleppo. Following the Ottoman collapse, al-Mallah contributed to the foundation of the first modern Arab state in Syria under King Faysal I, and was elected Deputy Speaker of the Syrian National Congress (1919–1920). Finally, he was named Governor General of the State of Aleppo (1924–1926) under the French Mandate of Syria .
Al-Mallah acquired the rank of Beylerbey, which corresponds to the rank of "Lieutenant General," from Sultan Abdulhamid II and was awarded several Ottoman, French and Syrian decorations.
Al-Mallah was a man of liberal views, open to western ideas and thought, proficient in Turkish, Persian, Arminian and French. He particularly loved photography, and used to keep massive albums featuring Ottoman and European royalty, politicians, writers and musicians. He was also noted for his collection of rare and antiquarian books and manuscripts, which he made available to scholars and researchers by dedicating them to the "Islamic Endowments Library of Aleppo," and the "Library of the Arab Academy" in Damascus.
Al-Mallah was described by a fellow historian Sheikh Kamil al-Ghazzi as "the leading notable of Aleppo". Moreover, his biography appeared in a number of books, and was also cited in a dozens of historical works on Aleppo and modern Syria written by noted Arab and western scholars. His name also appeared in the memoirs of Syrian politicians as well as the accounts of Arab and western travelers, including the late Crown Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik of Egypt, who visited Syria before the outbreak of World War I, and the memoirs of Lady Gertrude Bell.
Read more about this topic: Mar'i Pasha Al Mallah
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“At birth man is offered only one choice—the choice of his death. But if this choice is governed by distaste for his own existence, his life will never have been more than meaningless.”
—Jean-Pierre Melville (1917–1973)
“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal—that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)